Newborn colt will not nurse from dam- any advice?

[waconda valley]

Can anyone give me advice on what to do with a newborn colt that will not nurse from his dam? He was born Friday evening. I was there for the birth and there were no complications. He got to his feet in the normal time period. I milked a little bit of milk from the dam right away and gave it to him (I do this for every baby). He is active and alert. Pooping and peeing. He tries to find her nipple but, right when he is about to the right spot, he gives up. I have even put his mouth on her nipple and squirted milk in his mouth but he refuses to try and suck.

I have finally gotten him to take a bottle with a lamb's nipple. The mare has plenty of milk and is more than willing to let him nurse. Her nipples are normal size. I am positive that he is not nursing when I am not in the stall. Does anyone know of anything else I can try?

 

[Candleliteranch]

Have you tried putting Karo syrup on your mares nipples? Usually works if he'll get to the nipple. Once he tastes the syrup he should latch on and suck. Worked for us in the past. Good luck and congrats on your new colt!

 

[Mona]

Maybe he is beginning to get weak from not nursing, so once he gets his strength back from the lamb nipple bottle feedings, he will then start to nurse. Do you have them under camera?

 

[waconda valley]

Yes, I have tried the Karo syrup. I am actually using the empty syrup bottle to put the lambs nipple on. I have been watching him on the camera and I know that he is not latching on. I have sat in the stall for hours and he searches all over her belly and then gives up. At this point, I know I need to keep feeding him but, I want him to be a little hungry so he will try to nurse off his dam.

How often should I feed him?

I am baffled as what to do. He gets so close then stops. I have raised a dozen babies and have never had a problem like this before.

 

[Mona]

What I have done is to tie the mare up in her stall. Sit on the floor at her tail end. Squirt milk into the palm of your hand and rub on the colt's muzzle. Nudge him up to the udder area as close as you can so he tries looking for the teat. Keep squirting milk into your hand, and rub it all over the mares udder. Not just the nipples, but the entire udder. This will help him to keep his interest in trying to locate the source.

If you can get him to suck on your finger, slowly pull your hand back(you are working here with your arm between the mares back legs) until you get to the udder. If he follows you up there, squirt the milk right in his face, trying to hit his mouth. Also while he is sucking(or attempting to), again, squirt the milk into his mouth. This may take some some and several repeated attempts...maybe even a couple of hours, but it has always worked for me. I don't know what to suggest if the mare won't let you work from between her back legs like that. Good Luck.

PS...check your PM

 

[rabbitsfizz]

When you attempt to put the foals head into the mare and guide it up to the udder does he reject it and turn his head around- think carefully, this could be important

 

[waconda valley]

When you attempt to put the foals head into the mare and guide it up to the udder does he reject it and turn his head around- think carefully, this could be important

Yes, he does reject the dam's nipple but, he just sits there without attempting to suck or swallow. My mare is so tame I can approach her from any angle and have squirted her milk in his mouth on his face, coated her udder with the milk and he still does not try to latch onto her. He will bump around on her udder but not try to suck on the nipple.

He does turn his head away and fights me when I try to get him to nurse off of her. It took me most of the day yesterday just to get him to take a bottle. He doesn't actually tun his head around but, fights my attempts to guide him to the nipple.

I raise dogs for a living and it is nothing for me to have bottle babies, I am feeding four puppies right now. I have never seen a baby of any kind respond like this.

 

[Becky]

Can he suck a bottle? Sounds to me like he can't latch and hold; a sign of prematurity. He needs to be getting one ounce of milk per 10 lbs of body weight per hour. So if he weighed 20 lbs he would need 60 cc per hour. Is he showing signs of lethargy? Sleeping frequently and hard to wake? If he's not getting enough, you will lose him. You may want to have your vet out to put a NG tube in place for feeding for a few days. Good luck with him!

I just read your first post again. If he is active and alert, pooping and peeing, then he may well be nursing on his own. It takes food going in for food to come out and it sounds like if he is doing that frequently, then there is definitely food going in.

