Re: orphan foal

["Susan Evans Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Sheryl, I used to be the foal supervisor at an equine hospital and spent
most of my time convincing suicidal babies to drink from a bottle.

First, make sure the baby is either standing or sternal (on his chest), not
on his side.  We always did just fine with a regular human baby bottle.
Don't try opening up the hole, which is tempting to do, because if they get
too much milk at once, they can aspirate it.  Don't lift the bottle so high
that they're reaching up, keep the neck more or less straight and only very
slightly elevated.  Think about the level they'd be at nursing from mama.

First try dipping your finger in a bowl of formula and putting it in the
baby's mouth to let him have a taste.  It's new, and they typically go yuck.
It's important that you keep quiet and calm, don't let it turn into a fight
or it'll never work.  Having someone else to very gently restrain and
support the foal is helpful, but it needs to be someone the fooal knows, at
least at first.  Spend some time with the finger-dipping routine.  Usually
they start to kind of like it after awhile, or maybe they just like all the
cuddling and attention.  I usually spent a good hour or three on this stage,
preferably with the baby down in the straw (usually more or less on my lap)
and the bowl next to me.  You will get incredibly sticky, but it's still
fun.

Most of the foals we started wouldn't grab right onto the nipple if you put
it into the front of their mouth, they would just spit it back out.  If you
introduce it into the side (where a bit would go), they tend to not fight,
and just sort of chew on the nipple.  That'll get some milk into their mouth
and usually, they'll swallow.  Once they decide that's okay, you can work
the nipple slowly around to the front so that they're truly nursing, not
just chewing.

Once you have an enthusiastically nursing baby, you can introduce them to a
bowl of formula.  Again, it's a matter of dipping fingers and leading their
muzzle down to the milk.  Expect a lot of spilled milk, lots of splashing
and blowing bubbles before they get it.  Once they do, they'll siphon up a
bowl of milk MUCH faster than from the bottle.

Also provide the baby with some high-quality, fine stemmed hay like good
alfalfa, and help the baby learn this is good stuff, too.  You can also take
bits of grain and poke those in his mouth.  He won't eat much, but remember,
you have to be the one to introduce him to all these new things, since mama
isn't there.  A few doses of probiotics wouldn't hurt either---normally,
he'd be eating a little of mom's poo to seed the gut with microbes, so you
have to do that, too.

Hope this helps.  Good luck!  It's hard work, but one of the most rewarding
things you'll ever do.

Susan G


Another alternative you might consider is to get a milk goat.  Lots of
babies can be taught to nurse from the goat, although you generally have to
tie the goat up on top of some bales when the baby nurses so she's up high
enough.


-----Original Message-----
From: guest@endurance.net <guest@endurance.net>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Date: Tuesday, March 30, 1999 3:50 PM
Subject: RC: orphan foal


Sheryl Williams SWilliams@powerweb.net
The owners of the stable that I board at have an orphan foal who was born on
March 17th.  They are having problems with him sucking on a bottle and would
like any advice that anyone can give them.  He is being fed through a tube
in his nose to his stomach at this time; the vets take the tube out every
few days and put it in the other side of his nose.  The poor little guys mom
has no milk and has rejected him. Any help would be appreciated.  The owner
called this morning and said the he had heard of a "foal nipple" but can not
seem to find any place to buy one.???  Thanks for any advice!

Sheryl


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