A Latching Problem

Look at this girl! She has become quite the shaggy little thing and only every now and then do you catch a glimpse of her eyes for all the hair!

Do you remember our cute little Ginger? She had a pretty rough start to life but after about two weeks and a couple trips to the vet, we thought we had it all figured out.

When she was about a month old, my neighbor observed that he thought Ginger didn't look like she had grown at all. He was also concerned with her lack of energy that should be found in foals her age. If she didn't gain some weight, our winter could pose some serious problems for her. I really value this neighbor's advice and I began to make some observations.

Charlie is so much bigger than Ginger!

I made some calls, asked questions, sent emails and didn't seem to find any answers. I figured the only thing I could try to do was supplement the milk and that way I would know how much food Ginger was getting. I mixed a can of evaporated milk with some water and warmed it nicely. I grabbed the small red nipple and headed to the barn.

Trying to train a baby to bottle feed can be a huge nightmare and I was preparing for the long haul. I had tried bucket feeding, where you place the milk in a bucket and the foal learns to suck it from the bucket. I was super hesitant about bottle feeding because the people I had talked to warned me that bottle fed donkey foals have horrible temperaments and are not nice when they become adults. I didn't really have any other options - or so I thought.

I inserted my finger into her mouth and rubbed the roof of her mouth which is supposed to trigger the sucking reflex. She never latched on to my finger. I tried several more times with each attempt ending with Ginger's tongue flopping all over the place. It finally dawned on me that Ginger had a latching problem! It was the final puzzle piece I was missing that made everything else make sense!

Ever since she was born, her mom would nip and kick at her while she was nursing (this made me so mad) but it was her only way to communicate that the nursing was painful. Ginger also continuously had her tongue sticking out and she was the noisiest eater whenever I gave her grain. The reason she wasn't gaining weight and had no energy was because she wasn't getting any energy!

I found a product called foal milk replacer pellets. They are dehydrated milk, pressed into pellets that the foal can chew like they would grain. I mixed these pellets with some senior horse grain (I like to use senior grain for my foals because they can digest it more easily) and fed it it to Ginger every morning. She began to fatten up! She still is pretty tiny but I think that is the way she will stay. She now has energy and will run around and follow you wherever you go.

I learned that sometimes we need to take the time to observe and let nature do the talking. I had run out of answers and the only thing I could do was watch and then I was taught.