 

[Mona]

Did he get enough colostrum on Friday night? I hope you have been able to get enough into him.

He sounds just like a colt that I had here this year that was 4 days old when I got him home. I bought the mare in foal and she foaled before getting here, so he was 4 days when they arrived. He did not get enough to eat I guess on the 7-8 hour trip here, and he was getting weak. He would put his head under there and nuzzle the nipple like he wanted to nurse, but he just wouldn't latch on and suck hard. (By the way, it is normal for a foal to pull back against your efforts when trying to push their head under there.)

Anyway, I had to syringe feed my colt and give fluids under the skin, as well as I gave him several doses of Nutrical(made for dogs) to try to keep him hydrated and so that he was getting some nutrition until we could get him going again. This went on for I think a day and a half that I was syringing food(milk and Nutrical) into him every 1-1.5 hours and FINALLY he once again found the strength to nurse on his own. What a joyous sight feeling that was! Good Luck with your little one, I know how stressful this is...you try everything and still you feel so helpless.

Good luck, and sending prayers for your little fella.

 

[waconda valley]

Did he get enough colostrum on Friday night? I hope you have been able to get enough into him.

He sounds just like a colt that I had here this year that was 4 days old when I got him home. I bought the mare in foal and she foaled before getting here, so he was 4 days when they arrived. He did not get enough to eat I guess on the 7-8 hour trip here, and he was getting weak. He would put his head under there and nuzzle the nipple like he wanted to nurse, but he just wouldn't latch on and suck hard. (By the way, it is normal for a foal to pull back against your efforts when trying to push their head under there.)

Anyway, I had to syringe feed my colt and give fluids under the skin, as well as I gave him several doses of Nutrical(made for dogs) to try to keep him hydrated and so that he was getting some nutrition until we could get him going again. This went on for I think a day and a half that I was syringing food(milk and Nutrical) into him every 1-1.5 hours and FINALLY he once again found the strength to nurse on his own. What a joyous sight feeling that was! Good Luck with your little one, I know how stressful this is...you try everything and still you feel so helpless.

Good luck, and sending prayers for your little fella.

 

[waconda valley]

In hide sight. I do not feel that I gave him enough colostrum on Friday evening. I thought he would nurse on his own and really did not push the issue with the bottle feeding. Saturday morning I realized that he hadn't gotten with the program on his own so I stepped up the bottle feeding. I have Nutrical and will start adding it to his milk.

My vet said sometimes it takes calves a few days to figure things out and he thought the same thing would happen with the colt.

Thank you all for your information. It is frustrating to try so hard but, not get anywhere.

Becky, I will measure out his milk and make sure that I am getting 60 cc into him. Between the puppies I am currently feeding and this colt I am very tired. Thank god my mare is a sweet heart. I couldn't ask more from a maiden mare. She even pushes him towards her udder with her nose.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

IMO from having had four or five (can't remember exactly) colt foals like this this foal is a pseudo Dummy foal.

Quite probably there was slight oxygen deprivation at birth to cause this, there has been in all mine in that they were very, very fast births and the cord was broken immediately.

The foal is old enough to start nursing on his own now, you have done the hard bit.

Sit under the mare with the foal lying in your lap- he should not have been fed and even maybe an hour over feeding time, so he will be hungry.

Position yourself so the foal is under the mare and get all the struggling from the foal out of the way before you start- foals this age give up quickly and he ought to lie supine after a few moments..

Guide the foals head straight up in the air and literally place him on the nipple.

If neccesary use one hand to do this and the other ot milk the mare into his mouth.

Keep going for a few seconds then wait.

If all goes according to plan he will suck.

If not repeat the procedure.

You may need to do this a couple of times but do not try to get the foal to nurse in the standing position in between, just give him the bottle and be done.

I do not know why the foal is able to make the connection between sitting in your lap and nursing normally but all mine have within 24 hours.

You do need to start letting the foal get a little hungry and keep the bag soft.

If you want or need more details PM me, I am only too glad to help.

