What's Going on with Annie?

Annie is our Nubian goat.  She was born back in April 2013 to Nellie, our first goat on the homestead.  She is quite a character with loads of personality and floppy ears.  She cocks her head sideways and holds her ears outright sometimes when she walks and we jokingly refer to her as the "Flying Nun."  Over the holidays this past winter, we brought her to a friend's home for a while so that she could be bred. The friends have a herd of registered Nubians that roam along the banks of the Atchafalaya River near Melville, Louisiana, and we were hoping that "Iron Man" one of their billies would breed Annie.

We picked her up and brought her home after she was there for a little over a month.  Now a goat's gestation period is on average 150 days, with a range from 145 to 155 days.  To take the most conservative stance we counted forward from the very last day that she was exposed to Iron Man - the day we picked her up.

Well, yesterday was day 155.  We are anticipating more goat milk as we haven't had a good goat milk kefir smoothie (from Annie's mother, Nellie) since December.  But as of yesterday: No baby goats! And at Day 155, I think it is impossible that there will be one coming.  We are scratching our heads... What happened?  Here's what we know: she started developing a bag.  Her teats, especially the one on the back left side enlarged considerably.  You can see it below.  So we know she was bred.  She is in great health and perky and mischievous as always, so she's not sick or in distress.  It is indeed a mystery.

Could she have miscarried?  Perhaps, and probably that is the best explanation, but we never found the baby or placenta and no evidence from Annie of going into labor.  Baby goats are small and there is a possibility that a hawk or other predator may have taken the carcass, but the fact that we didn't see anything out of the ordinary is mysterious.  Now, one rainy day in mid-May, we found what appeared to be (maybe) a puddle of blood mixed with rainwater by the round bale, but we checked Annie and all the surrounding area and found no evidence of delivery.

We are disappointed.  We were really hopeful for at least one kid to be born, but we'll just look forward to this Fall to re-breed her.  Goats are seasonal breeders, meaning they come into heat in the Fall through early winter.  We were certainly looking forward to Annie kidding, but we'll have to be patient.  Things like this happen.  Despite our best laid plans, things often go awry.  Crop failures and animal illness and death is all part of it.  We accept it and will focus on the future.

Speaking of the future, Rosie, one of our Jersey cows, is very pregnant and should be calving in a week to ten days, so we'll anticipate that baby and the freshening of Rosie.  We should have a new baby and fresh milk shortly.