Uh oh, early foal

[eagles ring farm]

sending prayers for your little girl

 

[horsehug]

Lori,

I so very much hope your little Noodle makes it!!

You both have my prayers to get through this!

Susan O.

 

[Marnie]

Oh, I'll bet she's a sweet little baby. I hope she makes it and it does sound like she's in the best of hands. Good luck to the momma too and to you.

 

[Connie P]

Praying for your little cutie. I am reading this post after the picture post. She is in great hands and is one lucky little girl to have such a loving, capable "human" mommy taking care of her.

I didn't know that a foal needs 1 oz of milk per every 10 lbs of weight. Thanks for sharing that Becky- I put that in my file in case I may ever need to feed a foal! Always learning something new!

Please keep us updated on your little one Lori.

 

[Genie]

Here is a tid bit of information from a friend............

Hi there.I have had problems with foals not sucking in the past especially in the orphan foal.I use a 60cc catherter

tip syringe and mix in enough rice pablum to make the milk thick enough it wont run back out of the foals mouth.I

raised a colt on this and he never did suck but for 3 months he would chew and digest the pablum mixture.I also

added a little honey or maple syrup.There is nothing more frustrating that having the milk just run back out of

the babys mouth.This works so try it, Heather.

 

[Magic]

Thanks Genie, I will definitely keep that in mind if Noodle doesn't find her sucking reflex.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to update, but man, an hour goes by SO fast these days!

I feed the baby and next thing you know I have to feed the baby again. And again.

Overnight went fine, I bundled up and stayed the night in the stall with Noodle and Treasure, lying next to the foal. I was able to use my energy to feeding and such instead of trudging back and forth from the house to barn and back, and I even got some sleep! Treasure woke me up reliably every hour for relief of her udder, so I didn't need an alarm clock.

The temps got down to 35 degrees and even with the heating pad and the Kalglo and blankets, Noodle's temp got low again. The heating pad is a little too low on "low", but it cooks her when it's on "medium".

The temperature outside is climbing though, will be 70 today, so we'll be ok until tonigh again. Any ideas on what else I can do to keep her warm through the night?

I have more updating, the vet was here this morning and I'll give you all that, but right now I have to go feed the baby.

 

[shelly]

ray

ray

ray GLAD TO HEAR THAT NOODLE IS STILL HANGING IN THERE!!!! COME ON LIL GIRL...YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!

:yeah

 

[Genie]

I always have my hair dryer handy for quick warm ups. They love it!

I feel your pain with the lack of sleep. Supportive prayers coming to you to help you keep up the struggle.

 

[CheyAut]

Glad to hear things seem to be going ok... continuing prayers!

 

[Magic]

Ok, vet visit:

My vet said that the filly looked good, except that the veins in her eyes were signifying some septicemia.

But, she said Noodle's gums look good, etc, and that it was really good thing that we had already started her on Naxcel. She didn't sound overly concerned about it. I hope she's right, because that was the only downer of the vet visit. She took Noodle's blood again and called me back later, saying that Noodle's protein levels had come up wonderfully since her last test the day before, and that if I didn't want to give her a plasma transfer (via IV), I wouldn't have to. She also said that as Noodle is a high-risk foal, it sure wouldn't hurt to have it done, though we could wait and see first for how she does. I just said, let's do it, asap. They don't have it on hand at my vet's office so she's going to track some down and get it here, and it will be tomorrow when it can be done. She also told me that if I wanted it done immediately I could take Noodle to big equine hospital near Salt Lake City, but the thought of driving 4 hours round trip as tired as I am, and how exhausting and stressful it would be on both Treasure and Noodle, I declined. She said I could leave them there and get some sleep, but as wonderful as sleep sounds, I've BEEN to that hospital many times, with my own horses and as support for friends, and I *know* that I can give far more intense care than they can or do. Their stall cleaners leave a lot to be desired too-- wooden stall floors soaked with urine over the years, can you say "lung burn"?

So, tomorrow it is, and my vet told me that since it's done by IV and I have experience with IV's we can leave the port in for a couple of days so that Noodle can get antibiotics by IV as a break from getting her tiny little almost non-existent muscles injected twice a day. I thought that the other foal I'd given shots to had no muscle-- Noodle is far bonier.

The only place with enough muscle to inject is her itty-bitty rump. With the other foal I rotated neck, chest, rump, but no way can I do that with Noodle.

After getting off the phone with the vet, I broke into tears, basically relief that my filly DOESN'T have a certain death sentence because of septicemia, and the certainty that more help in the way of plasma was coming.

Treasure had been SO good for so long, but suddenly she got it into her head that Noodle needed to get up, and NOW. She began pawing at Noodle and went so far as to pick her up by the blanket she was wearing and move her halfway across the stall.

I saw this on the stall camera and went running out there (ok, fine, so I hobbled; my legs are cramping up from crouching and kneeling to milk the mare every hour!

) and scolded her. It didn't help. So Treasure got tied up in the corner of the stall. Treasure had a temper tantrum. She was pawing, and knocking into the water bucket I'd hung up for her, knocking water all over. I ignored her, and commiserated with Noodle that her mother is an overachiever and bossy.

When I went to sleep with them in the stall I set up three straw bales around Noodle (we were in the middle of the stall as that is where the Kalglo heater is hung up) and I laid in the opening of the square, next to Noodle. Treasure was fine all night and as I mentioned before, woke me up every hour to milk her out, so it worked out great.

Later today though, Treasure tried the force method to get Noodle up so now there are four straw bales around Noodle when I'm not out there. Kind of a neonatal crib for horses.

I also opened up the stall door and am letting Treasure wander the barn aisle at will, so she doesn't get astoundingly bored. This seems to be helping her curb her urge to force the foal up, though of course the foal is a little hard to reach now.

Treasure will wander off, then neigh, and dash back to check on Noodle, then repeat. Right now she's just standing next to her though, so I guess my fears of her not being bonded to the baby because of all this is for naught. I'll take some more pics of the liittle sweetie. And.... you guessed it, baby milk time!

 

[ontherisefarm]

So glad to hear your little one is still hanging in there. I am sure with some time she will be up bouncing around making all this worth while for you....

 

[Barbie]

Hi Lori-

So glad you got some good news today. I can't help but remember back almost 4 years ago to my Dawn being born with the fractured femur and needing surgery. She lived in a 4' x 4' corner of her mom's stall for 4 months. I had to go out there every couple of hours, lift her out and let her nurse, and put her back. Poor Peanut was a maiden, but what a great mom she was. A couple of times I tood Dawn and Peanut to the surgical hospital and left them for a weekend so I could have some down time. It was really tough, but I'd go through it again in a minute if I had to. Had to say I had a great sense of accomplishment the first time I let her out and she took off running.

Hang in there - hope you can gradually get some more sleep. I do think that plasma will really help her.

Barbie