Shaving a Goat's Ass

(Pictured: Lilo's rear end)
Sorry about the title, but I found the greatest YouTube video on how to shave a goat before kidding and that was the name, "Shaving a Goat's Ass." It was so clear. And the guy was pretty funny too. He had another video about how a fat man catches chickens (he was pretty pudgy). Everyone would think they'd get to see him running around after chickens...but no, he went out to the coop at night and picked one up off the roost! Too funny.

Anyway, we are getting Lilo ready for kidding. One of the things that you can do to help is to shave her. The book I have calls it "crotching" but I haven't found anywhere else that calls it by that name. Who knows. You are supposed to shave the goat about a week before kidding. You shave all the way from the belly button, over the udder, and up to the tip of the tail. We only shaved around the tail and rear end...mainly because the clippers didn't seem sharp enough and I didn't want to be pulling her hair out.

The reason to clip around the vulva is to make clean up after birthing easier. There's lots of goop that gets stuck in long hair. If you shave it, you can clean her up with a wash cloth without pulling goop out of her hair.

The reason for clipping the udder is two-fold. First, the babies might be confused by long hairs and suckle on them instead of the teat - this is what the book said, although I have a hard time imagining this would ever really happen. Second - and why I would do it - is to make it easier to clean up the udder prior to milking. That way you don't have hairs that catch dirt and fall into the milk. Also, you don't pull hair when milking (I guess it's three-fold).

This is the original video...



Lilo was a good sport for most of the time. She definitely didn't like it when I tried to shave her udder (part of the reason I didn't push it). I'll work on sharpening the clippers and then may try her udder once her milk has come in. I think it would be easier to shave when it's tighter anyway.