Posted by Bernice Van Klaveren on May 23, 2004 at 21:06:02:
In Reply to: Re: new born foal posted by bsg on June 09, 2003 at 23:11:43:
Mother's Day morning, I went out to feed at 7:30 am and discovered a beautiful bay colt had been born. As I watched him follow mom around, he tended to run into the fence acting blind and stumble alot. I never saw him nurse in the couple of hours I was outside. I attempted to assist him find mom and nurse. He did not seem to have the suckling instinct. No success. I had to go out of town for a couple of hours and when I returned in the afternoon, he seemed weaker. At that time I decided to milk mom and syringe feed him. After 3 hourly feedings, he gained strength. In the mean time I called my vet, she was also out of town. She said she could be at the house about 10 pm.
When she arrived, she saw him turning little round circles in the stall, stumbling into the wall and still not nursing. She tubed him through his nose and sutured it into place. I spent the rest of the night milking mom every two hours and tube feeding him. That continued for a day and a half when somehow he managed to pull it out of his nose. Back to milking mom and syringe feeding him because he refused to take a baby bottle, soda bottle with a goat nipple or anything else. I did discover that he would slurp out of a bucket.
A friend of mine, Kathy spent the next two days helping feed and attempting to get him to latch on mom. We spaced out his feeding to 8 hours in an attempt to make him so hungry that he would take mom. He only became weaker. We splashed milk on mom's utter, both guiding him where the food source was. No luck.
By day five, I was so tired from lack of sleep and feeding every two hours that I gave in and started feeding him Foalac replacement milk. I already had a one month old filly who's mama died after 30 hours that I was feeding so what was one more. This little guy took to the bucket feedings with zest. There were times I wore more of the milk that he drank because he tended to sling his head around while drinking.
Two weeks later, "Yoyo" (because of the emotional trama he has put me through) is still alive. He is fed every three hours and friends and family help when I'm at work. He walks a much straighter course in his stall and paddock, circling only occationally. Seems to recognize me and the dogs. He still tends to stay on his feet alot of the time. I don't know if it is hard for his to lay down--a coordination thing? When he does lay down, he will sleep for several hours and it is hard to wake him up.
I spoke with a vet at UC Davis to get more information about this syndrome, and she gave me some encouraging words. I don't know if this foal will ever completly come out of this, but she said that not all horses need to read Shakespere some do fine with See Spot run. He may not make the performance barrel horse I was breeding for, but he may make one fine trail horse.
If anyone has any experience with this syndrome and positive results please send me some info.
Thanks, Bernice