# Precocious Udder in Pygmy - Pics



## alidansma (Aug 23, 2009)

Wow.
I saw an ad in my local classifieds about a woman who had a goat in milk - never been bred, never had a baby, but that her udder was so huge and the lady didn't know what to do.
I called her up and asked her if she had any help yet - she told me that people told her how to build a milk stand and offered to sell her babies, but no one actually wanted to help and she didn't want to milk a goat, she got the goat as a pet a couple of years ago and had no idea why it was making so much milk.
So I drove to her house with my husband - she is about an hour away, but I felt sorry for her and the goat.
Goodness - this little pygmy (and I have Nigies so I am used to small goats) she was a tiny little thing and her udder was insanely huge - it looked like it would split wide open - She was not very friendly. But we got her cornered, but hubby held her by the horns and I started to milk out this poor thing. I milked for a long time - 30-45 minutes straight. The right side milked out pretty good - it almost looked like milk - after milking for a long time the right side was pretty soft with only a few knots in it. the left side was so much harder, the skin on her udder was chapped and flaking and the milk was stringy and watery on the left side. Even after being milked for a long time she had a lot of edema in the back part of her left side. The uddeer wasn't hot.
I could have easily milked for another 30 minutes, but the poor goat was just stressing out.
here is a picture of her AFTER I milked for so long.









I don't really know what to recommend to these people. I told them I would probably come back in a couple of days. Originally I told them I might take her to my house, but she seems she would just be a boatload of problems for me, on the other hand I would like to help these people it is obvious they like the goat, but they just weren't prepared for this. The goat is not pregnant. But the suspect she might be self nursing.
any thoughts? Thanks


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## alidansma (Aug 23, 2009)

BTW the moisture on the back of her udder is from her urinating and her udder is in teh way of her urine stream. Do you think that might be the cause if the flaky skin?


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

Holy cow I have never seen anything like that! If you go back there, please let us know what happens!


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## dm9960 (Mar 23, 2010)

that poor girl, must be uncomfortable. I didn't know pygmies udders could get that big


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

I owned/bred pygmys and I have NEVER seen an udder on them THAT big.

Poor girl.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Honestly I always make it much worse than it really is to folks like this. I would tell them to have her udder amputated if they aren't going to milk her daily or put her down, or sell her to someone who wants to milk her. The urine scald on her rear udder will get much worse as time goes on, she is doomed to dieing of mastitis eventually as her udder overfills and she lays down and streams out milk. If the mastitis blocks the teats she will have abscess bursting through the udder wall. All in all even if she was bred to kid, her kids likely could not nurse her, not a very happy life for the doe. Vicki


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## alidansma (Aug 23, 2009)

any idea on why a goat would have this happen?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I doubt very seriously this is a virgin doe with a percocious udder. I would bet she is older, has kidded a few times and like most does with dairy blood has a will to milk and fills each spring. Just from the udder alone it looks like this. I tried to enlarge the photo so I could see her vulva, but look at her teats, those aren't virgin teats either.

You have to remember that there is no difference in ancestors between nigerian dwarf and pygmy...dairy versions of pygmy were bred up to other dairy versions of pygmy to get the nigerian dwarves of today, and not so many generations ago there wasn't any critique on registry, a dairy appearing doe was automatically registered as nigerian. This doe could easily either be ND or have ND in her, she certainly would have been used in the process to get them with that udder.

In the right home, CAE tested and having her milked tested, she could be an excellent milker for someone. With the condition she is in, if she isn't rescued (and I don't mean that she isn't being cared for, her feet aren't overgrown and she has had enough calories to grow in and now starting to shed her winter coat and her area is not full of berries....but with her ability to milk like this, someone has to milk her because she isn't going to dry up anytime soon. Vicki


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## alidansma (Aug 23, 2009)

I am pretty torn about it, because I *could* take her - I *could* milk her. But she is not friendly, and she is not easy to milk (due to her being so close to the ground.) I feel rather bad for the owners however since they bought her as a pet and never bred her - this seems like kind of a freak situation, so not their fault. 
She may have had kids in the past, but the lady told me she got her from some guy that kept her locked in a tiny pen.
If she was milked normally (not even sure that is possible) and treated for mastitis - would her milk come in as normal milk even though she hasn't kidded?

Basically - my bottom line question would be - could this udder be saved? Or is it already toast?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

No, because who is going to catch this doe and milk her twice a day? It's part of the whole, letting kids nurse without thoughful time spent taming them down as kids, it so limits their life after they leave your farm and they are only tame for you. 

Without a milk sample sent in on her milk and a blood sample of CAE she isn't safe to bring home. Vicki


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## deJardine (Apr 29, 2009)

Is there some sort of herb which can be given to her to help dry her up? I am not sure if that is a dumb question - I had to ask...


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## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

Sage works to dry up milk production.


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