 

[Mona]

In hide sight. I do not feel that I gave him enough colostrum on Friday evening. I thought he would nurse on his own and really did not push the issue with the bottle feeding. Saturday morning I realized that he hadn't gotten with the program on his own so I stepped up the bottle feeding. I have Nutrical and will start adding it to his milk.

My vet said sometimes it takes calves a few days to figure things out and he thought the same thing would happen with the colt.

Thank you all for your information. It is frustrating to try so hard but, not get anywhere.

Becky, I will measure out his milk and make sure that I am getting 60 cc into him. Between the puppies I am currently feeding and this colt I am very tired. Thank god my mare is a sweet heart. I couldn't ask more from a maiden mare. She even pushes him towards her udder with her nose.

As for the Nutrical, when I was feeding it to my colt, I would just squirt about a teaspoon onto my finger and put it directly into his mouth. That way you KNOW he is getting it all. If you have electrolytes you can mix that up and give him some. I forgot that I gave that to my colt also.

:

 

[Charlotte]

I would ditto Becky. Having had experience with foals that appear 'just fine' but in truth are just a bit premature. they seem to have difficulty with the nursing thing. By far and away the best thing for them is mom's milk. As long as they have a swallow relfex you can usually feed them with a bottle or syringe and once they gain strength and a bit of maturity they take off like a shot. For a couple of ours that were weak for some reason we had the vet insert a NG tube and we fed them like that for 24-48 hours.....then they took over and the tube came out.

Keeping them warm enough is an issue too, but this time of year I would think that wouldn't be an issue. But if they get cool they lose the desire to nurse.

Good luck with your baby. It sounds as if you have your hands full. I hope you have help.

Charlotte

 

[waconda valley]

I measured how much the colt has been taking. I can only get my colt to suck about 30 cc on his own and then he quits sucking. I have to use the syringe to get the other 30 cc into him. I am going to run him into the vet and have a NG tube put into him. He is starting to get weaker and is wasting his precious energy fighting me to take the bottle.

Thank you all for the information you have given me today.

 

[Becky]

You are doing the right thing taking him to the vet for a NG tube. Hope you are taking the mare too so the vet can milk her and put some right down the little guy. Be sure to have your vet run an IgG too.

Please keep us posted and our prayers are with you and him.

 

[waconda valley]

My little colt started to nurse on his own this afternoon. I took him back to the vet this morning for the second of three plasma transfussions. While we where letting the I.V. drip (took 2 1/2 hours) he finally found mom's nipple and started nursing. After 36 hours of hourly feedings, it was a beautiful sight!

His WBC was 5 this morning and his IGG was 800. His numbers are still very low but, he is at least on the charts now. My vet said, "if we can stay ahead of an infection, we'll save him". I do know that my family and I and the vet are all doing all we know how to do. We are all very tired from all of the hourly feedings.

I had felt comfortable with the amount of colostrum that I had given him but, we are thinking the mare's colostrum did not have enough antibodies in it. When I took him to the vet last night, the vet said, to his surprise the colt was not dehydrated but, his IGG was dangerously low. The vet said he was a "boarder line dummy foal". He seems to be pulling out of it today and I am praying he will pull through this. By the way, we named him, Rollex, because of the time and money we have put into him.

Thank you again to all the forum members who helped me with their knowledge. You guys are the best!

 

[HGFarm]

YEAH!!!! Great news and sounds like he is on the road to recovery!!!

 

[virginia]

Rollex, I like that.

: Thank God he's nursing...I jst finished 3 months of feeding a rejected foal and it's not easy. These boogers can go downhill so fast if they don't get enough of that priceless colostrum. You did the right thing taking him to the vets and getting those transfusions, he wouldn't have made it otherwise.

Now you can sit back, relax and enjoy him.

Ginny StP

 

[Becky]

That's great news, Peg!! :aktion033: If his IgG is 800 that's wonderful! He has a good chance and so glad to hear that he is nursing on his own now. Great name for him, too.

Get some sleep now.