I have a goat that miscarried yesterday. I have no idea as to why. I have had her since Jan. I did notice the other two does that I have kept butting her, could it have caused her to lose her baby? These are my first goats, I know very little. Thanks for any help.

-- Donna In WV (Totertruck@msn.com), April 05, 2002

Answers

A few months ago I had a sheep abort. I noticed several of the others chasing her and butting her throughout the day. But I think it was the smell of the aborted tissues that precipitated the butting, not the other way around. They were all fine the next day.

-- Kate in New York (Kate@sheepyvalley.com), April 05, 2002.

Interesting you should bring this up, Donna. I was going to post a similar question this morning...you beat me to it.

We have two goats who were due to deliver about 6 weeks apart. The first one (Matilda) delivered healthy twins about 4 weeks ago. Now, she's always been a bit bossy over the other one (Mavis), butting her if she gets too close, chasing her away from the hay, grain, and water if she was there first, and she's never been that friendly with us.

But since being pregnant this behaviour had gotten much worse, and since delivering her twins, she became downright nasty, butting Mavis at every opportunity, biting her ears, etc. It got to the point three weeks ago that we built a small fence to keep her away from Mavis.

Last week she managed to get through the fence (through a hole I thought was much too small for her). By the time my wife heard the commotion and ran out to the barn, the nasty one had the pregnant one down on her back, feet in the air, cut and bloodied about the eyes and ears, and was pounding the hell out of her belly with her head. She separated them with difficulty and tied Matilda up. Even then, she kept lunging at Mavis trying to hit her again.

My son and I came home and the two of us together had trouble getting her out of the pen because she fought us so much to get at Mavis.

Mavis was cut and bloodied, bruised about the head and eyes, and couldn't stand up. I'm convinced that if my wife hadn't arrived when she did, Matilda would have killed her.

As it was it was three days before Mavis could stand up and hobble around (nothing was broken, just a badly bruised leg). And this week, 5 days after the latest incident, she miscarried what looked like would have been two healthy kids.

Can anyone offer any insights into this behaviour? I've never seen anything like it before. These are two goats that have been together since birth (they're three now). They're not related. One's a Saanen and the other a LaMancha. They've both had kids before in close proximity to each other, and nothing like this has happened. I must say that Matilda (the mean one) is not the greatest mom, and on two previous occasions refused to nurse her kids. Although this time she seems OK with her kids.

Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), April 06, 2002.

Donna, If your other goats were bullying your doe a whole lot, then sure it could have stressed her out enough to cause the miscarriage. Is there anyway you can separate the doe that miscarried from the others the next time she is pregnant? Maybe put her in with a very docile doe or wether.

Russ, Do both Matilda & Mavis have horns? If Matilda has horns and Mavis doesn't this puts Mavis at a huge disadvantage. IMO, sell Matilda and keep her kids (if they're does).

-- Sharon in AL (sharonspaws@aol.com), April 07, 2002.

Donna;

They both have horns, but not for much longer....

Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), April 08, 2002.

Sharon;

Sorry, I called you Donna...'don't read so well this time of the am. My apologies.

Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), April 08, 2002.

yes, this can cause a doe to abort. do they have horns? if so, consider getting rid of the horns. disbud the babies. russ, matilda would be off my place and replaced. there's no reason to keep an animal that mean and dangerous. next time it could be a child. my opinion, only. donna, good luck the rest of the year! enjoy the goats!

-- laura (okgoatgal@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.