One is a
horrible condition called Mastitis. It
is, "Inflammation of the mammary gland, usually caused by an
infection." The udder is hard, hot,
and / or tender. Milk is stringy and
bloody. Mastitis is every dairy farmer’s
nightmare. It is easy to get and hard to
get rid of. If you see any of these
symptoms you need to consult a VET! This
is why the strip cup is such an important step.
This is what you are looking for. You are checking the general health of
your doe. Mastitis can destroy a does ability
to give milk. It is important and must
be dealt with. The easiest way to not
get this disease is with prevention, clean hands, clean the udder, keep your
milking area clean, your tools clean, use clean cloths to wipe her down with,
before and after. And don't use the same
cloth on two different goats. Goats
should be milked at
regular intervals. Most books recommend twice a day, if the kid is not
suckling. I did once a day and was fine,
but that was with the kid suckling. But you need to keep an eye on that udder. If it looks too full, milk it! She will make more. I am very blessed that I never had to deal
with this disease, but it was my constant nightmare that I would.
Now a word
on disbudding. All goats have horns,
both male and female. They will begin to
bud at about 10 or so days. You will
feel little knots on their heads. You will now have to decide whether to remove
the horns or not. A goat with no horns
is very desirable. Disbudding is also
very tough on the human parent as well. To disbud, you put them in a little
special box to hold them. Then you sit
on it. While someone else takes a hot
disbudding iron to their head and burns off the horns. The kid will scream and thrash about. I was told initially that this did not hurt them. I no longer believe that.
While most
of the time disbudding worked for our girls, it did not work for our boys. Their little buds were just too big, and we
always ended up with what is called a scur.
It is a left over crooked horn that grows and you have to make sure it
does not grow back into their head, and into their brain. You can also disbud with a caustic (acid) solution. We never tried this. In the end, after
watching my goats I came to believe that a goat needs it's horns. It helps with their head butting games and I
feel helps expel excess heat from the body.
Just my opinion, you do what you think is best for your goats. After doing this to my baby goats it took
them days, sometimes weeks to let me touch them again. They lost all trust in me, something I think
you vitally need in your relationship with your goats. If you are not going to disbud your goats,
know that you will have to put up with things like them getting caught in the
fence, the occasional poke in your butt, and head butting games with other
goats may be more intense. Head butting
is a little game that goats like to play from the time they begin to leap
about. Many say it is a sign of
establishing dominance among the herd. I
have seen it done over breeding rights, food, dominance and sometimes just for
fun. Horns are sharp they also have the
ability to hurt each other, so you should make sure to check your goats on a
regular basis for injuries.
You will at
some point end up with too many boys.
You do not want two, or three, or four boys to go into rut at the same
time. Some of them you may chose to
wether or castrate. To wether a goat is a lot easier then to disbud one. But then you still need to know what you are
doing. Unless you’re an old timer at
this, I would not advise it. Boys will
begin to have their little sacks drop in the first few weeks of life. Most wethering is done, where a band is
places around the sack. This cuts off blood flow and eventually it will just
fall of. The trick is you have to make sure
you get both testes in there, and when they are that small sometimes they are
hard to feel or they go back into the body.
The moral of the story is that even with one testicle they can still go
into rut. So this is another one where I
would call the vet or your goat buddy to do this for you.
I often
forget that not everyone lives in the country like I do. While you are doing your research, if you
live in the city check to see if it is okay for you have livestock. In some places chickens are okay but not
goats. You can probable call your town
hall and ask. Check! Check! Check!
Once your
goat bags up you will have 10 months until you should no longer milk her. You should dry her up, not milk her, at least 2 months prior
to birthing for her to recover and for the health of the baby.
Happy
goating!
Ilsa
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