The Goat Spot Forum banner

McCarthy Farms Waiting Room...finally!

11K views 163 replies 20 participants last post by  McCarthyFarms 
#1 ·
Okay, might be getting just a little ahead of myself, and I haven't posted here in forever - but we FINALLY have a positive ultrasound result! YAY!

My girls Pamela and Lacey have been in with our buck since March. They are Nubian mixes, and he is a Nigerian Dwarf, so though I witnessed them mating quite a few times, they would always come back into heat. After about the 3rd cycle, I put them on leashes, led the girls to a ditch and held them there head down until Darrell did his thing...lol.

Lo and behold...3 weeks came and went...no heat cycle! I couldn't be content with just waiting, so had the vet out to ultrasound. He couldn't find a definite pregnancy with Lacey, but Pamela is definitely in kid! Hoorayyyy!

Pamela is due 17th November...hey, I said I was getting ahead of myself. It's a long wait lol!

Lacey, if she is actually in kid, is due 22nd November. So a wait and see game with her.

I have 2 new does arriving on the weekend, that will be bred in November for April kids. SO excited - this is my first year kidding so I am all kinds of excited/nervous. But I will for sure be glad to get back to milking Pam!
 
See less See more
#8 ·
It's been a while since I've posted here! We have been crazy busy. We are now 23 days from Pamela's due date and she is sure looking it lol! Her udder filled about a month ago, her belly is HUGE and she's got the pregnant waddle going on for sure. I am SO excited for her to kid!
Lacey is still a question mark. She'd only be due one week after Pam, and she doesn't look the slightest bit pregnant. She hasn't come back into heat, so I'm holding a little bit of hope, but she's keeping me guessing! If she doesn't kid by the end of November I think I'l have the vet do some hormone checks on her.

We also added 2 new Anglo Nubian does to the herd about 2 months ago. Aroma is the mottled doe and Fragrance is her daughter. They came from a dairy stud further North that had to downsize their herd due to the drought. I will be breeding Aroma to Darrell our 75% Nigerian Dwarf buck next month (here in Australia NDs are still a relatively new breed, with lines still being imported from the US. So we are still at the point of grading them and high % NDs are expensive and hard to find around here!)

I did also buy another buck...hehe oops. Robin is another 75% ND buckling, and we pick him up next weekend. He will be bred to Fragrance when he's a little older, and put over any does that Darrell produces. The hope is to increase our ND percentage, but also work towards creating Mini Nubians so we can easily sell kids as pets, or if we incorporate them into the milking program, my young (not yet 2yo) daughter can be involved. The big does with their big horns are just a bit intimidating for her LOL.

These photos were Pam at day 109. She is much bigger already now! Cannot wait for her kid(s) !
Eye Working animal Plant Tree Grass
Dog breed Fawn Grass Terrestrial animal Beak
Vertebrate Goat Mammal Working animal Fence


This is my daughter paying with Darrell, our buck. He has the best nature and is so goofy and playful. I hope his kids are just like him!
Plant Grass Shorts Rural area Dog breed

This is the beautiful Aroma. She is such a gorgeous girl and a sweet nature too. Pam and Lacey don't often let her come near me, but I'm about to split them all up and will be able to love on her way more soon.
Plant Grass Fawn Grassland Terrestrial animal

This is Aroma's daughter Fragrance. We'll breed her next year to our new boy, Robin!
Head Sky Cloud Eye Plant

And this is our gorgeous new buckling, Tippy Toes Robin. I can't wait to get him home and love on him! He's apparently very bucky already, but he won't be in with any girls until we're good and ready. He was born in August and although he's the same percentage as Darrell, I feel he is a much better quality buck and I'm excited to see what he brings to my little herd. I've been following his breeders for a while and fell in love with him the moment they posted his picture at 1 day old. They only kept one male kid entire from this breeding, the rest were wethered but Robin was a standout as a potential breeding buck. They have a new buck for next season so for the next little while I'll be the only one breeding from his sire line which is good for me - he's the only buck kid from his sire at the moment!
Sky Plant Dog breed Dog Carnivore
 
#14 ·
Bring on those cute baby pictures! I wish you luck and hope everything goes smoothly. Your goats have adorable names, I especially love Aroma and Fragrance. Do you think you'll keep up the smell related names for their offspring? I'm thinking P.U. might be good initials for a buck. :lolgoat::nod:
 
#15 ·
Haha, I am hoping to keep a theme! Not too sure yet what it'll be. I was thinking perfume names for those girls - though I do want to try and name each kid with the first letter of their dam's name. Aromas dam (so Fragrance's granddam)'s name was Essence, so the "smell" theme may work. When I first got the girls, I wasn't sure if I would call them by their registered names. "Pong" and "Stinky" were suggested, but they just don't quite fit my ladies ;) haha!
 
