I do not believe does bleed during a heat cycle. They might have a discharge and their vulva may swell a little...but I have never seen a girl bleed. Not saying they don't...I just have never seen it with my girls. Mine just get "very excited" around the boys and act like love-sick fools.

Is she running with a buck now...or has she been in the last 3 - 4 months? Because of the draught in some areas this year (and other things) a lot of people are having issues with goats aborting 3-4 weeks before they are due to kid.

Have you changed feed? or given her an vaccinations? anything out of the ordinary?

If she is acting normal (eating, drinking and playing)...I would just watch her. If you see it again, take a sample to your vet and get it tested.

Brian

Thank you Brian for your response...nothing out of the ordinary has been fed to her,or anything. I'll keep an eye on her..like you said...I just didn't know if does bled or not during a cycle..she is only kept with her twin sister,and she's never been around any boys,or other goats other than her sister.

Beeliz,

Did you ever find out what was going on with your doe? My Pygmy doe has bloody urine for about a week now. I assumed it was her cycle but I have not seen it before and she is 5 or 6. I don't have a vet that I can easily take her to either.

Any info would be great.

I havn'te been on in quite a while and came across you post.

Red or brown urine can be a result of copper toxitity. Copper toxitity can be caused from the accumulation of feeding high levels of copper, or by copper bolusing when there is no deficiency. Toxitity reactions can take effect as long as 185 days from ingestion (such as bolusing) and the biggest sign would be in the urine as the liver releases the copper at high rates.

Other thoughts that come to mind are a possible miscarriage, internal bleeding abcess, or possibly something as simple as the goat ate beet pulp. There is another plant (not native to my area) that can cause red urine, can't recall the name though.

Brendasue

Thanks Brendasue,

Copper toxicity might be the cause. I feed my donkeys and horses mineral blocks with copper - I know copper is toxic to goats so I keep them high and out of reach. Recently the horses broke apart one of the blocks and there were chunks around for the goats to get at. I don't know how much it takes but that must be the cause. I have not noticed bloody or red spots in the last few days. They are free range goats and I wonder if they are able to get a plant? What part of the country are you in?

In any event she is very normal, eating, chewing her cud, playful, etc. I suppose I should change to regular salt to prevent the chance of it happening again.

Here is a map of minerals in the US.

http://tin.er.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/se/usa.html

We're in CT & I know we are deficient in both Copper & Selenium, but that info is not deemed from the map, but from other breeders.

You have incorrect information there, goats need copper, whereas sheep do not or very minimal. Too much copper can be deadly though.

How much depends on their intake, from both forages & feed consumed. A classic sign of copper deficiency is "racoon" eyes or white rings around the eyes, and a fishtail, and often anemia will present itself. As I stated toxitity shows itself with dark red urine. If these signs are not present in your herd, then they have adequate copper (for the time being, anway, copper deficiency takes a long time to show, sometimes a couple years).

The only way to tell for sure is to have a biopsy done on the liver, should one die as it is hard to get a vet to do a live liver biopsy. Blood testing is NOT accurate. Toxitity is often fatal, and deficiency can show with poor hooves and birthing issues.

If they are not showing the darkened blood anymore, IMO and this is just MY OPINION, the discoloration is from something else they ate, OR the liver flushed itself of excess copper as it's supposed to do and you got extremely lucky as she is still alive.

I would remove the horse minerals (too much iron for goats), and the salt as salt is a limiter, and offer a goat mineral such as sweetlix or kelp after about a week or so. They will eat it as they need it.

Chances are you don't have that plant either as you are in NH, sorry the name still escapes me, it grows farther west/south of us. Could be another plant though.

I hope some of this is helpful in some way, I know it's kinda vague.

I'm glad to hear she is acting normal & there are no ill effects.
Brendasue

Wow Brendasue, thanks for all this information. Interestingy enough, I read the copper info in John Lyon's magazine, the Perfect Horse! I do give them a mineral supplement made by Purina specifically for goats that they eat at will. I only have two goats my doe and her brother.

As I said she is acting normally and looks fine. I am watching her carefully however.

This morning she seems to be in heat again, she is flipping her tail and he is trying to mount her! She just went through this so I wonder if it's something like menoupause for goats? Just a thought.

Thanks so much for all this information.

Update:

I managed to get a good sample to take to my vet and he determined that she has a uterine infection. So she is on injected antibiotics for a week and should recover nicely! Happy ending on this one!

Excellent! I'm happy to hear you had her checked out and she is being treated.

I love happy endings!
BrendaSue