One of my two-year old Oberhaslis who's kidded for the first time (and is an adoring mother to her buckling) freshened with an a beautifully symmetrical udder. Her kid nurses exclusively on the right teat. On the fifth day, I began milking out her left half and leaving some in the right half mornings and last week (at two weeks)moved to milking her twice a day.

Seems I've made some mistake! Her left half at three weeks is dry. Is there a way to "restart" this half? She'll move her boy over to the right teat whenever he tries the left.

Would appreciate advice.

-- Tricia Smith (tsmith@alum.mie.edu), April 17, 2002

Answers

Snicker snicker :) but this is why we don't let the kids nurse. Perhaps twin bucklings, milking the doe out each day completely, both sides, to make sure they keep it even but not one kid ever. You never leave anything in the udder to help even out an udder. Milk is supply and demand, and you didn't demand milk from the one side so it dries up. Even in a meat goat herd it is important to get all the colostrum and milk out of each side each day with the goats, because about the time the kids are really growing, and this single buck could easily have emptied both sides, there is only half as much milk as their would have been. Pen him up overnight so you can really see what is happening with this udder, let him out to milk his mom and really empty her, massaging the half that is not producing really well, perhaps you can get it to jump start. I'ts all natural and all that to let the does nurse their kids, but you had better be able to stand to look at lopsided udders! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 17, 2002.

Just to make sure, you might want to test for mastitis. We had a goat that dried up in one side due to severe mastitis but produced plenty of healthy milk from the full side - but she sure was a bother to milk.

-- Alice (megatron_revised@yahoo.com), April 17, 2002.

I appreciate your replies since this was my first kidding. We had two does kid at the same time (I know, not a lot for some!, and I'd been focused on a doe Ada who was hypocalcemic and who had triplets. I naively thought that if I milked Zoe's one udder half and let the kid work on the other, things would even out. Ha! The kid won.

However, Ada (and we've sold two of her weathered bucklings last week) has a beautiful udder now with her remaining buckling nursing and being milked completely out twice a day.

Since all our kids this year are bucklings and our herd is CAE free, it seemed easiest to let them be dam-raised. We did do some bottle- feeding of the kids to give Ada time to get back up on her feet and reduce competition at her udder. We give them enough attention that they are easy to handle and seek us.

I'll content myself with lopsidedness this year and do better hopefully next kidding.

-- Tricia Smith (tsmith@alum.mit.edu), April 18, 2002.

I dam raise almost all our kids and have NEVER had this happen. Slightly lopsided, yes. Dry on one side, no, and especially not at three weeks fresh!! Something else must be going on. The kid is nursing it dry, or she has mastitis, or maybe it wasn't getting milked out thoroghly. I also take pains to make sure that the kids nurse on both sides though. I agree with holding the kid off overnight to make sure she is really dry on that side.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), April 18, 2002.

I don't exclusively dam raise, but have on occasions over the years left buck kids on........milking out completely myself twice a day. Kids do fine.......I am with Rebekah, no way she should be completely dry on one side unless there is something else going on. I have slightly lop-sided udders on occasion.....even milking out twice a day, which is why if I think I want to show a doe I pull all the kids.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 18, 2002.

One problem I had the first week with my first fresheners is milking them out thoroughly. I'd milked experienced cows prior to these guys and have altered my technique to be a goat-friendly rippling squeeze with no pull, but I and they are very slow to milk. Both does are getting easier each day, but it's taking me a good 30 minutes to get most of Ada's (who had the triplets) milk (about a quart). She's relatively patient, but I'm worried about reducing her production because I'm not getting those halves milked out. Since it's finally cooled off here in Massachusetts, I'll add a third milking midday and see if that helps me out. Thanks again for your comments: they're very helpful.

-- Tricia Smith (tsmith@alum.mit.edu), April 19, 2002.

With the natural oxytocin milk let down happening and subsiding in about 5 mintues, anything over that time is not very nice for the doe. Are her teats abnormally tiny or her streams of milk just really tiny? Even with being new to milking it shouldn't take you 30 mintues to milk a doe, let alone only getting out 1 quart. Any way you can invite a goat friend over to milk this doe and see what is going on? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 19, 2002.

Vicki, part of my problem has been how full her udder is for the AM milking. I'm making sure that her one remaining triplet gets his fill and now am getting 1-1/2 qt in the AM, another quart at noon and in the PM. One of her teats has a small callous near the cistern from where the triplets squabbled over the teat (yes, I've learned something else from this, too) and the stream that I get out >>is<< small until I've milked that side for a bit. I've reduced milking session to 15-20 minutes finally. Your comments are really helpful because they're making me think through what I'm doing!

-- Tricia Smith (tsmith@alum.mit.edu), April 22, 2002.

Tricia- milk first, and then put the kid on after you have gotten all that you can. This way, the kid cleans out whatever you did not get, and ensures that no extra milk has been left behind. I really feel for you having to milk the tiny teats, they are a pain to milk. One of the reasons that I dam raise, is so that the kids can make sure all the milk is out of theose yearling udders!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), April 22, 2002.