Hi all! I have a goat question for you. I have a 3 yo alpine doe that was hollern' at me all night long so about dark thirty in the morning I was up and put her in with one of my purebred alpine bucks. She was flaggin' and hollern' and he sure appreaciated the new excerise. She is in milk, so when she went up on the milk stand and I put the cups on her she started to discharge a bloody type of discharge. It has no smell like that of infection, it is not a bright, bright red as if it was an internal injury, and only lasted as long as she was milking, like a doe that has just had a kid and the uterine contractions from milking squeezed it out. She acts completely normal in every other way, no fever, eating and drinking well. I have over 100 head and have had goats for a long time, I have not ever seen this so I am trying to draw from other's experience. Is this common? Can she get an internal injury from breeding with a buck? The normal discharges of a heat cycle that I have seen are either clear or white-creamy. Please keep in mind that the vet for me is not an option, so I am writing this to see if any of you have heard of/dealt with a similar situation. If vet is the answer, she will go to the auction or end up jerky if I cannot find out what is wrong. Sorry, but I look at things from a production viewpoint first, "oh my poor goat", second. I would not be able to feed my animals if I do not look at things with a great deal of practicality. May God be with you all!

-- Lawannea Sue Stum (Whitedov1@citlink.net), October 02, 2000

Answers

I've never seen anything like this before. Maybe Vicki or Bernice have, and will know more about it. Did she have the discharge again at the next milking? What is her kidding history- did she have a hard birth this year, or need assistance, etc?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), October 03, 2000.

First of all thank you for responding. No difficulty at birthing, no further discharge, still acts fine. She is slightly off on her milk production but I think that is due to the fact that she is in heat and in with the buck. May God be with you always. Lawannea S. Stum of White Dove Ranch

-- Lawannea Sue Stum (Whitedov1@citlink.net), October 03, 2000.

Hi,

I have seen this in a few of my does and when i first saw it wondered too. I think its just a discharge from the hmmmmmm... how do i word this... "the act?" if you get my drift here. it went away the next day and there were no other problems afterwards. Vickie might be able to offer more insight if she has a chance to see this post.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), October 03, 2000.

I would tend to be a little concerned. When a doe comes into heat after already having had kids before the cervix will dialate a little, which helps in AI sucess in older does. This would give a chance for any exude to come out of this open cervix which to me would mean that she has something in her uterus that is not supposed to be their. I would infuse the doe. You can purchase a long pipet (dang I have one here if you lived close by) and infuse her uterus with antibiotic. This is when a great vet is invaluable, mine is great and since she also takes care of large horse breeders here, would know exactly what meds to use etc.. also putting her on systemic antibiotics at the same time as the infusion. I would also abort this pregnancy at 14 days from the day she was bred. Small story:

My best gal freind had her best champion doe Mae, start discharging this horribly foul smelling discharge upon delivery, after a completely normal preganancy, she died before I could get to the farm of septic shock, and it was very obviously from an undiagnosed metritis after her kidding the year before, her cervix shut over an uncleaned out uterus. Looking back Kenny did notice that Mae had a weird discharge when she bred her that year.

So to be on the safe side, if she was my doe I would infuse her, antibiotics for 7 to 10 days, abort her, infuse once again the next heat and live breed her, I would also pull my bucks penis and wash him and his sheath with novalsan, do not allow him to breed any other does on your place until you have cleaned him. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 03, 2000.