Dropped milk production, am I doomed?

[elieugene6]

Ok long story.

I went to the local auction and did a bad thing. I bought a doe in milk. She was cute, friendly, looked healthy and well she matched my other goats. I have 3 registered Toggenburg does and a registered Togg buck. Soon (about $50 away) 2 Oberhasli doelings. All my does have come from local 4-h families and the buck came from a nearby breeder) 2 of my does are bred and I am trying to be patient and wait well seeing this doe and having the money I bought her.

So I get home with a doe that hasn't been milked in a very long time. I felt horrible for her, her udder was extremely hard. So I get her out to the barn and think this will be easy I have seen people milk before it can't be that hard. Ha, I couldn't get a thing out of her, didn't have a milking stand and got frustrated quickly. So I call a friend who went to school for agriculture. I know she has at least milked cows. She comes over and she gets about 2 cups out. I finally figure out how to milk. We didn't get her completely emptied. I know now that, that was a mistake.

Next morning, I again try milking. I get maybe a cup, I am by myself with noone to help me and she won't hold still. Stepping in the bucket kicking it over. Once again she doesn't get completely emptied.

I have been meaning to build myself a milkstand, just haven't gotten around to it. So after I get some milk out of her and we are both frustrated I quit and get to building my milkstand. It is a task because I have to tear apart pallets in order to get the wood to make it with. So mid-afternoon I milk a little more out of her. She will stand only until it isn't so full that it hurts. Once again not completely milked out. By late in the day (like 6:30) I finally finish. I get her on the stand and start trying to milk. She still kicks the bucket and fidgits. I would say I got about 2 1/2 to 3 cups. Once again however I don't completely empty her. We were both getting restless and the mosquitos were eating us alive.

Next morning. I got her grain and decide I need to get into a routine. I get my milking supplies ready go out and get her food let her out of the barn and we go to the stand. Thankfully she is a very well behaved and tame goat. If she wasn't I probably would have given up by this point. Oh and to top off the problems her teats are tiny. I have small hands and they still don't fit. She gets halfway on the stand I have to lift her butt up, but at least she did it halfway. get her in start milking. She does get fidgity and kicky but we get through. This time I completely empty her udder. I got about 1 1/2 qts.

Next milking, I only get 1 1/2 cups, that was friday night. Now today I got a bit more this morning, milked midway through the day and tonight I got only like 1 cup.

Am I doomed? Is it possible that she doesn't milk much? Is there a way to get production back up? I assume that it dropped since she wasn't milked properly for so long. I got it down now. Well enough to know that I am milking her out and it isn't taking me 1-2 hours. I think I am down to about 15-20 minutes.

I haven't put her anywhere near my goats. I am terrified. she came from an auction. I don't know what I was thinking. I practice fairly good biosecurity. Any new animal is quarantined for a minimum of a month. Well today I shaved her down. She was very scraggly. She has a lump on her jaw to top it off. I don't know what I want to do now. It isn't in a normal place for CL but it still scares me. If you look at the diagrams for abscesses online the one that shows salivary mucocele is where her lump is. Is it possible for CL to be there? I am fairly certain it is an abscess. It is the size of a marble right now. Fortunately I have the means to keep separate herds at the moment but I feel bad for her because she is all alone. She sleeps in our old barn and stays in the old buck pen during the day with the turkeys. My other goats are living in their 7 acre pasture with housing inside. I already decided to build a new buck pen further from the house for when he goes into rut again. His stink would occasionally make it to the back door. ewwwwww.

Anyway, sorry for such a long rambling post but any input would be appreciated. Oh and I am keeping the milk but not to consume, I am either making soap or feeding it to the pig, barn cats and dogs. Is it safe to feed to the animals? I am almost up to a full gallon now, I just don't know what I will be doing with it. If she has CL is it transmittable through milk?

 

[SheepGirl]

The lump on the jaw could be bottle jaw--which is indicative of a HEAVY worm load. You will want to deworm her right away.

 

[hcppam]

The lump on the jaw could be bottle jaw--which is indicative of a HEAVY worm load. You will want to deworm her right away.

Good to know.

 

[scalaway]

Congratulations on your new goat . Sounds like you need to get her in a routine too. You really need to empty her completely as well because if you don't each milking, her body will interpret that as a decrease in demand and will stop making so much. If you plan to milk 2x a day, it should be around 12 hrs apart. I always feed my milking goats their grain when they are in the stand, it gives me the time to milk them because they are preoccupied with the food .
I agree with the whole worming thing too..depending on what wormer you use, you made need to throw away the milk for a bit, I'm not sure how long medications/wormers stay in the milk, maybe someone else can help. I use an herbal wormer so it doesn't matter, I get it online from fir meadow, it's good stuff . Hope that helps a bit! Good luck !!

