Boer and Multiple Teats

[Wingdo]

I acquired a rather abused Boer doe last spring that came from a place that raised LGDs and had her around just so they could say the pups were raised with goats in their advertisements. She had kidded about 4 months prior to her arrival and the owner either didn't care, or was ignorant of goat care, because her feet were over 4" long, she was so emaciated her spine was bowed up and she couldn't even walk... she looked like an abused greyhound! She could graze only by scooting around on her knees. I wanted to shoot the guy on the spot, but opted to take the goat off his hands and try to save her. Under all those bones, dull eyes, flabby skin, and crippled appearance I thought there might be a very nice looking animal in there... and there was.

Putting all her history aside I went to working on the doe. I isolated her from our herd, inoculated, wormed, and trimmed her poor feet a little at a time for almost two months. Her weight soon rebounded, her eyes cleared, the wheezing subsided/cleared, and she started looking pretty good. As a matter of fact she is one of the best looking goats we've ever had on this place and the grand-girls worked very hard on brushing/caring for her every since she showed up! They worked with her so well I allowed them to visit with her anytime they were of a notion... then came July when I found she had jumped two fences and ended up in the buck pen with our 6 month old Matt Dillon buckling (he died on August 1 of pneumonia and was never bred).

In all this time I never noticed, but when her bag started building last week it looked a bit odd so I looked a bit closer. She has seven teats, which I know is a defect, but as long as she can milk I'm not too worried about the "extras" as far as our farm is concerned.

However, I don't know how the genetics of this situation will work. I know we really want to hold on to the Dillon bloodline but there is always going to be that little thing in the back of my head that says I shouldn't even try to save this line genetically due to this defect.

If I may, I'd like to hear your thoughts/input on the subject... sorry this is so long but I felt it important that you understand the history/effort that went on to save both this beautiful doe and possibly the Dillon bloodline that we had worked so hard for in order to bring into our full Boer herd.

[Goat Servant]

Im certainly no expert. I say if you like her keep her.
The way too many extra teats may or may not show up in the off spring.
Personally Im a 2+2 clean well seperated working teat fan.
We usually use 4 teated bucks.Twice in the last six yrs have gotten cluster teats on the bucklings.
We recently purchased a 2 teated buck.
Alot of his off spring had 4 teats, some out of 2 teated does. One buckling had clusters, from different bucks, different does.

Only one doeling with a spur on one a few yrs back. All other doelings have been clean.

This is just my experience with teat structure. Im sure there will be different outcomes from others.

[Cannon_Farms]

doelings get their udders from their fathers, so breed her to a buck whos dam had clean teats and wether any bucklings she has.

[mygoat]

The udders don't just come from the father. Both parents are equal contributors of all genes - except when it comes to the y gene which is small and doesn't code for much.

I would say to wait and see how the kids turn out, then make a decision. If the chance for your herd improvement is greater than the risk of lots of teats occuring, then I'd consider keeping the kids. What I mean is - if your herd isn't known for having a bunch of extra teats already, then hopefully the mix of genetics will favor a proper number in the future. You're certain to get some extra teats, but with good breeding and culling you may be able to salvage the bloodline.