We’ve still been unable to complete our pairings for Lasty and Midnight, our final two planned does of the season. We hadn’t seen any heats out of either of them at all, so we decided to get help from our team of vets.
They suggested a Lutalyse/Cystorelin protocol, and we’re halfway through that now.
- Initial day: 3cc lutalyse
- 7th day: 1cc cystorelin
- 14th day: 3cc lutalyse
- Expose buck daily or pen together – some people say days 14-18, some say 16-18.
- 17th day: 1cc cystorelin
About 12 hours after the first shot, Lasty came into a visible heat. It didn’t last long, but it was more than we had seen yet! Midnight sort of almost seemed a little bit in heat a few days later, but it was very, very mild.
After that odd response, we did a more thorough inspection of both does. Lasty looks totally normal to us and Midnight actually has nicer-looking teats BUT Midnight’s vulva is kinda puckered and scooped. We tried inserting a qtip into each doe – Lasty’s went over an inch before we pulled back. Midnight’s couldn’t go past half an inch, if even that. Hoping that maybe we just had a bad angle, we tried again another day. Same thing.
At that point, we were pretty sure what was going on, but hoping that we were wrong, we asked the vet to take a look. His findings were not unexpected, but we’re glad for the confirmation!
Lasty is probably just a late bloomer or secretive about her cycles, so we’ll complete the hormone protocol and keep trying for May kids with her.
Midnight is unfortunately a different story – the vet confirmed that she is intersex, after feeling internal testicles. Sigh. Since she did have that mild heat and has never acted bucky in any way, we’re sticking to she/her pronouns and might try to keep her as a teaser doe, which would help amp up the bucks for AI collection. Otherwise, we’ll try to find her a pet home. Worst case, she’ll join our unsold buckling(s) and maybe a couple problematic does in continuing the circle of life in other ways.
We MIGHT swap one of this year’s kids into the breeding plan now: Swiss’ daughter, Tiramisu, is already as big as the yearlings, and we really want to see what her udder will look like!
