# Sudden milk production drop



## LynninTX

is there any hope to get her back up??

Cinnamon is a 2yo 2F LM/Nubian X. She is my TOP milker and has been maintaining WELL until a few days ago... she started to DROP.

She is acting and eating normally. This AM she just barely covered the bottom of the pail. 

She is bred and her due date is Jan 14th. 

I was counting on her milk! 

She started dropping Sat....


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## Feral Nature

How much had she been giving before dropping and how many days has she been dropping? Mine have been very very slowly dropping, not suddenly and I am notoriously non-regimented with my schedule and they still are pretty level with their production, even with very little feed.


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## NubianSoaps.com

Usually a severe drop in milk supply is a signal of water problems, go clean out the waterers. A doe doesn't deplete like this and not balk at getting up on the milkstand, trembly etc...if it was milk fever. Due date is correct and not Dec? Temp is normal, no diarrhea? Cudding normally with a normal appetite? Vicki


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## Feral Nature

I also make sure they have fresh fresh minerals as that makes them suck the always fresh water down. I have 2 water troughs in the pen. I had time to only bleach one out of algae and now they won't drink out of the 'dirty" one even though it is not that dirty...they are that picky.


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## LynninTX

plenty of fresh water
waterer scrubbed 3x week
no diarrhea
no trembling
up on milk stand fine no kicking or acting out
was at the fence yesterday getting lovies from 2 visitors and me
chows down on her grain on the milk stand runs to her feeder for fresh alfalfa

we don't bleach waterers... we use vinegar and a *dedicated* toilet brush

she is in a pen with 11 other does, 9 other milkers, no one else has dropped like this....

she *could* be due 18 days earlier... as that is when she was put in with buck... due date is based on messy tail dated on calendar...

she looks VERY pregnant.... she is always wider though than most goats.... but my dh started calling her "Cinnamon Side Car" again this weekend....

Our temps dropped end of last week....

Will get her temp and get waters scrubbed again today *just in case*.....

She is the most affectionate and human LOVING of our goats and that has not changed in the least...

we DID move our milk rm on Sunday and everyone incl her balked at walking to the new spot that night... and Cinn hollared her head off Sun night when my dd left her on the stand to get the second goat... (we put up 2 at a time).... no trouble since then... and she stopped hollaring & started eating as soon as my dd got back.


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## LynninTX

hmm I am not sure minerals got refilled this weekend... will double check... dh does that for me...


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## LynninTX

Oh she went from 3lbs to .6lbs a milking

milked 2x a day


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## NubianSoaps.com

OK, than it's your water is too clean  I think the algea that clings around the side of the water troughs is a really good form of trace minerals like my own strain of mini kelp.  Vicki


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## LynninTX

OK trying to decide if you are SERIOUS or teasing me.... ??? LOL


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## Feral Nature

I hope she is NOT teasing you because I don't kill out my algae until I smell something off then i bleach it out and start over. if I can smell something, they can smell something. We have well water that is sometimes tainted.


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## NubianSoaps.com

I was teasing but I certianly don't clean my buckets that often, they are 25 gallon buckets on automatic fills and I don't like wasteing that kind of water being on a well. Vicki


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## Feral Nature

One of mine is a big plastic trash can and I can't waste water either. As long as they are taking big deep drinks, I don't worry. It is right out my window and I watch them.


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## Guest

I'm with you Lynn. 

We have automatic heated waterers inside the barns that we scrub and clean out a couple times a week with a shop vac. Buckets are dumped and refilled twice a day and scubbed out as needed.

I guess I figure if I wouldn't drink out of the buckets then why would I expect the goats to? :biggrin

Okay Vicki, I know what you are thinking... don't even say it!

Sara


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## Feral Nature

That's my theory too...if I won't drink it, why should they? Applies to all my animals. However, I'm a bit renagade and I'll drink anything :crazy Poor animals...your should see them on hard liquor.


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## Guest

Feral Nature said:


> That's my theory too...if I won't drink it, why should they? Applies to all my animals. However, I'm a bit renagade and I'll drink anything :crazy Poor animals...your should see them on hard liquor.


 :biggrin Your posts always make me laugh!

I have a doe who can slam a bottle of beer faster than a frat boy... no kidding!