 

[ksalvagno]

Your goat could also have a tooth abscess. Have you actually looked into her mouth or felt inside her mouth?

Sounds like your goat needs a good deworming and some fattening up. I would feed her alfalfa hay which is a natural milk enhancer. Also, feed her grain. To potentially increase her milk, you can milk her 3 times a day. It will take time to increase milk. It doesn't happen overnight. I'm not sure of her size but my Alpine mix gets 6 measuring cups of feed per milking and my Nigerian Dwarf gets 3 measuring cups of feed per milking.

Good luck with her.

 

[elieugene6]

She is the same size as my 2 yr old toggenburg doe. She definitely needs fattenng up. She didn't look to bad until I trimmed her. Of course mine looked ok to me until I trimmed them to and then I realized they are a bit on the chunky side. Fur hides a lot

I was thinking of deworming with Valbazen. I would really love to know the milk times. I won't be drinking for awhile anyway since I don't know what she could have been given before I got her.

I was giving her 2 scoops of feed at each milking and she devoured it. Thats more than the other four get in a day. Of course the other four have a 7 acre pasture with tons of browse. So now I am filling the feed dish at each milking and letting her eat as much as she wants. She doesn't eat it all. After morning milking I do outside chores and she wanders around the chicken coops and barn eating the overgrown weeds and grapevine that have gotten huge since I got rid of my 2 wethers. Then I put her in the old buck pen which is overgrown but she doesn't eat much of those weeds. Goes more for the hay. We baled our own hay last year and we have been feeding that and grain to the other goats so I guess I will see if I can find a bale of alfalfa locally. I did think to give her some probiotic as soon as we got home but I guess I will have to redo after worming. lol. I don't know how worming skipped my mind. To much worrying about milk problems and the abscess.

I haven't looked inside her mouth. It doesn't look like the pictures I found online for bottle jaw. It isn't underneath its on the side. It doesn't seem to be getting bigger either.

On the plus side I got a little over a qt this morning so it looks like production might be going back aup. If I milk 3 times a day for awhile how would I go about going back down to 2x a day? Seems like just stopping wouldn't be the right way to go about it. I have at least this next week off of work. And this morning she got completely up on the stand, the right way, and put her head in it the right way. lol. Gotta savor the small victories.

Will a hobble keep the goats from laying down on the milking stand? I was thinking about getting one for her due to her antsy behavior. However if it keeps them from laying down I will definitely be getting one for my pregnant doe. Everytime I attempt to touch her udder or back legs she lays down. Pain in my butt.

As many issues as I am having with this new goat at least its getting me ready for dealing with my other doe. She seems to have alpine attitude as opposed to my other toggs.

Since I will not be putting this doe in with my others for at least a month maybe longer. I might have the vet come out and test her prior and I won't have the extra money for that until I am back to work full time. Should I get her a friend? I feel bad for her being alone and I will not put any of mine or the 2 doelings in with her and chance them getting sick. There are always tons of excess goats at the auction, and some go for as little as $15. More than likely I could get something for cheap. Or I could get my kids the calf that they have been wanting. would a calf make a good goat buddy? Any ideas? I get the feeling shes gonna be alone for quite some time.

 

[sawfish99]

I am going to disagree on the worming. I think you need to do a fecal to determine quantify the worm load before blindly putting chemicals into the goat. As for the lump, there could be a lot of possible causes. Since you don't know any history about this goat, you should have a vet exam done, vaccinations (rabies and CD&T at least), and CAE and CL testing, get the lump checked too. If all that expense is too much, take the goat back to the auction.

Is buying another animal with unknown history and medical issues at auction really a good idea?

Your production is not necessarily doomed. If you milk 3 times a day, then 1 day just drop back to 2. We recently dropped to 1 time a day because production was too high.

 

[marliah]

I think staying on a good schedule is important, I milk my doe within an hour of the same time period every day. (only milk once a day right now since she has a kid on her). Also I love my Henry milker, makes milking a piece of cake. I totally recommend them, especially to a new milker, so much easier! I am learning to milk by hand and getting decent at it but I don't think I could have done nearly as good a job without it to get me started.

Also my doe was in rough shape for a while after kidding and her productioin went way down but since picked back up so I think with good care she will be just fine. May take her a bit to adjust, she has just been through quite a lot!

Oh and consider it a lesson learned, never buy animals at auction lol. I have had nothing but bad times with that, we decided we would rather pay a good price for a good animal than take chances with auction animals anymore.