In 1984, one of my maiden Pygmy does was bred and appeared to recycle three weeks later. I bred her on this heat, too, although her signs were weaker than normal and she was ambivalent about being bred more than once. (My does are all bred on the end of a lead and service is recorded in a notebook before I leave the barn - that is the only way I could verify this case.) I assumed that she failed to settle on the first breeding and estimated her due date according to the second breeding.

When I palpated her feti, in conjunction with giving prenatal vaccines at 4 months along, she appeared to have abnormally large, active kids for 4 months' gestation. She kidded a week later with full-term twins of average birth weight and development. This was an obvious case of coming into estrus during pregnancy.

Since I had given her CD/T booster just a week before birth, I consulted my vet who agreed that the kids should receive tetanus antitoxin at birth, as the doe would not have had adequate time to manufacture colostral antibodies for the kids. He also suggested that the kids receive CD/T at birth and a booster at one month of age to activate their immune systems. Timing of prepartum vaccines is a very big concern in a case like this or when an exact due date is unknown.