HC Minis - new pics pg 172

[chandab]

I saw her up and about when I fed this evening, and she has 3 high stockings, looks like she was dipped in paint. Oh, so cute.

 

[AnnaC]

Aww what a little cutie - I love baby moos too.

A funny little story about a sheep!! Last year at daughter's partner's farm a lamb was born who insisted on always sleeping in her Momma's small food bowl (lambing sheep all have separate pens with their babies). Later as she grew bigger, this little lamb would turn over her Momma's water bucket and climb in there to sleep! Needless to say she became a great favourite with my daughter and my small g/son. She was known as Annie Bucket!!

Sprng came and off she went to the fields with all the others - not to be seen again. A few days ago the next batch of ewes were fetched down to the lambing shed in readiness for lambing. Yesterday evening daughter thought that a sheep was watching her, she looked hard, then called Annie Bucket and the sheep ran to her!!! Annie Bucket is now receiving special attention, scratches and treats and g/son is so pleased and highly excited that she is going to produce some little lambs for him to love once again. I think Annie Bucket now has a home for life - having found her again g/son will not now let her be sent off to market if she turns out to be a non-breeding sheep - a pet is what she will become! (and they say sheep are silly airheads!!)

 

[Eagle]

What a wonderful story anna , thanks for sharing

 

[cassie]

what a lovely marked little baby! gorgeous!!

how is Baybe doing?

 

[chandab]

what a lovely marked little baby! gorgeous!!

how is Baybe doing?

Thank you. And, pretty much the same. Demanding her food, and that's about it at the moment. Enjoying her daily treat session; she gets a couple yummy treats when she lets me touch her, and she's loving her treats.

 

[cassie]

haha thats good

I love using treats!! good girl Baybe!

 

[chandab]

Not Baybe, she wouldn't let me touch her there, but... I"m pretty sure I felt movement in another mare, last night. After feeding dinner, I was checking out Misty's belly, and I swear I was kicked, twice. Tried again today, but got nothing. Misty's not due til May/June. She won't go on serious mare stare for a couple months.

 

[chandab]

Nothing new with Baybe, however, I now I have two bottle babies to feed. We had a run on twins, had 3 sets in less than a week; so I'm bottle feeding two now. One calf went straight to a cow that had lost her baby, so its doing great; and that leaves me with two to feed. One's on the bottle really good, one is still having some problems, so I'm probably going to have to put it back on the little bottle with the little nipple so it can eat more easily (the big calf nipple seems to be too much for her).

 

[chandab]

Its so much easier when a cow raises the calf, but I've had bottle babies before, so not a big deal, just a bit time consuming. Hopefully, these two will both get cows before too long, but if not, have bottle will feed.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Glad things are progressing as normal with Baybe and congrats on all your new calves! I've had a bottle baby or two before and it can be a lot of work. You've got more energy than I do because I don't think I could do more than one at a time! That's a lot of milk to mix, mouths to to feed and faces to wash up!

 

[chandab]

Well, I must not be a very good mommy, cause I don't wash up their faces, I have enough with mixing milk and washing bottles (and they probably clean each other off after I leave, they are always sucking on something). I went back to the small bottle and nipple for the younger calf, and that seems to be helping, but it does mean I have to mix her two bottles to get her enough milk at her feedings. I have a bottle holder that is suppose to hang on the fence, but the angle isn't right from the fence, but it does make it easier to hold onto the bottle while I try to feed two calves. Today at noon, I went out to feed the two calves, and Shayne is coming across the yard with the two of them on the loose; he was bringing them to the house so they could get a litlte outside exercise and so I could take them back to the barn.

They dined al fresco, and then readily followed us back to the barn.

Baybe is making progress with her treats and being touched, and possibly minor bag changes, but its hard to see when she doesn't really want me back there, so I do the best I can to sneak a peak while she's eating. I need to catch her and detangle her mane in the next few days, hopefully with enough treats, she won't mind the spray bottle (detangler) and combing. [Her mane is bad enough to possible catch a frisky foal hoof, so better get it done.] I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy a good brushing and removal of loose hair.

 

[chandab]

Is it possible to train them to a bowl for their milk? I always fed with a bottle too, but I know I've read here on LB where several people have trained orphaned foals to drink from a bowl/bucket?

