How to get newborn colt to duck their head to nurse?

[Miniv]

Nita, When the colt starts sucking on the mare's bag......get on the opposite side and angle her teat into his mouth if you can. Once he feels it and gets a squirt, he may get more aggressive.

Also, scritching his rear when he's on her bag sometimes helps......much like what an experienced broodmare does with her mouth to her foal.

 

[kaykay]

I so feel your exhaustion and frustration after just going through this. I do feel your foal is a quasi dummy foal like mine was. Both vets I called promised my foal would "suddenly wake up" and start nursing and acting more horse like. Both of them were exactly right. It was like a light switch. One thing I know is you cannot force a foal to nurse it just wont work. My guy was just mildly affected and yours sounds the same.

I was so worried bottle feeding ours for those first hours but both vets assured me again it would be fine and he would nurse. Again they were right.

He was born at 1210 in the afternoon and started nursing at 3 am.

Couple people emailed asking nicely if I was just fussing with him too much. The problem is they could not see on cam what I could see in person. That his sucking reflex was not strong enough and that he was not acting like a "normal" foal. (he was sucking on walls, buckets, wandering around, not paying attention to his dam, clinging to me) I knew I had to keep feeding him to get the colostrum in.

Once he "woke up" he finally acted like a foal and no longer ran to me and Kyle. It truly was like seeing a light switch turn on.

When mine started nursing he did it all on his own without any help

Im praying your guy does the same thing!!!

 

[lvponies]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and you little guy!!

{{{HUGS!}}}

 

[Songcatcher]

I so feel your exhaustion and frustration after just going through this. I do feel your foal is a quasi dummy foal like mine was. Both vets I called promised my foal would "suddenly wake up" and start nursing and acting more horse like. Both of them were exactly right. It was like a light switch. One thing I know is you cannot force a foal to nurse it just wont work. My guy was just mildly affected and yours sounds the same.

I was so worried bottle feeding ours for those first hours but both vets assured me again it would be fine and he would nurse. Again they were right.

He was born at 1210 in the afternoon and started nursing at 3 am.

Couple people emailed asking nicely if I was just fussing with him too much. The problem is they could not see on cam what I could see in person. That his sucking reflex was not strong enough and that he was not acting like a "normal" foal. (he was sucking on walls, buckets, wandering around, not paying attention to his dam, clinging to me) I knew I had to keep feeding him to get the colostrum in.

Once he "woke up" he finally acted like a foal and no longer ran to me and Kyle. It truly was like seeing a light switch turn on.

When mine started nursing he did it all on his own without any help

Im praying your guy does the same thing!!!

Your situation reminds me so much of one I had a couple of years ago. The foal was born with no apparent complications but he seemed so weak. He could not even stand long enough to nurse. I milked the mare and gave him colostrum. He could not/would not nurse. I was exhausted and finally simply gave up on him sometime in the middle of the night. (I know some of you will think terrible of me for that.) I went to bed, fully expecting him to be dead when I woke. I woke up 2 or three hours later and looked at the monitor and he was up, nursing and trying to buck around.

I do believe that sometimes you can help too much. Kind of like helping a baby chicken out of the shell.

Good luck with your baby.

 

[backwoodsnanny]

Thank you all and I can assure you we have tried every thing the vet felt would help he is calling him Harvard as in he never will be bright enough for Harvard. We may call him Harvy Wallbanger IF he makes it. He we hope got the collostrum through several tubings today and tonight we are to leave him be per order of the vet the poor little guy is so tired from all the hubbub. I do think there is some hope in that he still wants to try to nurse and though we cant give him a bottle his mom is getting some milk to him through spraying him and we have done everything our equine specialist vet thinks we should do. He is really hopeful that the lightbulb will come on in the next few hours and he will have the IGG in the early morning. then we will decide what is next. He has FINALLY figured out how to lay down on his own and at the moment has a very full tummy due to the tubings. He is laying with his mom in the shrimp position and vet wanted him to rest at least for abit. Mom is doing fine. Vet thinks that though he didnt present with a red bag his birth was much like one as placenta did separate early at least he thinks so. He also said with the position his head was in we were very lucky not to have lost him right then and there or he very easily could have torn the mares rectum with his head in the position it was in. Thanks to Jodi that all went well but vet still feels he was oxygen deprived so time will tell what will go on from here but we do believe in the power of prayer so if anyone has an extra one it would be very appreciated as Jodi said.

Thank you all for caring

Nita

 

[REO]

Nita, I hope your little boy starts nursing on his own and feels stronger soon!

You deserve the best! I'll say prayers for him.

{{{Hugs}}}

 

[lvponies]

How is the little guy doing this morning??

 

[Mona]

Oh Nita, I know just how frustrating that can be. I hope your little guy has been able to figure it out by this morning. Good Luck with him, and CONGRATULATIONS!