# Yearling doe developing an udder?



## samssimonsays (Aug 1, 2016)

As far as I know she's not bred. She was housed with a mother son pair and buckling was weaned and separated out. There's a chance she was bred, I know. But she was just in heat 1.5 weeks ago. She is a saanan/nubian doe who is LOUD normally but when she is in heat.... It can be unbearably worse. She also swings her but and swishers her tail at everything when she's in heat so it is super hard to miss. But here are a couple pics of what I am talking about. If she is, it's not the end of the world. If she's not.... Well, she's a goat so why am I even surprised she'd have something weird going on.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 1, 2016)

Precocious Udder


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 1, 2016)

Occasionally, especially in good dairy lines, a doe will come into milk without being bred. 
But, I had a doe who I didn't know was bred and she started developing a small udder. A week later I noticed it was just a little bit bigger. I was extremely surprised that she had milk in there when I squeezed it. I felt her ligs, and sure enough- they were gone! I got her to the kidding pen and she kidded that day. I had no idea! That fall the bucks busted into the doe pen...and got ALL the does at the time bred!


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## samssimonsays (Aug 1, 2016)

OneFineAcre said:


> Precocious Udder


I had heard about that before. Since her mom was a very good milk producer and her father was from big dairy lines there could be a decent chance that's what it was. I'm not expecting any babies but I'm also going to have to be ready if she did get bred by the buck kid before he was weaned... . My other doe has no signs of this at all and she's an Alpine only a month younger. If he got one, he'd have had to have gotten both. And his mother. :/ since tilda was in heat within a couple weeks ago I am assuming she's not bred...


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 1, 2016)

Agreed with OFA.

We have had several with precocious udders. I think my buck had one too. 

One of our 5 months olds had one this year.


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## samssimonsays (Aug 1, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> Agreed with OFA.
> 
> We have had several with precocious udders. I think my buck had one too.
> 
> One of our 5 months olds had one this year.


This is a huge relief lol! Never have I bred or had a pregnant doe before so I have no idea what I'm doing


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 3, 2016)

You could start milking her and see what happens


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## babsbag (Aug 3, 2016)

I have two does that come into milk every summer without being bred. They dry up in the winter and come back into milk about 5 months after their last heat. One fails to get bred, the other one I choose not to breed due to some kidding difficulties and her age, but hey, if they are going to give me milk it is a perfect world. One of them milks almost a gallon a day. 

I also have a dry yearling with a precocious udder this year. I am excited to see what she does when she is in milk.


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## samssimonsays (Aug 3, 2016)

She's gotten to be on my double milking stand while I'm milking the other does and is stand trained and she's gotten to see when I'm milking as well. I put her on the stand and fed her while milking scarlet and when she was eating I would feel her udder area to get her used to being touched there for next year. She has never done more than a squatting motion when I am messing with her so I am hopeful for some good manners. I didn't realize I could milk her just thought it was a sort of false udder deal going on?


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## babsbag (Aug 3, 2016)

samssimonsays said:


> My other doe has no signs of this at all and she's an Alpine only a month younger. If he got one, he'd have had to have gotten both. And his mother. :/ since tilda was in heat within a couple weeks ago I am assuming she's not bred...



The Alpine is a seasonal breeder so she most likely would not be in heat until Fall. What breed is the little doe with the precocious udder? Is she a Nigi? They are not seasonal breeders.

She may very well have milk and milking her would most likely make her produce more. But if she is bred you don't want to milk her as she would have colostrum which would be yucky and she needs it for her babies.


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## Southern by choice (Aug 4, 2016)

babsbag said:


> But if she is bred you don't want to milk her as she would have colostrum which would be yucky and she needs it for her babies.



Colostrum doesn't come in til right at kidding. 
We have milked goats all the way up to kidding time. Most goats are milked until a month before kidding so I wouldn't worry about that.

On the other hand I have heard different views on milking the precocious udder. Some say don't some say fine... 

We don't milk any of ours with a precocious udder.


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## babsbag (Aug 4, 2016)

I had a kid nurse all the way through her mom freshening and the vet slapped my hand. Told me I should have stopped her a month before so the colostrum could be there.   I wasn't drinking it so I had no idea when it came in. 

As far as milking the precocious udder...I have Mocha who doesn't really get a precocious udder as she cycles and gets bred and never settles. Moonpie on the other hand hasn't been bred or exposed to a buck for 4 years and she still comes into milk every summer. So is that still a precocious udder? IDK. But I used to milk her and the more I milked her the more milk I got. I am not milking her this year as she has a hard time getting on the milk stand these days.


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## samssimonsays (Aug 5, 2016)

She definately has milk in there. I decided to check today.


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