#17 ·
Day 140 today! Her back end is definitely getting softer/looser. And I'd forgotten how enormous her udder is when she's in milk! That poor girl. When we first got her (November 2019) she was in milk and engorged (mastitis one side) and our minds boggled seeing how full she was. She is our first ever milking doe, and on a good day we were getting just under 5L from her. Average daily about 3L.
Still 10 days to go but I am checking her several times a day. I'm just too excited haha! I really don't want to miss this birth as it will be our first ever kids born here. We've bottle raised a few but always bought them.

She is due on my day off, so it would be wonderful if she actually kidded on her due date, LOL Sky Plant Eye Working animal Tree
Bactrian camel Whiskers Fawn Terrestrial animal Grass
Sky Primate Terrestrial animal Plant Grassland
Head Plant Eye Sky Human body
Eye Plant Grass Working animal Fawn
Plant Goat Working animal Grass Dog breed
 
#22 ·
Haha - the poor girl nearly drags on the ground! Thank you. I am very excited/nervous lol!

Happy kidding! First homegrown kids are always extra special, enjoy every moment :)
Thank you! We are definitely very excited for these babies!

Be sure and have your camera ready! Best of luck to you for your kidding!
For sure! I'm out taking photos of her so often she's probably sick of my phone in her face...and the other end LOL
 
#23 ·
Day 141 for Pamela today. She's noticeably softer around her ligaments, and she's miserable today the poor girl. It is raining though, and we all know how goats feel about the rain :heehee:
She's usually the first to come to me for loving and will snuggle right in, rubbing her head and neck all over anyone who will stay still for her. She wouldn't have a bar of me today so either she's just getting sick of me fussing over her so much, or she's starting to get pretty uncomfortable lol.

Lacey her daughter (3yo) is a hopeful first freshener but we have been confused about her from the start. She bred so many times - and not always when she was "due" to cycle. I had to leash breed both her and Pam as Darrell our buck is significantly shorter - I gave him 2 full heat cycles to get them both bred but they both came back in. When I leash bred them, neither came back into heat and we also had them ultrasounded.
The vet couldn't identify any kids for Lacey, but she also never came back into heat this whole time. She's developed a little udder, and she has also begun to look more "dropped" but she doesn't look visibly pregnant as far as size goes. She would be day 137/138 today (bred 2 days in a row) and I have her due date (with a question mark!) as November 22. Very much a wait and see for her, but I really have my doubts.

Has anyone ever had a doe look as unpregnant as Lacey and still deliver a healthy full term kid?

This is Lacey (on the right) compared to Pamela. Only 5 days between their pregnancies (if Lacey is indeed pregnant, which I doubt)
Plant Grass Groundcover Fence Terrestrial animal

She is looking more sunken around her hips/flanks, but she has also just been drenched and was lacking a bit of condition due to worms. Pam in the background looking sick of pregnancy in general lol
Hair Head Sky Eye Plant

She has developed a little udder though. When we got them last November she had precocious udder. One teat was very enlarged and producing milk, the other side totally empty. It went away on its own. You can still see in this recent photo though that one teat is a little larger (right). Her lady bits are also a little more swollen than usual but nowhere near what Pam's look like.
Cloud Sky Plant Working animal Fawn


Any thoughts?:shrug:
 
#27 ·
We had her ultrasounded at 40 days but my vet is an equine vet and wasn’t confident with goats. The first time he actually gave up and said he’d go back and do some studying and come back to try again. I still had to tell him rumen was on the left and baby was on the right, lol! Lacey is due only 5 days after Pamela so by this point I quite honestly can’t be bothered testing her unless she goes way over her due date. I can be patient for another couple of weeks lol. The ultrasound was inconclusive as the vet said he couldn’t see anything but that didn’t necessarily mean she was empty.
 
#28 ·
Day 142 for Pamela...she's very squishy around her tail but doesn't want to stay still long enough for me to have a good check. Everything else is about the same...still eating and bossing everyone around lol!

I set up her kidding stall today with horse sawdust pellets on the base and a bale of the softest most fluffy amazing straw I have ever come across in my life. I want to move into that stall! Haha it is seriously the most beautiful straw I've ever seen. She better appreciate it! I'm going to start bringing her in at night and giving her a little feed so she gets used to being in there, and then keep her in full time once her ligaments go.

I've had a couple of my friends guess so far - both say twins, and both say one of each.

I'm so hoping she has twins and not one massive single, Lol! I pray for both girls but I think I will have 2 bucklings.
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top