Goat milk vs. foal formula as long-term milk replacer for young foal

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nootka

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Hi there,

Long story short:

2 week old filly, born at what seemed normal gestation, but at a bout a week old, quit nursing, was found unresponsive, revived by a vet and determined to be possibly premature. Her Igg levels tested ok according to vet, but the filly's tongue is uncoordinated/lays out the side of her mouth.

She's been being fed from a bowl with goat's milk and nursing a little from her dam. When she nurses from her dam,the milk falls out of her mouth; when from the bowl, she gets all of it down.

My questions are these:

Is goat's milk a suitable long-term replacement for a young filly getting very little supplement from her natural source?

IS the tongue thing likely to resolve on its own (the filly's tendons also seem lax in keeping with the premature diagnosis, her coat may be a BIT on the fine side, too, and her hooves are shortish in my observation of full-term foals)?

I tried milking the mare into the bowl but the mare's patience is short for that although she allows the filly to have a few minutes' worth.

The filly is 2 wks old and has only gained one half pd (approx. a 20" filly) that I know of she's also quite thin and frail and relatively listless. This is not my filly, I live a few hours from here, just drove up to help her owner, who is in the hospital having just had a major surgery that was scheduled before the filly's arrival in response to an injury.

THANK YOU in advance....I used search and couldn't quickly find the answer to my question, hence this post as I only have an hour or so near the wireless connnection.

Liz
 
I can't tell you anything for sure, but we had a foal born earlier this year that Mom had no milk. We started tube feeding her Foal Lac powder. The vets told me that if the mare's milk didn't come in within a few days we should start looking for a goat that would let her nurse. So I would take from that, that goats milk is an acceptable substitution. Luckily we didn't have to go that route, Mom's milk came in after 3 days.

No knowledge on the tongue issue.

Good luck with the baby and with your friend's surgery.
 
Liz,

I'm assuming that since a vet is involved that the foal's been checked for a cleft palate and was given a selenium shot?

As for the goat milk, I vaguely remember Al B wrote a "recipe" using goats milk that worked for him. It's been at least a couple of years? I think he thinned it out a bit and added a little kayro or mollassass.
 
I used goats milk and added karo syrup to it for a premie foal. She did fantastic on it and it didnt take her long to gain the weight and strength as the other foal that was born within a few days of her at full term. I have had better luck using goats milk then foal-lac. Good luck with your baby.
 
I was going to say Kayro syrup too.
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I'd think that goat's milk, fortified with a little foal lac powder and kayro syrup would be great!

Good luck to the baby!
 
Read up a little bit on "dummy foals" as the tongue thing is related to that oftentimes...

Andrea
 

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