Sara


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## Feral Nature

I can slam one down faster than a frat boy.


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## LynninTX

Diane!!!! LOL

I have a 3ftx2ft round black waterer and we fill it 2x a day... so yep 3x a week we dump what is left & scrub...then refill... Saturdays we scrub with vinegar... 

no automated fills here... tried them, but did not work well for us

see I hear clean clean clean and I listened... LOL


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## Truly

Sara, Please explain why you know your gal can guzzle the beer. :naughty


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## Guest

My husband is a very bad influence on my goats. :lol

Sara


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## NubianSoaps.com

Common Sara tell the board that you pick up every berry through the bedding in your barns also! So I am actually shocked you even let the water sit for 12 hours, let alone days!!! 

I'm lazy what can I say  Vicki


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## Feral Nature

I have to clean out my buck's water more than anyone's. I think there is a **** or wild ducks up there. I go up to his barn to feed him and look in his water each day. Some days, several days a week, it is filthy with mud! Like "something" has been in it! So I dump it, clean it, refill it. Then the next day it will have 2-3 inches of mud in the bottom. It is about 2 1/2 feet tall and I don't think he does anything to it. He is in chain link so the dogs don't go in there. He has a rooster that lives with him, it is banished from the rest of the farm by the other roosters but I am sure he is not doing it. I just don't know WHAT is going on.


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## Bilrite Farms

Yeah Sara, you only share the mixed drinks and strawberry smoothies :lol


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## LynninTX

Vicki LOL that is why I have dc!

Goat Boy aka Isaac scrubs goat waters 3x a week & fills them 2x a day.... and feeds them

Chicken Boy aka Aaron scrubs chix waters 3x a week and fills them 2x a day.... and feeds them... AND takes out the scrap pans and rinses them 1x a day

And yes... I often call them Chicken Boy & Goat Boy!

Although eventually Caleb will be my goat boy... he loves the goats & the goats love him... he milked 2 out the other night... Isaac tried to finish them off, but they were done! Not bad for 5yo


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## Feral Nature

Makes me think of "goat boy" on Saturday Night Live" :rofl


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## LynninTX

sigh

2 squirts last night
zippo this AM.

I need 28 qts by 5PM tomorrow... I HAVE.... 9.


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## Sondra

your in trouble :yeahthat


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## Feral Nature

LynninTX said:


> sigh
> 
> 2 squirts last night
> zippo this AM.
> 
> I need 28 qts by 5PM tomorrow... I HAVE.... 9.


Need goats???....have I got a deal for you -------> :goat :goat


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## LynninTX

LOL got any milkers????

I am turning people away here!!!!!!!!!!!

Now will Cinn tell the others how she got away with this???? Hmmmmmmm

I have 2 not bred yet supposed to go in with the bucks today, but I am too sick....


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## Feral Nature

I have 4 milkers that are not wanting to dry up. it makes me sad to put them out of work. I have 4 customers and have cut them off. I'm stocking up my little freezer with milk then drying them up. If i had sense, i would sell these girls now in milk, re-bred and ready to go...but I have no sense


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## Tricia

Diane's post reminded me of when I picked up my buckling this June. Had a jug of water and a pail ready to water him before we began the trip from the Maine Mall (the Sears parking lot was our rendezvous) back to Massachusetts. The seller explained all that wasn't necessary and offered him her bottle of Poland Springs water which he tipped up and neatly drank. Last month I was walking to the barn to milk with a bottle of beer swinging from my hand. Yup, Adair came up, upended it, and took a big gulp. Think he would have finished it off if I hadn't snagged it away.


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## Sondra

hey beer is good for milk production but DR told me to make sure and use the exspensive imported dark stuff :biggrin


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## Feral Nature

Juvenile delinquent!


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## Guest

:crazy


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## Feral Nature

Sondra said:


> hey beer is good for milk production but DR told me to make sure and use the exspensive imported dark stuff :biggrin


Back in the day when I was breastfeeding my doc told me to drink a beer when I held the baby to nurse in the evening as it would relax me and the hops would help enhance milk production. You have no idea how many times I took that advice...I sat down and nursed those babies whether they needed it or not!


