# Milk stand poop manners



## BlueHen (Jan 26, 2016)

I am new to goats, so I am not sure what they are fully capable of learning. I do have a pretty good idea that my lamancha doe is being a stinker, though. 
She has been fairly easy to milk, a little fidgety and dance-y at first, but nothing crazy or unexpected.

My main issue is that she poops constantly the entire time I am milking her. Her 2 kids are a week old today, however neither one will nurse from her left side. I am milking that side 2x a day. 
It takes me about 5 mins to milk her left side completely out, and just this morning I counted that she pooped SEVEN times during that 5 minutes. Like 7 full poops, not a few little berries at a time. There is poop everywhere after we are done. I would swear she knows what she is doing here and she knows it annoys me. I have even been taking her for a walk up and down the long driveway before we go milk, hoping she will "get it all out" before we milk, but no. :doh: It is healthy goat berry poop, no digestive issues. Just a constant rain of smelly goat poo the whole time. She's never peed on the stand, thankfully (hope I didn't just jinx myself). 

Will this ever stop?? I never pictured milking while sitting in an entire dustpan full of poo scattered all over the stand and the floor. I am SO tired of it. :hair:


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Wow...she sounds like one of my bucks. I swear he does it a thousand times while trimming hooves!


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I've got a couple that love to let loose while on the milk stand.


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## BlueHen (Jan 26, 2016)

Ugh, so you're saying she may always be this way?


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## Greybird (May 14, 2014)

It sounds like you found the switch labeled, "Pull here for fecal sample material."


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

I had a goat with this problem. I fixed it with a garden hose. See post #19 on this thread: http://www.thegoatspot.net/forum/f218/goats-inside-182632/


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## BlueHen (Jan 26, 2016)

Damfino said:


> I had a goat with this problem. I fixed it with a garden hose. See post #19 on this thread: http://www.thegoatspot.net/forum/f218/goats-inside-182632/


I am rolling laughing. That is exactly what this doe does! She poops, I stop milking, move my bucket, grab my hand broom, sweep off the stand, repeat. It's MADDENING!! I believe she knows exactly what she is doing. I watch her when she is out grazing or hanging out in her pen and she will go forever without pooping. There's not a reason in the world for her to poop that many times during milking, other than the fact that she is being a brat. I think she knows exactly what she is doing. It takes me longer to clean the stand and sweep than it does to actually milk her.

If she starts peeing on the stand I will lose my cool. I cannot even imagine.

I milk in the workshop area of our garage, so I can't use the hose, but I think I can try a squirt bottle, maybe with ice cold water in it. Or use one of my kids' water guns. I am that irritated and desperate. I am starting to dread milking her and technically I haven't even really started, I am just emptying one side! I like your idea and I am going to try this in the morning.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Good luck with your doe! I hope the water treatment works as well for your girl as it did for mine. If you find that a squirt bottle is not enough to give her the message you might consider moving your stanchion outside for a while, weather permitting, so you can use the hose. Don't hose her if it's cold and/or windy because she could catch a chill, but with spring around the corner there should be some fine weather soon. I also used a verbal reprimand with my water treatments which helped in the later stages of her learning. If I saw that tail start to creep up I could scold her and she would stop before I needed to grab the hose.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I understand your frustration! I milk about 30 right now and some nights no one poops, other nights it seems like they all do. I milk in a parlor so, I really hate having to constantly sweep up goat berries! They do it on purpose. They must! I finally bought a dust bin with a long handle. That works great for
Goat berries. 


Regarding the doe's udder, teat tape the side they nurse on, train the kids to eat off both sides.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I had a doe do that for about a week last year, she was a FF... It completely stopped once she got used to it, now she's one of my main milkers....


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## Ranger1 (Sep 1, 2014)

A lot of my FF does do this for the first three weeks or so that I milk them. I just put a bucket behind them to catch the poop, and act like nothing happened. They've all grown out of it, like I said, in two or three weeks.
I might consider the garden hose, but it's not really possible where I milk.


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## sassykat6181 (Nov 28, 2012)

I had a ff that would poop when I milked her. I put a clothes pin on her tail once she stepped up on the stand and she never did it again. I did have to do it for about a week though. Give it a try


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