Miracle had a great day today, she has eaten well all day and has acted almost like a normal filly, maybe not like a week old foal, but at least like a 2 day old foal. She is about to turn one week old, the time has flown by and been a blur for me. But just maybe we are over the hump.
We kicked Dandee and Sapphire out of the barn today and then late this evening we took Miracle down to their pen for a visit. Dandee nickered when she saw her and even let her nurse. I was a little surprised that Miracle even remembered how to nurse. She ran and played while she was outside and even kicked at my husband.
I measured her intake today and she is taking a little over one and a half gallons per day at this point, I am sure she will increase with each day.
Sorry this blog was so late but we were completely swamped today and I am exhausted.
Good-Night...
Showing posts with label dandee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dandee. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Roller Coaster
This Roller Coaster ride sure has been exciting. We seem to have climbed back up to the top. Throughout the day Miracle continued to improve and the fainting episodes stopped.
She slept for many hours and then in the late afternoon she was on her feet and ready to eat. She stayed up for an hour, then laid down and slept for just a little while, then jumped back up to take a bottle with much urgency. She is just gulping those bottles down now.
The change in her is remarkable. We took her outside for a walk last night and she really enjoyed that but Dandee wasn't too happy about it. We are feeding her a bottle of my precious fresh Goat's Milk that I have been looking so forward to, every two hours and putting her in with her Mother every four hours. Cinder has much more milk than her babies need, so that has worked out great for us in this situation.
Miracle can see into our living room and she hollers for a bottle every time we pass by the window. We are hoping that she keeps her attachment to Dandee, that is why we are putting her in with her to nurse as often as possible. But she just isn't getting everything that she needs from Dandee even though Dandee is a great milk producer. Mares are not really designed to raise twins.
She slept for many hours and then in the late afternoon she was on her feet and ready to eat. She stayed up for an hour, then laid down and slept for just a little while, then jumped back up to take a bottle with much urgency. She is just gulping those bottles down now.
The change in her is remarkable. We took her outside for a walk last night and she really enjoyed that but Dandee wasn't too happy about it. We are feeding her a bottle of my precious fresh Goat's Milk that I have been looking so forward to, every two hours and putting her in with her Mother every four hours. Cinder has much more milk than her babies need, so that has worked out great for us in this situation.
Miracle can see into our living room and she hollers for a bottle every time we pass by the window. We are hoping that she keeps her attachment to Dandee, that is why we are putting her in with her to nurse as often as possible. But she just isn't getting everything that she needs from Dandee even though Dandee is a great milk producer. Mares are not really designed to raise twins.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Miracle
I thought that the names Sapphire and Topaz were cute for twins, but I just have to change Topaz' name to Miracle, I have no choice. She survived the whole twin experience and that is just amazing in itself but surviving what she went through in the last couple of days is nothing short of a miracle.
She is so much better it is just miraculous. She is walking and nursing on her own. She can stand up by herself but she is having problems laying down, we have to help her with that.
She was so bad Friday morning when my DH went to work that he had really given up hope. A couple hours later I heard some noise, went to check it out and she was sitting up. She had no muscle control just two hours earlier, her little head was just dangling when we tried and failed to feed her.
Now she was struggling to stand on her feet and I had a problem, she was flopping around all over the barn and was going to injure herself. So all I could do was just stay with her and protect her as much as I could.
Finally she wore herself out and went to sleep, I ran in the house and called my husband in a panic, he was just floored when I told him what she was doing. Next I called my Son to come and get hay out of the loft and build her a padded cell.
When I hung up with my Son and looked back out she was standing and looking at me, I was more than shocked. As soon as she stood up Dandee started talking to her and she started towards her mother, when she got to the gate I just opened it up and let her in. I stayed right beside her to steady her but she went right to that udder and made an immediate connection, I couldn't believe it!!
My Husband told me later on when I told him on the phone that she had walked to her mother and nursed, that he had come very close to just putting her down Thursday night.
She has continued to make progress all day. We can't leave her with her mother and sister, of course, so we are having to take her into their stall every two hours to nurse, then put her back in her padded cell. We are not completely out of the woods yet but things are starting to look much brighter.
She is so much better it is just miraculous. She is walking and nursing on her own. She can stand up by herself but she is having problems laying down, we have to help her with that.
