First 06 foal born last night-not nursing......

[lilnickers]

I have a new foal, she was born healthy at 1:30 am. Even with all her energy , she cannot seem to "latch on". Her Mom and I have tried our best to show her. By 3:45 she lost some interest, so I milked Mom and bottle fed baby. My question is how much milk should I be drawing from Mom and how often should baby be fed. I have fed her twice since 4:00. I gave her about 1-2 tablespoons each time. Is this enough ?? Her and Mom are now resting . P.s. She pooped 2 times so far. I hope she catches on to things real soon. I just "called in" at work to stay home and keep her going. Hope someone is up that can help me

Karin

 

[backwoodsnanny]

Im no expert but think that I have read here on the forum you should try for 60cc's each feeding and should be trying once an hour until she finally does latch on but I think if you go to the information pages or the best of the forum back on the main page this has been covered somewhere do a search it can help you.

 

[Becky]

Your baby isn't getting nearly enough!

Your foal should be getting one ounce of milk per 10 lbs of body weight per hour. So if she weighs 20 lbs, she should be getting 2 ounces or 60 ccs.

If she can't latch and hold, you will need to continue to feed her or have your vet run a NG tube and feed her through that.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[backwoodsnanny]

This information also is on the BEst of the forum pages on the foal thread and it says a minimum of 15 to 20 cc's for a first feeding Best of luck.

 

[lilnickers]

I'm back from the barn ! I found on the search menu where someone had suggested getting the foal to suck on my finger and lead her to the milk bar and get her to switch over . It worked :aktion033: She didn't seem to drink much , but I encouraged her to get more. She just figured out she could lay down and is taking a nap. I'll be back down there shortly to check on things

: Thank you backwoodsnanny and Becky

I'll post a pic soon on a new thread.

 

[ctinsley]

Hi we just had a filly born sunday morning that we also had problems with. I milked the mare and tried to feed the baby about 60cc's at a time. We took her in Monday and she had a plasma transfusion and that completely turned her around. I kept bottle feeding and yesterday worked with her had milk all up and down and arm and just let her keep following it right up til I had her nursing, now she's doing great. Good luck with yours

 

[Mona]

:aktion033: So glad to hear in your latest update that she figured it out! COngratulations on your new filly. Can't wait to see those pics!

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Great news Karin, she'll be ok once she has it figured out. My colt 2 yrs ago had the same trouble but finally got it!