Not enough milk!

[Nanno]

Petunia seems to be getting better and better. Her kids are still on the hungry side (they keep suckling even after the milk runs out), but they're lively and their tummies feel full so I'm not worried. All things considered, a slight milk shortage is probably a good thing for now. It ensures that the kids will keep that udder stripped a LOT better than I ever could.

The hot compresses and massaging have taken the congestion way down in the left side, so this morning I started doing the right side at the same time to hopefully get the "fleshiness" out of that one too. I'd like her udder to be full of milk, not congested tissue! By this evening the right side was smaller, so the udder looks a lot less lopsided now. Her production seems to be going back up on the left too. I was hoping to get her out for a walk today but ran out of time. Hopefully we can start walking her tomorrow to get that circulation flowing.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

You are becoming quite the goat expert Good job

[Nanno]

This morning I was very excited to see Petunia's kids bouncing around with full tummies while Petunia still had milk left in her udder. The mastitis test came back well within the normal range. However, Phil and I had to be gone all day and I wasn't able to do the massage and hot compresses till this evening and her milk was back down again. The left udder feels almost normal and the healthy right side has a lot less congestion, so now it looks nearly even. But the kids had drained the udder dry and were still hungry tonight. I'm hoping it improves by morning or Lilly may have to supplement them again.

Petunia's appetite is great, and if she could just make more milk I'd feel that all was right with the world. I'm sad for her kids because she won't hang out with them much when she's out of milk. This morning when she had plenty for them she took them for a walk and was snuggling up with them and really bonding. This evening she left them in one shed while she went and ate in another. They've been sleeping in Daisy little Dogloo a lot, and Daisy seems to be filling some of the gaps left by their mother. Snickers came tottering out of Daisy's house the other day with his fur all stiff because Daisy had curled up in there with him and licked him from head to toe. She loves having babies to look after. She really wanted to adopt Finn when he was born but Lilly wouldn't let Daisy near him. Petunia doesn't care who adopts her babies. She comes to them if they cry, but otherwise she's a fairly indifferent mother. Somehow I feel like all that would change if she could feed them better.

So if anyone has any tips for increasing milk production, I'm open to suggestions. The goats get free choice alfalfa and during the day they get fresh browse of all kinds--grass, weeds, trees, bushes, bark, even old tires and the stucco off my house! What more could they want?? I keep their water fresh and clean, and they get free choice loose minerals and baking soda. I feed about 1.5 cups of grain, a handful of sunflower seeds, and 1 cup of alfalfa pellets twice a day. Petunia's actually been getting a little more grain recently in hopes it will increase her production, but I don't want to just make her fat. She looks sleek and healthy. I suppose we could have her checked for worms, but so far we've never had any type of parasites in our herd. Hardly anyone in this area has problems with worms because of the dry climate, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to rule it out. Anything else I can do?

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

If you are injecting anything into her udder, dont bother with the tests. The antibiotics will do their job and even though there is still mastitis, it wont show up. Dont worry about her production. It will increase as she goes through her lactation. You are already doing everything right. The only other thing would be to pull babies and make her fill up her udder to stretch it. But with a fresh case of mastitis, you already know you cant do that

[Nanno]

Naxcel is a regular old IM injection. I'm not putting any antibiotics into the udder itself. Hopefully she'll start producing more as her babies keep demanding to be fed. They seem plenty active, are growing well, and their bellies have never felt totally empty, so I know they're not actually starving. On the plus side, they don't have those ugly milk goiters. Finn's is enormous right now. He looks like he has a serious gland problem. I've been calling him "Jabba the Hutt" because of his big double chin.

[Nanno]

And today... all was right with the world.

Petunia still doesn't have much milk, but it's enough. The babies weren't hungry and nagging and Petunia spent the whole day with them. She took them out for walks, showed them how to browse in the scrub oak, took them to play on the rock pile, conversed with them, and just generally acted like a mother. Her udder feels normal now, if still a bit lopsided. I suppose it may to take a while for the left side to recover, but I hope it does. Last year I entered her in the futurity class at the CDGA Harvest Show, which means I'm supposed to bring her there this fall so they can judge how she turned out. I really hope her udder fills out and evens up enough by September for me to show her. I think it would be a pretty little udder if it healed. Perhaps not champion quality, but nothing to be ashamed of either. I did another mastitis test tonight and the milk was completely clear and normal. Tomorrow is the last day of Naxcel, so hopefully she's out of the woods enough to finish recovering on her own.

[Taffy]

Awesome!

I'm so glad things are going well!

[Nanno]

So far so good. Petunia's udder always looks empty, but the kids are bouncy and growing well so she must be making enough for them. She sure is a much better mama these days! She's been playing and having fun with her kids now instead of ignoring them and leaving them with babysitters all the time. I'm going to keep doing mastitis tests every couple of days for a while to make sure she stays clear.

[Taffy]

It sounds like Petunia is feeling a lot better if she's playing and having fun with the kids. WooHoo!

[Nanno]

Petunia is still having trouble keeping up production, and for the past week I've been giving Snickers 1-2 meals a day from Lilly. Neither of the babies ever seems hungry, they are growing well, active and playful, but Snickers is the larger of the twins and is going through a very fast growth spurt that Petunia just can't keep up with. I don't think Snickers is exactly hungry, but he's definitely greedy (I think he's determined to catch up with Finn--good luck with that!), and Lilly has so much milk I never know what to do with it all. I'm very happy to be able to share it with a kid who wants it.

Sputnik won't have anything to do with nursing off anyone but his mother, but he doesn't seem hungry and he's growing well so I leave him be. At least with Snickers getting nearly two full meals a day from Lilly, there's a lot more of Petunia's milk left for Sputnik.

Unfortunately, Petunia's udder is still quite lopsided. I'm having doubts whether we'll be able to show her this year. Both sides feel normal, there's no mastitis, and I'm pretty sure both sides are producing about the same amount of milk, but the side that had mastitis has almost no flesh inside while the other one is quite fleshy. I wish I could get it down.