I have a milk doe that I've raised from a kid. She is about 1 year old and I've been milking her for about 1 month. She's my first experience with milking a goat. Her one side has a real good flow and empties fairly quickly, but the other side is a much smaller flow and takes about 20 minutes to empty! She's been like that since I started milking her. I left her one kid on her for a few days after he was born and he always used the side that I'm having troubles with. Seems like that should have prevented this. I got a teat dilator from the vet's and he said to leave it in for two weeks. That seems too long to me. Any experience out there with this? Will this device even work on stretching the opening permanently?

-- Cindy (jmncndy@micron.net), June 01, 2000

Answers

Cindy, as long as this is the kind that is retained and you continue to milk the doe, no 2 weeks is not to long. You must be very clean when using dialaters, make sure that you use a good spray/dip afterwards, and let her stay on the milkstand for a couple of minutes after milking so the orifice closes naturally. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 01, 2000.