Can anyone help with pregnant goat questions?

[cluckers&quackers]

I got a goat a couple of weeks ago. Crazy as this may sound I know nothing about the goat. I got her through a friend that does a lot of buying and selling of animals and he had no info on her.

I have alot of animals but this is my 1st goat. I was told that she appears to be bred.

I think she may be a bit of an older goat (?) don't know the breed, but she is not a really big goat.

Here is what I have observed:

When I got her a couple of weeks ago her udder was starting to enlarge and her belly was rounded.

Her udder seems to have filled a bit more, and it appeared that the baby had dropped because she went from having a high belly to looking sunken in and skinny around her back bone and butt. She leaks a tiny bit (just enough to notice) white mucus.

I have been looking on the net for info on bred goats. I have seen all these pictures where the goats have huge belly's and look very much pregnant, mine doesn't look big like that. And in the pics I have seen the goats have full, round, firm looking udders. Mine has kind of a small saggy sort of one.

Basically my question is how do I know if she is close to having a baby? does she still have a ways to go? As you can tell I am very confused!!!

I took some pics in case someone with experience might be able to offer suggestions by looking at them, but I don't know how to post them

Thanks for any ideas!!

 

[lilhill]

Many times the doe will start to udder up at about 30 days prior to kidding. They will also start to have some discharge sometimes a month before they freshen. I would just keep a watchful eye on her for now. She probably doesn't look "pregnant" because she's got a single in there. When her ligaments totally disappear (and don't pop back up), they will usually kid within 12 hours. The sunkenness in her flank is also an indicator that she is getting closer.

 

[username taken]

you can send me the photos by email if you like and I can post them

[email protected]

the white mucus you see is her cervical plug - they can lose this up to 4 weeks before they kid, or sooner, or sometimes you dont see it at all!

usually with udders, an experienced goatherd can pick a pregnant doe about 2 mths along by a little fill in the udder. By 4 mths there will be a definite enlargement of the udder. Does vary individually as to when they get full and tight, generally they will look pretty full for about a week before kidding and then a day before you will think they are about to explode. But then again, I have also seen some does have absolutely no udder whatsoever until 2 hrs after they kid, then it is huge. So it definitely depends on the individual doe.

Going purely on what you describe, I'd say she could be as close as 3 to 4 days, or as far away as 4 weeks. I could narrow that down a bit more with a picture.

 

[Bird Brain]

Had 2 diff goat birthing experiences so far. Oreo, we knew was pregnant and just knew it would be "any day now" Se was huge. She had a milk bag. A month and a half late, she gave birth traumatically to two babies. One nany born with organs outside the body, and the lil billy got stuck. Put nanny down, got billy out. All is fine. April on the other hand, we thought she was pregnant, figured it would be another month like the first one, she got a milk bag, and went down one morning about a week after milk developed to find her cleaning up two healthy lanky babies.

 

[BorderKelpie]

Something I noticed with mine, when they get really close to having the kids, their tails look 'loose.' Bear with me as I try to figure out how to describe what I mean. lol When she wags her tail, it won't look quite as connected to her body as it usually does. All the ligaments loosen prior to delivery and it really shows in the tail right where it attached to the body. I hope I am making a little sense.
Best wishes!

 

[bheila]

Pictures obviously would help, even one of her pooch/vulva

Every doe is different. Once she's streaming goo then you know she's really close to kidding. I have one doe that likes to lose her plug about a month before she kids and she doesn't fill her bag until about week before she has babies.