New mama throwing up while milking???

[FarmScapeGirl]

Hi there, I'm very new here (thank God I found you all, kinda love it here) and sort of new to goats. If this is in the wrong place, I will move it accordingly.

My doe kidded in March, and I've been milking her once a day for a while now. I do not have a stand, so I just tie her up when it's time to do the business. Yesterday, and today, within the first 5 minutes of tieing her up, just after she starts in on her grain, she spits up quite a bit of phlegm, and the half chewed grain. This just started yesterday.

I'm not sure if she's pulling on her collar and gagging herself, but after it happened today, I am starting to get a little worried. She is a hoover! She eats so fast, and is a very grumpy milker. The second she is out of grain, or hay, or anything edible, she's done.

She is skinny, and this is her first kidding, twin does. Up till last week, she was also nursing a single that was rejected. I have read that some does thin out after kidding, and while milking, so I'm not so terribly worried about that. She eats well, maybe even a little too well. Good quality grass hay, alfalfa cubes, grain, minerals, and plenty of treats, we really don't have much pasture here yet, due to the wacky winter, and immense flooding. I did worm her after kidding with an all natural wormer that's I've been using with no problems since I have owned them. I think that's all the important info.

Thanks in advance!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Is she coughing and then spitting it up? It sounds to me like she is choking herself with her collar.



You should try a milking stand. They are WONDERFUL. I found mine on Craigslist for $20.

 

[FarmScapeGirl]

That's what I'm thinking. I just wanted to make sure I'm not missing a sign or anything. This is our first time with the kidding and the milking. She is such a love, but doesn't like to be tied up. It happens right when I put her up, she gets it out, then dives right back into the bucket again.

I am building one this week! I can not do this milking on the ground thing anymore, it's killing me!

 

[treeclimber233]

I have a doe that coughs and gags stuff up. She is in such a hurry to eat she is choking on her grain. What I did was put some large rocks in her pan so she had to slow down to eat. Just put enough grain in the pan to cover the bottom of the pan and between the rocks. Add some as she eats what is there. That will give you more time to milk and she will learn to slow down. After a while she will learn no other goat will be trying to eat her grain while she is on the stand. When I feed my doe in the field with the others I put her grain in a large PVC pipe that is in her trough. As she eats her grain out of the trough a small amount feeds out of the pipe. She is the queen so she can keep the others out of her grain. I tie her so she has learned that gulping her grain won't get her done faster so she can go gulp the other goats grain.

 

[FarmScapeGirl]

That's a really good idea! Thank you, I'm going to try that for our next milking!

I went to the hardware store, spent $15, and built a stand yesterday. It was way easier than I thought it would be. Made things SO much easier, no more kick the can with the little lady