The vet told me from a bottle for 2-3 weeks, as that neck position moves the milk through their stomach the right way (something about it by-passing one chamber, remember cows have a 4 chamber stomach), I can't remember the details now, except for on the bottle for 2-3 weeks. And, if I keep them on the bottle, it'll be a bit easier to transition them to a cow, should one come available. If I have one to bottle feed for any lenght of time I transition them to a nipple bucket, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Behrens-Galvanized-Steel-Nipple-8-Quart/dp/B005ZIJQLQ I've seen them with multiple nipples, but only have a single. And, last year's two bums got so they'd drink their milk out of a feeder pan; at least til they decided to quit milk, kind of early, but they did fine on creep feed.

 

[chandab]

Almost put Baybe off her favorite treats today. I didn't know how she'd react to being groomed, but her mane needed detangling badly. I grabbed a handful of her treats, the bottle of detangler, a mane brush and a shedding blade. She wasn't too hard to catch today, once she was in the stall. I carefully sprayed on the detangler, no problem, she hardly seemed to notice (her paddock mate, Honey, hates a spray bottle); then slowly started working on her with the shedding blade, going slow she was just fine and almost seemed to enjoy it. Gave her a treat here and there to let her know what a good girl she was being along with praise. Then, I started to detangle her mane, which means I got the smelly detangler on my hands (I use Healthy Hair Care products Hair Moisturizer, love it); she took the first couple treats no problem, but then as I got more detangler on my hands the less she wanted the treats, wouldn't even take them out of a feed pan. I thought, great, I've wrecked her favorite treat for her; grabbed a different treat and threw that in the pan, she readily ate that. So, I took one of her treats out of the pan, and gave it to Che` (he's in an adjacent stall), after that she decided she better eat her treats or someone else would instead. She wasn't too keen on my coping a feel, but she has a very small bag with more swelling in front of her udder than the udder itself. So, that's what I know today.

 

[chandab]

Today's session lost me a little ground, she was still abit put out this evening, and wouldn't let me touch her as much as before. I'm sure we'll get it back fairly quickly.

 

[chandab]

Ok, I tried this last night, hit a wrong button and lost it all, so here we go again.

I'll probably start threads for each when they get closer to their due dates, most don't start til May/June, but here are my other exposed mares. Two are exposed to Che`, my little silver buckskin stallion; and three are exposed to Topper, bay Top Cat son.

Here are Misty, Bonny and Tana all exposed to Topper, and all fat and fuzzy (and unflattering):



Bonny is a cremello daughter of Little Kings Buckeroo God (AKA: George) and Tana is a silver bay granddaughter of Hilltops Little Vegas.

And, Here's Misty:



Here are HOney and Showy, exposed to Che`:

Honey's pic is over-exposed, but you can kind of see her tummy (she's black pinto):



And, Showy (all fuzzy):



There's a pic of Che` earlier in the thread.

And, here's Topper (Little Kings Cat on Top); first pic is here, second is at LKF:

 

[chandab]

The girls all look great! And such a handsome stallion!!! Gonna' be some nice babies!!!!!

Thank you.

I just love Topper, but after 18 months, he's just starting to get over the "she's a pony-eating monster" phase/attitude, whatever you might call it. I work wiht him every day, at least a little bit, usually just in his paddock without restraint, but with treats (usually hay pellets).

 

[chandab]

Well, I might have bum calf number 3 to take care of before the day is done. We found a prolapsed cow this morning, Shayne got her cleaned up and put back together, but htey don't often survive prolapsing.

We'll know more later.

 

[Eagle]

Oh no, how sad. I am saying prayers

 

[chandab]

Oh no, how sad. I am saying prayers

Thank you. Two bum calves is plenty, I really odn't want three, so I hope she makes it and can take care of her calf.

And, Baybe is doing fine, nothing new.

 

[chandab]

Oh, so sad to hear. Keep us posted on how the cow does. Yes, 3 would be quite the handful!

The two I've got now have finally figured out the routine, and both wait for their bottles and suck them dry without too many problems. But, since I only have two hands, handling 3 bottle would be a bit difficult. If I do end up with three, I might have to get a couple of them moved over to the nipple buckets, so I can have my hands free for feeding the extra.

I tried to feed her calf a bottle at noon, just to tide it over til we see what happens, but he wasn't hungry enough to be agreeable and cooperative, so let him back out into the pen and we can try again later if we have to.