Charlotte's Shave

The hair under Charlotte's udder had been getting really long...And hair growing on the udder can get in the way of milking.  It can also lodge debris or fall into the milk pail.  Yuck!

 

I decided that Charlotte was overdue for a shave.  I dug around in the cupboard and found a cordless beard trimmer tucked away with the haircut kit.  It is possible to purchase clippers intended for animals, however I figured the beard trimmer would do just as well and I had it on hand!  Great!

I was a little nervous about shaving Charlotte.  I thought I might accidentally snip her and cause her to bleed.  Just to make sure that I had the general idea of what to do, I watched this quick YouTube video:

 

 I gave Charlotte her grain and  turned on the clippers.  I made sure to do this job while she was full of milk, as the udder is taunt.  I tried shaving some in the back, but realized I mainly needed to shave in the front of the udder.  The hair was falling like snow! 

 

Ta-Da!  It wasn't so bad after all!  After I shaved her, it was interesting to see how big Charlotte's "pocket" was in the front of her udder.  This isn't necessarily a good characteristic for a goat.  It is best for the udder to be "well attached" in the front in order to hold up that huge udder holding a half gallon or more of milk!  However, since Charlotte is not a show goat, this is not too big of an issue.  She is such a good goat!

Udder-ly Ridiculous!