Sooo.... a few ?s and a lot of my own experience? (another of my books???)
1st - GLAD they are both home. AND yes, at only 28* here last night and 32* the night before, It's been cold! What a surprise after 90* day/70* nite last week.
2nd - There doesn't seem to be any "new" research out there on drugs/bringing in milk/mares. Most of the info I found was last printed clear back in early to mid 2000s. BUT - there were several interesting articles that I did read.
CSU Equine Repro lab - Domperidone (not dated?)
OK Maybe mid - late 2000s -
Drug protocol turns rescued mares to nurse mares (nov 200 2008)
This one thought was after the one above but there must be another article I haven't found yet... Owner Blog -
Making a New Mom...
There is a bit more - actually still reading! But... The only thing that seems to have changed since we had our experience with ONE Shetland mare is that Domperidone seems to be in Gel format, not liquid as it was when we used it in 1998. I used this as a search term - "drug to bring in equine milk".
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In 1997, we had our first shetland foal. She wasn't on the ground when I was ready to go into work (at that time, I went in well before daylight to download the safe and account for previous days' $$ at a truck stop in MT. Bookkeeper, cashier), but just a few hours later, my step dad showed up w/ my 3 daughters and pictures of our new baby "Chicka Boom" (after the popular toddler ABC book/song - "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - will there be enough room..."). Patty, mom, had laid down and "squirted" foal into sire's paddock (found one spot she could have fit under the fence?). Dad/girls found him standing 3 legged, squealing and cleaning off a still very wet baby who was trying to nurse on him! The vet had been down the road checking cattle for another rancher so stopped in and checked the "crazy pony lady's" pony baby. Don't know if IgG was checked at the time...
Dad, the girls and I shared a quick lunch in the restaurant, then they left for errands and I finished out my day. It was about 2 in the afternoon when I arrived home to problems... The mare (a 3 y old maiden) would not leave the foal alone (who was down when I first looked). They weren't up in their shelter, protected from the wind, but down at the gate where the dry and not warm wind blew dust, straw and such around. Every time the foal got up, mama would knock her down. When I got into the pen, the foal stayed down - mare was just upset. Baby's eyes were crusted shut, her tongue tip sticking out of her mouth and dryer than I'd have liked. Pinching her neck - skin stayed ridged/standing (
). I was a "little" panic-y! I was alone, the errands must not have been done yet as no-one else around. The paddocks where our ponies were, were quite a ways away from the house/phone etc. No such thing as cell phones, then (according to Sierra, who just got back from a round trip drive to MT, there is still no signal for phones & no internet up there at Mom's place). I tried getting the filly to Patty's udder and Patty "turned mean"... So I let the foal lay back down, milked the mare into my hands (not a problem- offered her relief as though her bag not as large some I get now, it was tight, hot & obviously painful) and then drizzled that into the filly's mouth. Then again (I think several times, don't know/remember for sure). Since they were close to the water bucket, I dipped water out of the bucket and cleaned up the filly's eyes. They showed "fire" once they opened! Determined little girl, she stood on her own then. I'm pretty sure I milked the mare one last time, then drove past parents' main drive down to neighbor's house. Used their phone, called vet & neighbor took me, mare & foal to vet hospital. At that point the vet didn't give me too much hope - percentage of life - LOW @ 25% (or so). Shook my head, stated baby already named by kids and have to try. He shook his head and gave me a list of things to do, and a list of pricing... Hmmm - payments? Yes. So we both went to work. While he gave the foal blood plasma, IV, I milked the mare again. He then tubed that milk directly into the foal. Think I was there for couple hours - long enough to milk the mare at least 2x more. The vet then showed me to the door -he had others he had to check on. Not sure if he had another tech/vet there at the time (I only remember him there the 2 yrs I was a client up there) or if he spent the nite w/ my mare/foal. Next morning, before I went to work, the area where mare/foal were was open and I milked the mare and stored the milk. He'd left directions for bottle feeding the foal and she took some...
Baby MADE IT! Mom came home w/i 24 hours as she was again chasing the foal around the stall, no longer had much milk (no Domperidone?) and vet felt better to bottle raise the foal (little did I know the work ahead!). The foal stayed another 24 hours.
We fed her the rest of the mare's milk we could milk out of Patty, her dam. By the time she came home she wasn't taking the bottle very well - may have been "dummy foal" mild, but we got her to suckle out of a bowl. Foal-Lac became a regular purchase for a long time! The 1st 20 days - she slept on a crib mattress in our kitchen at night getting bowl fed every 2 hours.
She went to Mom/Dad's place every morning and when she'd no longer stay laying down in the front floor board while I was driving, she went back into the pen where she was born, permanently. A bucket was kept fresh and full of "milk" every day/night. She had her sire next to her in his pen and Patty was then running out on pasture.
This is way, way too long. Long story VERY SHORT - foal was Stuffy - name changed later when a neighbor who drove on the road that split Mom/Dad's property asked about the "stuffed animal" out in the paddock. She will be 20 yrs old on May 20th and has raised 4 of her own foals w/o problems.
1998 - Patty is back in foal (not foal heat, but following heat cycle) and we are moving - from up near the Canadian border, MT to middle of NC. About 3,500 miles... Trip - is another long, convoluted and crazy story! But they bounced together (yearling Stuffy and Patty) in the back of a "custom built" stock trailer made out of a Ford Courier truck bed.
10 days after arriving in NC and getting somewhat set up - Patty showed signs and then next morning had another filly - earlier than expected. Again - very little milk, small but tight, painful udder. New vet now knows story and gives me Domperidone. W/I 12 hours - Patty is a "milk cow" and Shado, raised by Patty, did fine! In 1998, a late summer colt and again problems. This colt is given both a blood transfusion and tubed w/ colostrum from one of our other mares. Patty got her dose(s) of Domperidone & he also made it - was raised by Patty after he was set straight and her milk in good. I determined to try breeding Patty one last time, then retire her if there were more probs, but we lost her during the week she was being bred (perforated bowel)...
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So I'm wondering - 3 - about Domperidone for your mare to try to bring her milk in, 4- more "roping" for the Remington for dummy syndrome OR 5 - just "bottle" raising him... And buckets that he can drink out of work great!! and allow him to be a horse while you get some much needed sleep in between still checking on him...