How to tell If your Goat is having false labor.

                                                       Our Goats False Labor Story

 When our Goat Pickles was pregnant we experienced her having false labor. One reason it made it hard to know whether or not she was in labor is that we did not have a breeding or due date. When she started showing signs, I got my hopes up and put her in the make-do kidding trailer, which I will talk more about in another post, and waited in there for about 8 hours!! I could not wait for her to kid and I did not want to miss it! Since I was so new to getting goats I was doing lots of research and found common signs of labor in goats and I compared it to what things Pickles was doing, I waited till the 24 hour mark hit and Pickles still did not kid. I was starting to get worried and did some more research on why this was happening, I then learned about false labor and goats. I noticed how the signs that were making Pickles look like she was in labor started to go away. I read how this is a sign that your goat had false labor. I was very much disappointed that I had to keep on waiting, but I was also glad that I had that experience and that taught me a lot! Below are signs that might indicate your goat is having false labor - signs that Pickles showed. I hope these help so that you won't have to wait for 8 hours straight for your goat to give birth even though she's not!

                                                                    The Signs:

- Swollen Vulva: I would best recommend to check the vulva when your goat is standing up because one of the biggest reasons that got me to believe she was in labor was when I checked her vulva when she was laying down all the babies were pushed back so it made the illusion that she was swollen.

- Bagged up udder: Pickles did not really have a drastic change in size for her udder. In fact, she bagged up about an hour before she kidded (for real now). Some goats even bagged up after they kid, but it depends on the goat. In some cases the udder can even appear shinny. Pickles did not have a shiny udder.

- Nesting or scratching at the ground- This is another sign that my goat did that fooled me, she would paw a little bit and then lay down but she did not paw every minuet like she could not get comfortable like she did in her real labor. 

- Silent Yawning- This is a sign that Pickles did quite frequently. Those of you that do not know what silent yawning is, it is when a goat opens there mouth and it almost look's like they are doing a SILENT scream. Now not all goats do this but it is a sign of false labor and labor. Pickles did this a month before kidding for real.

- CHECK THE LIGAMENTS!!! -  Now this is the reason that made me believe Pickles was in labor, her ligaments were gone! Now at the time I was still new for feeling for the ligaments, but I new when they were gone and no doubt about it they were! But while I was watching her frequently waiting for her to kid I continued to check her ligaments. I did notice that sometimes I felt a tiny bit of one but then about when I got to 8 hours her ligaments were BACK! I was so confused on what happened and I did my research and soon enough I found out that I was fooled by my own goat! So if this happens to you no doubt about it your goat just had false labor! I would say check every 2 hours for ligaments and make a log on anything unusual. Your goat may have discharge, which could be a sign of labor or false labor. A large amount of discharge will come out when the mucous plug goes. 

Overall it is pretty hard to tell the difference between labor and false labor. The biggest thing that helped me was the ligaments. When labor is happening they go away and stay away. 

Tell me if this post helped you because I would love to know you and your goats story!

For more the video version watch:

https://youtu.be/6gt6dm8wRrg  (Part 1)

https://youtu.be/s8-ts7hEvgk    (Part 2)