goat drying up suddenly! New Update!

[Bubblingbrooks]

Her baby is 11 weeks old, and we fully separated them 2 days ago.
Doe was giving me 4 cups in the morning, and then feeding her baby all day.
2 weeks ago, she dropped to 3 cups.
Yesterday morning, she gave 3 cups, last night 2 cups, and this morning, 1.5 cups.

I put the baby back in with her this morning, with the thought that stress was the cause.
I will still milk twice a day to see what is happening and to keep routine.

 

[ksalvagno]

I have found that with one kid, you can easily milk twice a day with kid nursing full time and still get a good amount of milk. Hopefully production will go back up for you.

 

[lwheelr]

Is her feed keeping up with her production? We find that greens (other than hay) and grains help with milk production a lot.

Our goats got sick a few weeks ago. They did not have any classic symptoms of any disease I was able to find - the only symptom was lack of appetite. They did not have any lesions, no respiratory symptoms, nothing. They just slowed way down on eating for about a week, then gradually improved over about another week.

Anyway, their milk production dropped to almost nothing while they were sick, then came back up afterward - we fed a lot of greensduring recovery, they seemed to like those better than grain at the time.

Many illnesses are like that, a drop in milk production may be what is most visible.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Her doe is 11 weeks old, so no need for her to nurse any more.

She is eating 1 cup of barley, 1 cup of BOSS and 1 cup of Alfalfa pellets, twice per day.
Ample weeds and some grass, as well lots of hay.
Seems perfectly healthy.

 

[freemotion]

Is she a first freshener? Is she with-holding for her baby? Also, my does get about 2-3 times that amount of food, except the BOSS. They get half or 1/4 of the BOSS, except the one who still needs to gain weight.

Fresh foods really help, like greens and root veggies if you can get some cheap.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Not withholding that I can tell. She is literally almost empty. I am stuffing her with dandilions, lambs quarters, chickweed, etc, in addition to the grain and hay.
And yes, its her first time.

All I can figure is she stressed over the baby being removed. They are back together, and I will go back to pulling her at night.
I cannot lose this source of milk for DD. The HD may well take away our raw milk source at the farm soon, and I am stockpiling cream in the freezer already.
Don't want to do that with milk too.

 

[Wannabefree]

Maybe toss in some loose minerals. Maybe her body is missing something, and adding to the stress of the baby being gone. My nag still nurses hers, and she's SEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Maybe toss in some loose minerals. Maybe her body is missing something, and adding to the stress of the baby being gone. My nag still nurses hers, and she's SEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!!

She has all the minerals she wants!

 

[savingdogs]

Goat is drying up? :/

Maybe you should water her.

Sorry, bad joke.

 

[Leta]

My only experience with drying off is with myself, so all I can suggest is to put the kid back in with her, make sure her water is especially appealing, and be extra nice. That helped my milk supply rebound. (Full disclosure: I am not a goat.)

Seriously, I am watching this thread with much curiosity. I hope someone can solve it.

BTW, what is "HD"?