# Precocious udder



## alidansma

I have had two people this summer contact me about goats with precocious udders.
They were wondering if I could use them for milk, unfortunatly both goats were mini breeds and their udder had been full for so long that it had lost support and was almost on the floor - not really good canidates for milking. Also they were older goats so surgery was not a good option for them.
What do you do when you come across a goat developing a precocious udder? Do you breed them, or milk them, or put them in a goat bra? Do you think it is more of a diet thing? Or more of a genetic thing? The girl I bought my la mancha from said my goat's twin sister is developing a precocious udder and I am wondering if she will develop one also.

I just can seem to find any real good information on this. Thanks ~ali


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## goat dreams

Some of the links in this thread should help: http://dairygoatinfo.com/index.php/topic,15673.0.html


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## buckrun

I don't touch them. I give them a shot of lysign to beat off staph and leave them be.
Breed them on a normal schedule and get a real lactation out of them when they kid.


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## NubianSoaps.com

There is no way a precocious udder bring on loss of udder support/loss of attachments. Poor attachments is genetics and overuddering doe in the beginning of lactation. Although it can fill a young does udder, their udder is so tiny it doesn't have the weight of milk in it to cause this problem.

I test them if they come in lopsided, it is nearly always staph. If they come in even I leave them alone. Vicki


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## alidansma

both of these were goats that had not been bred - at least not within the past few years for one of them (the pygmy) and never for the other - who is a 10 year old nigerian dwarf - the guy has owned her for her whole life and the past three years she has developed a huge -insanely huge- udder. Almost touching the ground. both cases these people had not touched the udder. These goats are all on different farms.

I thought maybe soy in the feed I asked the guy what he is feeding - grass hay and some cracked corn (he feeds the corn to other animals but the goat gets a little). 

I am also wondering if soem kind of ovarian cysts could be wrecking havoc on their hormones and causeing them to go into milk. is that possible?


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## Aja-Sammati

A healthy precocious udder is usually soft. If the huge dragging udder is hard, she most likely has mastitis, perhaps even cancer. We lost a doe once to 'breast' cancer... Changes in older does hormones can cause all kinds of things.


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## alidansma

I never thought of breast cancer...but that could certainly be the case. Thanks.


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## alidansma

One other thing though - both of the older goats only had a full udder in the spring and summer - they dried up for the winter and came back worse the following year.


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## Sondra

ummm very very odd I would say they had a silent abortion rather than precocious udder. And at some point in time they were bred and not cared for to have them hang like this or very bad genetics. JMO


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## alidansma

I am pretty sure this last one was never bred - she lived with a wether her whole life.


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