# Boy Girl Twins and Fertility



## Patchesnposies (Sep 11, 2009)

Is it true that if a doe gives birth to both a male and female kid the girl kid will be infertile?

(Forgive the ignorance of the question!)

Thanks!

Deb


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## lilhill (Sep 11, 2009)

None of mine have been.  And I've had a lot of them.


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## freemotion (Sep 11, 2009)

Whew!  I'd never heard that, so I was hoping it wasn't true.....


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## kimmyh (Sep 11, 2009)

No it is not true, however, there is a school of thought that say is a doe has triplets, and two are male, you may have issues with the doe.


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## lilhill (Sep 11, 2009)

And what is the reasoning behind that?


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## kimmyh (Sep 11, 2009)

I discussed this theory with my vet, and she said when you have 2 bucks in the uterus there is a bunch of testosterone in there that can affect the developing doe. Not always, but it can be an issue.


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## lilhill (Sep 11, 2009)

Somebody is going to have to convince me on that one.  I think anything is possible, but think it would be rare.  Anyone have that actually happen?


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## jhm47 (Sep 11, 2009)

This is true in cattle.  A bull/heifer combo will almost always result in the heifer being infertile.  Such a heifer is called a freemarten, and they do not have ovaries, cervix or a uterus.


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## Run-A-Muck Ranch (Sep 11, 2009)

jhm47 said:
			
		

> This is true in cattle.  A bull/heifer combo will almost always result in the heifer being infertile.  Such a heifer is called a freemarten, and they do not have ovaries, cervix or a uterus.


THis is similar to what i was going to say reguarding cattle....but there are very slim chances teh heifer can be breed....it's like less than 5% chance though...

I do know in sheep, and goats it's never been an issue here....
we've had twins...boy/girl and girl had babies later
we've have triplets....boy/boy/girl and the girls gave twins her first year
and we've had triplets..boy/girl/girl and had babies from both girls...


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## freemotion (Sep 11, 2009)

I guess goats are fertile little buggers, aren't they?   Thank goodness!


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## kimmyh (Sep 11, 2009)

I only know one person who has been through this in goats, and she indeed had a beautiful freemartin. That case is what prompted me to ask my vet about it, because I had a hard time believing the person with the goat-it just didn't seem right too me.


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## Roll farms (Sep 15, 2009)

I've had oodles of triplets w/ one doe, and oodles of triplets out of those does....
I think someone applied the 'freemarten cow' thing to goats in what the original poster was told.  That's horsepucky.  
Doodle (twin doe to buck brother) has had twins, trips, and quads....counting on quints from her this year...


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## Patchesnposies (Sep 15, 2009)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> I think someone applied the 'freemarten cow' thing to goats in what the original poster was told.  That's horsepucky.


LOL!  A more succinct statement was never made and after reading all of the previous posts, I am inclined to think it was all indeed, horsepucky!

Thanks to all for your input!  

Deb


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## KareyABohr (Sep 16, 2009)

In my experience it is only true in cattle.
When you have a bull/heifer twin combo the heifer is nearly always infertile. In goats I have NEVER seen this to be true. I have a young doe who was a triplet with two bucks and she had twins on her first kidding, and they are doing awesome. No stunted growth or anything. (She is naturally small though and I thought she would topple over as she bagged out.)


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## lilhill (Sep 16, 2009)

I have only seen a photo of a freemartin doe and she had tiny, tiny teats and a very small vulva.  The person posting the picture claimed the doe was in the same sac as the buck when born and the testosterone crossed over to the doe.  As we all know, in humans, animals, reptiles, etc., there are some births that exhibit abnormalities ... like, two-headed snakes.   In goats, I would think it would be a very low risk of having a freemartin doe.


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## cmjust0 (Sep 17, 2009)

lilhill said:
			
		

> As we all know, in humans, animals, reptiles, etc., there are some births that exhibit abnormalities ... *like, two-headed snakes*.   In goats, I would think it would be a very low risk of having a freemartin doe.


Speaking of...a bit off topic, but I saw pictures of a 2-headed goat kid, delivered DOA by c-section not 3mi from my farm.  Doe died, too, after the protracted labor and subsequent surgery.


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## lilhill (Sep 17, 2009)

Oh, how sad.    See what I mean.  Stuff just happens and we can only guess what caused it, or maybe not even guess.


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## BDial (Sep 18, 2009)

On a side note about the freemartin heifers. I do know of a couple of cases where the heifer was infertile but they used her for embreyo transfer. Great mom just infertile. So the thinking that all freemartens are born without a uterus is wrong.


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