need help w/ 10 day old filly

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Dairygirl

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I need advice on how to get this 10 day old filly to suck a bottle. It's been a long time since I bottle fed anything but never a foal. Do they take to it pretty much like a calf and goat, where once they figure out that it is food they will take to it.

I have all I need for the foal and have ended up tube feeding the baby the first feeding to help it along.

What have you tried that worked to help the baby start on the bottle.

Thanks in advance for any help you can send my way.

It is hard doing this on my own with my husband in Iraq and help is few and far between so any advice on doing it with out help from a extra person is a plus.

This is going to drive me to drink.
 
I am so, so sorry that you lost your mare.

Let the filly get a bit hungry and then give her the bottle. Make sure that there are a lot of holes in the nipple and that the milk flows freely. Give her this with the milk dripping into her mouth. She will fight it at first and it may take a few tries, but she will catch on.

Good luck.
 
thanks so much for your reply. Really means a lot considering I'm so broken heart over my mare. No shoulder to cry on except my poor dog and she wants no part of me dropping tears on her. LOL.

I sure hope I can pull her out of this. I have had a feeling about that filly from day one and last Friday for some reason something kept telling me to go to TSC and get a bottle, nipple, milk replacer and any thing I could think of in case I needed it for a orphaned foal and here it is Monday and I needed it.

Strange how things happen.

I just don't know how much more I can take. Being alone is getting to me and it makes it even harder with no help. I'm not really the type of person to ask for it and funny thing is, all those people that said they would be here if I needed help are no where to be found when I need them. LOL. Isn't it funny how that works. I'm going to start returning the favor.
 
[SIZE=12pt]I'm so sorry about your mare
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I've been told that many foals will prefer to drink from a bucket or bowl also. If she's resistant to the bottle you might try her with a wide bowl-like a mixing bowl. You know you've been having hard time and now here is the foal who needs you...it is funny how things work out...[/SIZE]
 
thanks so much for your reply. Really means a lot considering I'm so broken heart over my mare. No shoulder to cry on except my poor dog and she wants no part of me dropping tears on her. LOL.

I sure hope I can pull her out of this. I have had a feeling about that filly from day one and last Friday for some reason something kept telling me to go to TSC and get a bottle, nipple, milk replacer and any thing I could think of in case I needed it for a orphaned foal and here it is Monday and I needed it.

Strange how things happen.

I just don't know how much more I can take. Being alone is getting to me and it makes it even harder with no help. I'm not really the type of person to ask for it and funny thing is, all those people that said they would be here if I needed help are no where to be found when I need them. LOL. Isn't it funny how that works. I'm going to start returning the favor.

I am thinking of you and would surely go out to help you if we were not so far away. Do not be afraind to ask for help from friends and family. Feeding this filly is going to exhaust you as she needs to be fed every 2 to3 hours.

You may be able to put together a nursing bottle with goat milk attached to the stall, once she gets the idea of how to use a bottle. I have a friend, her first foal ever, was last year and it resulted in the loss of the mom. She nursed that foal who is now a yearling and doing well. She put together this nursing contraption that allowed the filly to nurse whenever she wanted to, so that Linda did not have to be feeding her every two hours. If you would like I can PM you and give you her e-mail address.

By the way, being alone will just help you grow stronger. I have now been alone for 10 years. It was hard at first as I went from my family to marraige to being alone. It takes time, but you will find yourself being comfortable with it and actually liking it. I take care of 42 horses on this farm by myself.

Good luck
 
I don't have any advice for you on the orphan foal, but I wanted to let you know I am sorry you lost your mare.
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Hang in there!
 
Best of luck with your filly! So sorry u lost your mare. We almost lost a mare and did lose a foal last week. It sure is the pits. U may feel alone but many of us on here know just how u feel. Hang in there.
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I wish I had some wonderful advice that was different than what's already been offered......... Having to bottle feed an orphan foal every 2+ hours and by yourself - SUX! At least when it happened here, there were two of us.

Since your little one is 10 days old, the suggestion of trying to show her how to drink from a dish or a bucket isn't a bad idea. While doing the bottle with her, lower it to a dish of Milk Replacer to get her to bring her nose down. You might have to even dip her face into it, or bring the dish up to her nose before the lightbulb goes off in her brain.

If she is already starting to show interest in hay and/or grain, I would keep hay down for her Free Choice - plus offer her grain with milk pellets mixed in. But she will still need the Foal Lac on top of all of that.

For your sake I am keeping my fingers crossed that your filly figures out about drinking from a dish. And if she DOES, I still would recommend giving her a bottle a couple times a day -- just for the sucking satisfaction and her mental health.
 
I am so sorry to hear you lost your mare, I know it is devistating.

I'm not an expert, have only had 2 foals, but I have raised a lot of different species from birth. My little filly is only 2 weeks old and for at least a week she has been eating the Dumoor Mare & Foal grain, she loves it. Also drinking water and eating hay. Definetly leave all of these available for your little girl 24/7. She will nibble at it all I bet. Of course follow the advice of the very experienced forum members that have already replied. You will want to stimulate the baby as the mare would with lots of rubbing and cuddling. It sounds like you could use the cuddling too. We have brought our little girl in the house also to socialize her. Maybe you could set up a small pen where you could bring her in with you so she has your companionship. Justa couple ideas.

Good luck and you aren't alone you have all of us here on the forum, these good people can really be a life line!

Mary
 
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I'm so sorry about your mare!!!
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I've read that you can dip the nipple of the bottle into Kayo syrup to help them get the idea. Maybe that will help a little if she won't take it from a bucket yet.

Thinking of you and wishing you the best of luck with your filly!
 
I am so sorry for the loss of your mare. I hope your little foal learns quickly and thrives.

I was a Navy wife for 25 years and know the separations are hard. I hope you are able to talk to your hubby once in awhile and get his support. I know that always brightened my day. I am grateful for the sacrifice that you and your husband are making for our country. "Hugs" to you both.

I wish I were closer where I could help you a little. Look for the silver lining in those little eyes. I will keep you, your little filly, and your husband in my thoughts and prayers.
 
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OH Rhonda I am so sorry. Is this a mini or one of your big horses? Let me know if you need anything.

Carlene
 
Sorry to hear about your loss! We were in your shoes two years ago, lost a mare with a 10-11 day old filly on her side.. We started her on replacer but she refused to drink from a bottle, tried different bottles, different nipples, she still refused but took straight to the replacer from a bucket
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She's a happy, sassy 2 year old this year
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I'm so sorry you lost your mare!

With the age of your filly, I would try to get her to drink from a bucket. I even had one of the vets at a vet clinic tell me just 2 weeks ago, that bucket is way better for the foal than a bottle. Bottle feeding a foal increases the risk of aspiration pneumonia. At your foals' age, she should be drinking water anyway, so a bucket ought to work and be easier on you. Also, your filly should be interested in eating, so I would put her on some milk replacer pellets or a milk based foal starter/creep pellet such as Progressive Nutrition makes. Good luck with her and I wish you all the best!
 
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my heart goes out to your and your foal.

We are all here for you if you need a shoulder to cry on or good listerns.

We will be praying for you and your filly and your husband.

take care

best wishes.

may God be with you and your family.
 
We had the experience a number of years ago and we were not successful getting the baby to the bottle.

We were syringing it into him and we had a little bowl below the syringe where the drops would fall and any that spilled would collect.

We kept syringing closer and closer to the bowl of milk and I think he was so hungry he just decided he could get it faster himself from the dish.

Took a few days but he drank from the dish eventually.

Our sympathy for your loss.
 

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