# Stethoscope??



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

This may be a silly question... but has anyone ever tried determining whether or not their doe is pregnant by using a stethoscope to listen for heartbeats? (The tool doctors use to listen to your heart)

I was thinking about this as I milked my hopefully-bred doe this morning. Some days she looks like she has a baby belly - others, not so much. Some days her pooch looks bred - others, not so much. But it got me thinking... it seems like you could hear the babies' heartbeats. Couldn't you?? 

One can get a stethoscope pretty cheap online. Has anyone tried this, or know why it would or wouldn't work?? I have no other need for one, so would like to hear from others before I up and buy one. LOL


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## just_plain_bob (May 4, 2013)

i'm guessing rumen sounds and regular gut noises of the doe would be too loud to hear an infants heartbeat


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Hmm... true. I have a few friends who've done CNA or nursing school - maybe I'll see if any of them still have their stethoscope and wanna come check out my goat.  

The noise issue makes sense though. I sit there milking, watching her stomach move. It moves differently on the left than the right... but both move A LOT. WHY can't there just be an easy way to know for sure (that doesn't require drawing blood). 

I'm going to make myself do the bleach test this weekend. Stinkers haven't been peeing in my presence... but I'll stand out there all day if I have to. I need to KNOW this! I'm down to one milker, who is my most likely to be bred. If she is, I need to dry her off in early August for her early Oct kidding. That's SOON! Luckily, a little market is opening by my house this weekend that is going to have raw goatmilk... but I know it wont be as good as mine. If she IS bred, I may be able to keep my other doe in milk. She's still producing, but I haven't been milking her but every few days. MIGHT be able to try to bring that back up now that she's feeling better...


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

There IS a lab that accepts urine rather than blood, but I have never used it so cannot vouch for its accuracy.

http://www.betlabs.com/goats.htm


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Interesting... not finding pricing though... maybe I'll give them a call.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Rumen sounds would have no regular, steady beat. Milk veins would.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Rumens aren't constantly churning, so if the kids are developed enough, people are able to detect a kids heart beat. I'm not sure how far along they'd have to be to hear their heart beats though.


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## Barnes19 (Sep 8, 2013)

Yes I've tried it ... it hard though, no success myself, but right now I've got some does only 3 weeks off so I might try again!

It is certainly completely possible for people to hear fetal heartbeats, I found enough info to confirm that. But if you're not really knwoign what you're doing, its harder than you'd think!

I beleive my problem stemmed from simply not finding the right spot to hold the scope. I heard nothing even though i knew she was pregnant.

They do say its easy to get a 'false' fetal heartbeat in goats, because its likely there's a lot of gas in the rumen, and that may cause an echo of the doe's on heartbeat.

Apparantly what you're looking for from a kid will be much faster than the doe's beat though.

You've certainly got a good enough chance of hearing it to be worth a go ... but if you don't it doesn't tell you anything, and for an amateur I'd not expect to be able to diagnose how many kids are there!

How early you can hear it is another story ... how long is a piece of string? How good is your stethoscope, how good is your ear? They have a heart beat at 5 weeks from memory, but you'd need probably an ultrasound to pick it up at that stage.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

Urine test would be cool, however, I can't picture myself following the does around with a cup waiting for them to pee.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

You could get her ultrasounded


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Considering that vets don't do that to detect pregnancy, I would suspect it is near impossible.


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Well, my CNA friend SAID she'd come by and try it. She said it's the weirdest request she's ever gotten... but she'd do it. :laugh:

At least she knows how to USE the stethoscope... so we'll see. She knows NOTHING about goats. 

I found out that lab charges $15 per urine sample... so I might try that. I'm going to do the bleach test this weekend first, and see how that goes. I do have one yearling doe that is definitely open, so at least I have a control sample. 

I'm guessing an ultrasound would cost more than I'm willing to pay for nothing more than peace of mind... As many critters as I have, reserving vet costs for emergencies is necessary.


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## CritterCarnival (Sep 18, 2013)

If you need to catch pee for anything, I suggest making a "pee catch" tool. 

Every time I tried to get close enough to reach out with a cup, the doe would either freak out and jump away or stop peeing and turn to face me. So I taped a plastic cup to a stick about 3 feet long. This let me sneak a reach behind her without freaking her out too bad...success!


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

That's exactly what I'm planning to do. Just need to find the duct tape.


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## olfart (Mar 7, 2013)

FarmerJen said:


> That's exactly what I'm planning to do. Just need to find the duct tape.


I made a wire loop and left the ends of the loop where I could stick them inside a piece of PVC pipe. Then place a plastic cup in the loop and put tape on it to hold it all together. I was able to capture a urine sample on the first try. However, I had no success with the bleach test. No foam, but she delivered twins a few weeks later.

I'm also considering the stethoscope idea. Got a neighbor who's a nurse, so maybe I can borrow her for a minute to check my doe.


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