Medicine Woman Kids – Part 2

Medicine Woman should kid in about nine days.  Not too many changes since last week except that her udder is filling in slightly.  At this same time during her last pregnancy her udder was looking pretty big.  It seems to be filling in later this time around.  I read that second fresheners may fill their udders earlier or much later than the first time.  So I can’t really compare to how she was three years ago.  Some does may wait till only days or hours before kidding to fill their udders, which I think is interesting.

We’ve given her a private sleeping quarter at night, so she doesn’t have to worry about her belly being head-butted, and she can become accustomed to having her own room.  She’s basically sharing a room with the kid, Buddy, and there is a wire fence divider down the middle so she still has his company.  They are good friends and Buddy still needs his own room anyway because he is still tempted by the teat, but that’s a story for another blog.  Medicine Woman is happy in her room and we’ll soon change out the bedding in case she kids earlier than we think.  Last time, she showed several signs going into labor, so I’m hoping she will be as easy to read this time.

For the past month or so we’ve been feeding her 4-way cob with some vitamin E & selenium mixed in.  She gets it twice a day and loves it!  Not only does she like the cob, but she soaks up the special attention she gets.  She also likes to make sure the other goats see that she’s getting special treatment.  She’s the heard queen and they should know it!