I work milking goats for a woman while she is out of town (fairly often). She has 2 milking does, the older of which only gets milked in the morning. The woman only uses the milk for one of her sons (he's allergic to cows milk), so she is trying to dry up the older doe to get rid of excess milk and work. Now, this doe, who only gets milked in the morning, gives almost a gallon in that one milking. The owner told me not to milk her out because she is trying to dry her up. How much should I milk her? Should I milk to half of what she normally gives, then stop? Should I milk until the udder is no longer hard, then stop? I really don't want her to get mastitis! Help!

-- Elizabeth (Lividia66@aol.com), August 05, 2001

Answers

If the milk is being used she needs to be milked out for the milk to stay goog. If not quit milking completely and she will eventually dry up, or there are supositories you can get from the vet. you put in the nipple to dry her up. I milk morning and evening when I want good milk. It also prevents mastitis. Twice a day is a good milking habit. Once a day is just not enough. That is hard on her udder. You should call your local vet. He would give you free advice.

-- the pooles (mpoole@link2000.net), August 05, 2001.

If she is trying to dry her up you should milk her out completely otherwise mastitis will set in. I dry mine off my gradually tapering off the milking. I milk once a day, then after a few days or a week got to every other day and taper til she is dry.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 05, 2001.

A gallon a day is a lot for a doe that's only being milked 1X a day. Usually the once a day milking lowers production considerably. How much is the other doe giving? Maybe it's be better to dry that one off. There are some other things that will help in drying a goat off: reducing her grain, or eliminating it altogether for a while, and getting her bred. Once she is bred her production will decrease quite a bit. Just stopping milking her without cutting the grain will only make her miserable and give her mastitis. I would not try to dry off a doe that is still giving a gallon once a day, she is not ready for it. See if you can get the milk production to drop first by removing the grain. Once it is down to about a quart a day, you can go to an every other day milking. If at any time the udder were to feel hot, I would milk her out entirely, but mine have never done that, because by the time I switch from once a day to every other day, their production has already been reduced by other means.

-- Rebekah (daniel@itss.net), August 05, 2001.

It is a common misconception that dry cow infusions are to dry a goat up, they are not, they are for mastitis treatment in a cow who is dry. There is no secret pill or infusion to dry a goat up, even in us humans the shot to dry us up does a very poor job!

A doe milking this much can't be dried quickly. On the milk stand when you go to milk her cut her grain back and only milk out enough milk to ease the tension in her udder. (I actually try to do this very quickly to stop her from having a complete milk let down response) Overuddering does not cause masitis, but it can cause an allergic reaction in the udder. If to much pressure builds up in the udder it can open the orifice on its own and then with the doe spewing milk from the teat laying down in the barn, bacteria then can enter causing mastitis. Keep the udder soft, but do not milk it out all the way, then when her production is way down, then let the pressure build in the udder to signal the brain not to produce oxytocin anymore for the milk let down. We don't dry does unless they are producing less than a quart per milking. Another thing to do is to get her bred! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 05, 2001.

Thanks everyone! I would really rather not dry her up, and think it would be better to milk her twice a day, but unfortunately, she's not mine. So I do what I'm told. The younger doe is a first freshener and gives a gallon a day in two milkings (pretty good milking!) The older doe has a terrible udder anyways (very pendulous and lop-sided with huge teats, although most of this is probably from being milked only once a day!) Thanks for the help!

-- Elizabeth (Lividia66@aol.com), August 05, 2001.

Cabbage leaves will dry up women who are breast feeding. Why not goats?

-- Rebecca (Rrebekah14@aol.com), December 23, 2001.