# questions about drying up my little dairy girl, did I screw this up?



## DanceswthGoats (Jul 15, 2011)

So here's the run down on how, after doing some reading on here, I think I screwed up the drying up of my girl "Ella". She came from a large herd and as a yearling I was told she was small for her age and at the bottom of the pecking order.  The Lady I got her from told me after I'd spent time milking her and was happy with her stand manners and got to bond with her a bit  that I should let her dry up so she could spend her summer growing and fattening up a bit, and since I have another I'm milking too I figured for her sake the sooner the better.  I was told to drop her down to one milking a day for a week or two then just stop and so that's what I did on the 5th of July.   I'm very new at this and I have never owned any type of farm animal of any kind till this spring . Now I read on here that drying her up should of been a much more gradual process, I'm a little freaked out, especially as I don't really see any reduction in her udders yet after 10 days.  Should I milk her out after that amount of time and start over? test her for mastitis with the test kit or anything? I really hate the idea that through my ignorance I might of put her in danger but I was put in a situation where having found out I wanted to get some dairy goats "eventually"(like when I had time to read up on them and get at least some knowledge of what to expect) I was presented with the opportunity of getting a couple of alpines rather sooner than I expected! Any advice would be soooo appreciated, Thanks!


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## aggieterpkatie (Jul 15, 2011)

Everyone you ask about drying off goats will tell you a different answer.  Dairy cattle (on dairy farms) are stopped milking cold turkey.  Many dairy goats are also dried off that way.  The udder (just one udder btw, and 2 teats) needs to get full and signal to the body that more milk production is not needed.  If you milk them, the udder sends signals to keep producing milk.  I stop milking and after at least 5 days of waiting I'll milk out (if the udder is still very full) to make sure there are no problems.  IMO, milking every other day or something like that just sends confusing signals. When I wean my lambs I just remove them from the ewes and they don't get any other treatment and they always dry up just fine.


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## DanceswthGoats (Jul 15, 2011)

Thanks aggieterpkatie!, I feel a lot better about stopping then after only a week and a half of milking her once a day. It sounds like yours saying  that after "at least" 5 day you will sometimes milk out the udders to make sure nothings wrong, what do you look for when you do this? She's at ten days and after checking this morning her udders are going down a bit but there is still a lot of milk in there (for her, this is her first freshening and she has a smaller udder), and they're not hot or anything so I guess I don't know if I should milk them out or just let her alone,lol.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jul 15, 2011)

If it's been 10 days I'd probably leave her alone and she'd be fine, but it's up to you.  I milk out after 5 days just to see how she's doing, if the milk is clumpy, if she has a hot or hard udder, etc.  Plus, it helps get some of the milk out of the udder.


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## ohiofarmgirl (Jul 15, 2011)

i'm a gradual, slow down goat-dryer-outter.... and it sounds like you did just fine.  


i go to milking just once a day, then only part way out, then every other day...then stop. like aggie said - everyone does it differently and it really depends on the goat also. 

is her udder hot? or are you concerned because its not changing size?


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## DanceswthGoats (Jul 16, 2011)

Sounds good aggieterpkatie, I'll leave her be I think and just keep an eye out. Ohiofarmgirl, I'm a total newbie at this so I just had a little panic attack when I read on here how gradually some recommend you dry them out. I had planned on getting some dairy goats next year after goat sitting for some friends and helping out on some birthings  this spring and totally loving it, but was kinda rushed into getting one along with a second on loan to keep her company and didn't have as much time to read up on anything as I would normally do.  I just went by what I was told to do by the lady I got mine form.  Her udders are not hard anymore but are still pretty full and was concerned that doing the drying off like I did (much more quickly then alot of them do it on here) I had put her in danger of mastitis or something, lol. But thanks gals for easing my mind..phew, I really need to learn to relax,lol.


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