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## LynninTX

snort


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## Sondra

I was told that too Diane but I only did it at night when told to because It was all I could do to get a beer down. don't like the stuff.


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## Guest

That's why I drink wine, I think ? :woohoo 
:woohoo :woohoo :woohoo 
:woohoo


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## LynninTX

OK my dd got .1 out of Cinn tonight... I really would like to keep her in milk... do we 

milk her each time and feed her her reg ration...

milk her and cut her ration since she is giving so little...

just accept it and let her go...

She is a piggy and eats with GUSTO.


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## NubianSoaps.com

I haven't even a clue. Stupid things...she doesn't have an injury to her belly, her milk viens, puffiness around her foreudder? Nobody is nursing her? Glue her teats and see if she is self sucking? If there was something wrong she would be a royal pain to milk, dry does do not like their teats touched let alone milked. And sick goats don't eat with gusto  Vicki


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## LynninTX

no injury 
no puffiness
no nursing or sign of self nursing

She is not being a pill on the stand... just little to no milk...

Just love these curve balls!


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## LynninTX

my dh asked... big as she is (normal for her!) could she be carrying 3-4 babies and dried up because she needs the nutrients?? She has only twinned for me so far though her mom tripleted...


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## Bilrite Farms

Well you've stumped the experts here and I'm still pretty much a novice but I thought I'd share that we have a couple of does who will drop milk production when they are about 2-3 months bred. I'm not sure if it is hormonal or what but I am guessing something is triggering them to want to dry up. These are the same does that show a very marked reduction in milk when in heat. Both of these does are good milkers and sustain their lacations except for the instances I mentioned above.

Just some food for thought,

Trisha


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## Guest

Maybe I dreamed this, but I'm almost sure that I remember Vicki telling somebody that was having trouble trying to dry up a doe to "get her bred"


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## Cotton Eyed Does

LynninTX said:


> my dh asked... big as she is (normal for her!) could she be carrying 3-4 babies and dried up because she needs the nutrients?? She has only twinned for me so far though her mom tripleted...


That's what I think. These goats are pretty savvy when it comes to knowing their own nutrition needs. I've seen them dry themselves up when bred like this.


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## Halo-M Nubians

Thats really interesting-I hadn't heard that before. My doe that often quads or quints is 40 days bred and her production has dropped like a stone! She is also going to be 10 yrs old when she kids so I think I'll let her off the hook. No more goats milk for me. I'm drying off my one other milker also. I was milking to keep them "Slim" but with the drop in production they are just getting fat on millk stand grain :/ Good thing I have Soap milk in the freezer! I can't wait until February!!


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## LynninTX

hmm thank you... we'll see Cinn is due in mid Jan... I was not going to dry her up until just after Thanksgiving...


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## NubianSoaps.com

Lynn how long did she milk last year? Vicki


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## LynninTX

March 06 into the first week of January 07...
then kidded in late Apr 07


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## Sondra

Lynn try upping her alfalfa pellets or maybe giving her some cmpk she may just need more calcium if indeed she is carrying 3 or 4 kids.


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## LynninTX

hmm thanks Sondra.... 

they are on free choice alfalfa and it is checked 3x a day right now...


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## LynninTX

Need to ask what she milked today...


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## LynninTX

.4 this AM so coming up....


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## Corky

When you posted how long she milked last year I noticed she had a longer dry time before kidding than you are giving her this year.

One the other hand, my old doe did the same thin this year but now she is comming back up in production.
She is bred I think. I never know with her, but she dropped production suddenly also.
The difference is she was also somewhat bloated and also off feed.
She was spunky and acted fine other than she did not want to be milked and was not in a hurry to come to the milk stand which is not like her.
I gave her soda and probios and let her go.
Milked out some milk the next day but she was still bloated and only ate part of her grain so treated her again and the next day she was eating normally. No bloating and gave normal milk.
Your case is just weird.
Mine probably ate too much of something she shouldn't have out in the dying pasture.


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## LynninTX

Well it was not intentional last yr... but no one apparently bred their first cycle in with the buck...I just did not know it... so I dried her up to kid posibly the last week in Feb.... and she did not. 

She is coming back up slowly... .3 last night...

no sign of bloat or similar...

was never slow to come to the stand... LOL there is food there!


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