Aspire is a very special girl in our herd because she can’t be bred.

Why does that make her special? Because that was never the plan.  She was purchased as a “bred” coming 2-year-old. A doe that could God willing produce babies for our farm. While that isn’t a requirement, it is what we purchased.

Upon getting her home, we settled her into the barn and welcomed her into the family.  When she eventually came into heat, we worked with her breeder from mid-November to early March trying a myriad of protocols and several different bucks. While she cycled like clockwork, no matter breeding method, buck, medical treatment, or hormones used, the results came up empty and disheartening.  

When mid-spring came around, and she still was not bred, we grew more and more concerned. Not only for her breeding possibilities, but for her overall health. What was happening? What were we missing? Was she healthy? After consulting with other farms, we decided to have her evaluated by a Caprine Reproductive Specialist. We thought this would be a sound place to start, as that would give us answers to a lot of unanswered questions. Much to our dismay when the results came back we were shocked to learned that Aspire had blocked oviducts, meaning she was healthy and everything was working EXCEPT eggs could not move into the uterus. That translates into the fact that she likely will never naturally conceive.  Making her REPRODUCTIVELY UNSOUND.

When we presented the facts to her breeder, we were dismayed to learn they had no intention of rectifying this situation we had encountered. As a result we decided to roll the dice and implanted two BOER goat embryos into her as a last ditch effort to see if she could carry a pregnancy.  Thankfully, Aspire successfully carried one of those embryos and kidded in January of 2021 as a first freshening three year old (insert sigh of relief here).

This fall, we hope to attempt IVF once again where the Reproductive Specialists at StockVets will pull the eggs (oocytes) from her ovaries and fertilize them externally.  If this works we will place the embryos into Recip does to kid with Aspire’s progeny.   Aspire will have to have frozen embryos put into her if we wish for her to freshen again as she will not be “programmed” to have her own embryos put in.

While the chances are expectations are hovering between low and extremely low,  we hold out hope that Aspire will be bred and kid normally in the future.  There is a chance a pregnancy COULD break the tissue blocking the path, which would be the best outcome for the farm and her.

We ask for prayers and will update Aspire’s journey with IVF and any successful implications of embryos.  If you are or have experienced anything like this and need sound advice or have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We are all in this together and focusing on the health of our does is at the forefront of all of our actions.