IS IT JUST ME?

[GAILS]

I CAN NOT GET ORPHAN FOAL TO TAKE BOTTLE. ONLY WAY TO GET MILK DOWN HER IS WITH SYRINGE. ONE TIME SHE DRANK GOATS MILK OUT OF A BOWL AND WE THOUGHT WE HAD IT MADE, BUT AFTER THAT SHE REFUSES TO AGAIN. WHEN YOU TRY TO PUT BOTTLE NIPPLE IN HER MOUTH SHE FIGHTS IT. WE ARE LETTING HER NURSE ANOTHER MARE SOME. SHOULD WE STOP THIS AND HOPE SHE GETS HUNGRY TO TAKE BOTTLE. WE HAVE TRIED EVERY KIND OF NIPPLE AVAILABLE. ALSO, SHE IS NOT POOPING REGULAR. MAYBE BECAUSE SHE IS NOT EATING ENOUGH? COULD FEEDING HER MARES MILK AND FOAL-LAC CAUSE STOMACH PROBLEMS. ALSO, WHAT DOES PROBIOS DO? I REALLY, REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THE HELP EVERYONE OFFERS. THANKS AGAIN

 

[Manyspots]

Just a suggestion that may help her appetite. have you tried giving her an enema? That seems to clean them out good and they seem more aggressive at eating. Probios does help too, but I don't know that I have given it to one so young. I am not an expert but just offering ideas on what we have done. good luck! Lavonne

 

[Sunny]

Gail, I'm so sorry to hear of you losing a foal as well (in other post). What a rough time you're having!

If this orphan foal will nurse off the other mare, that's great! Getting more milk into her might make her poop more, but an enema as already suggested might be very helpful, too. I don't think I'd bother with the probios, though.

Good luck!!!

 

[~Lisa~]

Bottle feeding is very hard and you have the risk of aspirating when fighting with them. If she is nursing off another mare and the mare is ok with it I say go for it. before long she will be able to drink her milk out of a bowl. I know with our dwarf foal years back she was drinking out of a bowl at a couple weeks old and it made life so much easier. I would just make up some bottles keep them in the fridge for the day, heat and pour the no more fighting made life easier on both of us.

hang in there you are doing a good job it is tough!

 

[Reble]

Electrolytes helps to get your foal drinking more and helps if not getting enough.

Also adding a little corn syrup to sweeten up the milk.

Hope this article can help you.

http://www.lastchancecorral.org/foal-rescu...ring-for-a-foal

 

[Genie]

Early on when you wondered about getting the foal to nurse from another mare I offered some suggestions due to our having the same type of situation.

If the "Nurse" mare is okay with allowing the foal to nurse then that is great and she should produce more milk to accomodate the second foal.

If the mare has to be restrained to allow the nursing then the foal is likely not going to get adequate opportunities to nurse because you have to always be there to make it happen.

I am going to assume that you have to restrain the mare to allow nursing so I'll offer another suggestion which taught a foal to feed from a bottle.

When the foal is going to the nurse mare for feeding, put the baby bottle thru the back legs with the nipple in between the mares' faucets. Once the foal starts to grab the nipple on the milk bottle it will soon learn that milk can come from there as well.

Worth a try anyway.

Our orphan foal took a while to learn to drink milk from the dish. That happened by having the milk in the dish and keeping the syringe down close to the milk and then he soon started sipping from the dish rather than the syringe as he was able to get it faster.

 

[Allure Ranch]

[SIZE=12pt]I emailed you personally.... Please refer to that and contact me if necessary.[/SIZE]

 

[iowa]

We had an orphan foal a few years ago and once he started drinking from the bowl he would not drink from a bottle. His bowl had to be the blue one, too. If we tried a different color, he refused it. What a character he was. He thought he was a "person" for the longest time, but at about a year old, finally made a friend with another horse.