Hykue
Chillin' with the herd
In humans (and, I have heard, in goats) stimulation of the nipples/teats can help to induce labor. It only works if other conditions are already on their way to labor - enough prostaglandins to soften the cervix, baby's at term, etc. I can't remember what hormone it releases, but I'm pregnant, so I've been reading up on labor and birth. It's at least possible that she's trying to induce labor instinctually.
And don't feel silly, I'm just really hoping I don't end up stressed and pulling my hair out in a month, when my older doe STILL hasn't kidded. Pen breeding was about my only choice this year, and the younger doe apparently caught on the very first day (I thought she was in heat), but the older one didn't. She's enormous, as wide as she is tall, we think, but no sign of kids yet. Hopefully soon. Anyway, I've thought she was going to pop FOR SURE for about two weeks now (putting her just at term for getting bred the first day), but instead she has just been hanging about, getting slower and more uncomfortable-looking. If it goes on for another month I'll be stark raving mad. I can't make head nor tail of the ligaments, I felt them on my FF the morning of the day she gave birth, I THOUGHT I felt them, I THOUGHT they were much more prominent than those on my older doe. I apparently don't even know what I'm feeling for. She gave birth in the 10 hours I was busy working on the greenhouse, by herself, and had the kids dried off before I even checked again. So you're not the first one to not know what's going on with pregnant does.
And although there are very good livestock vets around here, neither of them is a goat vet. One of them used to have goats, but I'm not sure he understands me most of the time - nor I him. I asked him the other day, "You had goats before, right?" He said yes. I then asked, "Was that in this area?" and his response was, "We had them for milk". I think perhaps his accent interferes with his understanding me - I don't know where he's from, but it worries me a little to be so drastically misunderstood. Other than that he seems to be a good vet, I suppose. The other vet is more of a livestock vet, but that means he's very nearly always out on house calls, so I talk to someone who isn't a vet - I don't know if she's his "receptionist" or wife or assistant or all three. She seems pretty knowledgeable, but she's not a vet, and she said they see about one goat a year. There are other people with goats, and they range from the woman with the impeccably well-looked after herd with beautiful udders . . . who had gotten CL from a sheep breeder who told her they didn't have CL but didn't present papers, to the people who had a ton of goat rescues with a motley mix of lovely udders, scurs, horrible udders, a broken leg that was splinted/cast with duct tape after she got the original cast off, friendly and nearly feral. The people I got my goats from are very helpful, but also very busy, and the closer of the two lives about 45 minutes away, and they are quite poor so can't travel much. The further are about 1 hour and 15 minutes away, and they are super-helpful, but one of them has been having health problems, so I don't want to bother them except for big stuff (like, please oh please, helping me with dehorning and/or castration).
Whew, I apparently had a lot to say!
And don't feel silly, I'm just really hoping I don't end up stressed and pulling my hair out in a month, when my older doe STILL hasn't kidded. Pen breeding was about my only choice this year, and the younger doe apparently caught on the very first day (I thought she was in heat), but the older one didn't. She's enormous, as wide as she is tall, we think, but no sign of kids yet. Hopefully soon. Anyway, I've thought she was going to pop FOR SURE for about two weeks now (putting her just at term for getting bred the first day), but instead she has just been hanging about, getting slower and more uncomfortable-looking. If it goes on for another month I'll be stark raving mad. I can't make head nor tail of the ligaments, I felt them on my FF the morning of the day she gave birth, I THOUGHT I felt them, I THOUGHT they were much more prominent than those on my older doe. I apparently don't even know what I'm feeling for. She gave birth in the 10 hours I was busy working on the greenhouse, by herself, and had the kids dried off before I even checked again. So you're not the first one to not know what's going on with pregnant does.
And although there are very good livestock vets around here, neither of them is a goat vet. One of them used to have goats, but I'm not sure he understands me most of the time - nor I him. I asked him the other day, "You had goats before, right?" He said yes. I then asked, "Was that in this area?" and his response was, "We had them for milk". I think perhaps his accent interferes with his understanding me - I don't know where he's from, but it worries me a little to be so drastically misunderstood. Other than that he seems to be a good vet, I suppose. The other vet is more of a livestock vet, but that means he's very nearly always out on house calls, so I talk to someone who isn't a vet - I don't know if she's his "receptionist" or wife or assistant or all three. She seems pretty knowledgeable, but she's not a vet, and she said they see about one goat a year. There are other people with goats, and they range from the woman with the impeccably well-looked after herd with beautiful udders . . . who had gotten CL from a sheep breeder who told her they didn't have CL but didn't present papers, to the people who had a ton of goat rescues with a motley mix of lovely udders, scurs, horrible udders, a broken leg that was splinted/cast with duct tape after she got the original cast off, friendly and nearly feral. The people I got my goats from are very helpful, but also very busy, and the closer of the two lives about 45 minutes away, and they are quite poor so can't travel much. The further are about 1 hour and 15 minutes away, and they are super-helpful, but one of them has been having health problems, so I don't want to bother them except for big stuff (like, please oh please, helping me with dehorning and/or castration).
Whew, I apparently had a lot to say!