She was so bad Friday morning when my DH went to work that he had really given up hope. A couple hours later I heard some noise, went to check it out and she was sitting up. She had no muscle control just two hours earlier, her little head was just dangling when we tried and failed to feed her.
Now she was struggling to stand on her feet and I had a problem, she was flopping around all over the barn and was going to injure herself. So all I could do was just stay with her and protect her as much as I could.
Finally she wore herself out and went to sleep, I ran in the house and called my husband in a panic, he was just floored when I told him what she was doing. Next I called my Son to come and get hay out of the loft and build her a padded cell.
When I hung up with my Son and looked back out she was standing and looking at me, I was more than shocked. As soon as she stood up Dandee started talking to her and she started towards her mother, when she got to the gate I just opened it up and let her in. I stayed right beside her to steady her but she went right to that udder and made an immediate connection, I couldn't believe it!!
My Husband told me later on when I told him on the phone that she had walked to her mother and nursed, that he had come very close to just putting her down Thursday night.
She has continued to make progress all day. We can't leave her with her mother and sister, of course, so we are having to take her into their stall every two hours to nurse, then put her back in her padded cell. We are not completely out of the woods yet but things are starting to look much brighter.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Newborn Twin Foals
Here is a short video clip of our new twin fillies. Their names are Sapphire and Topaz, Sapphire is the black filly and Topaz is the bay filly. Pictures have been posted in the previous blog.
Twins
We put Dandee in the stall last night, we knew that she would foal soon. My DH had checked on her at around 3:00 AM and had come back to bed, he said that she wasn't doing anything. At around 3:20 I heard her lay down, so I got up and looked out and could tell she was in labor. I woke my husband up and we both got dressed. Under normal circumstances, we usually have plenty of time to dress and gather needed supplies but not tonight. By the time we got out there she had already delivered a normal sized black filly.
Dandee always gets very heavy in foal, she always looks like a blimp but she had been blimpier than usual this year. But we never once suspected twins, I was just afraid that she would have a very large foal.
When she kicked that normal sized (but smaller than she usually has) filly out on the ground and didn't even look like she had foaled, I said that maybe she was going to have twins, to which my husband replied, "Well, I didn't want to say it." Anyone who breeds horses knows that twins are a very dangerous and rare thing in horses.
Mares will normally abort twins or one will be still born prematurely and the other will be carried full term and deliver as a normal single but usually both foals will die and sometimes you will lose the mother as well.
Dandee was due yesterday, so many things just didn't add up here, she was full term and had a normal healthy foal but she was obviously still in labor and soon a bubble of placenta presented itself and I ran for a kitchen knife. My DH cut through the placenta and another bubble appeared immediately with two more feet in it. The second baby was born normally and quickly with no problems but is smaller than the first.
Both of our new foals are fillies, the first born is coal black with a blaze, two hind socks and two partial front socks. The second is solid bay with no markings whatsoever. The bad news is that they are Appaloosas with not one spot between them. But the good news is that our Appaloosa Stallion is a 100% color producer, so they will both roan out into colorful, spotted ApHC horses.
The second filly is small and a little on the weak side, she did stand and walk quickly with some assistance from my DH. But we did have to milk the mare and give her a bottle because she still has not nursed on her own.
Of course, Dandee has not been a problem in the least, she is a great mother that nurses other mares babies, so having two of her own is no big deal. She has tandem nursed before with a foal on each side and one of them was just a thief.
Dandee is a Quarter horse mare, a few years ago we had bred her to a paint stallion. she had a loud dun paint filly. One of our Appy mares had a Leopard colt, so here was Dandee, a solid bay mare with a loud paint foal on one side and a leopard foal on the other, that was quite a sight.
Here are the first pictures of our twin foals born at Pintura Springs.
Dandee always gets very heavy in foal, she always looks like a blimp but she had been blimpier than usual this year. But we never once suspected twins, I was just afraid that she would have a very large foal.
When she kicked that normal sized (but smaller than she usually has) filly out on the ground and didn't even look like she had foaled, I said that maybe she was going to have twins, to which my husband replied, "Well, I didn't want to say it." Anyone who breeds horses knows that twins are a very dangerous and rare thing in horses.
Mares will normally abort twins or one will be still born prematurely and the other will be carried full term and deliver as a normal single but usually both foals will die and sometimes you will lose the mother as well.
Dandee was due yesterday, so many things just didn't add up here, she was full term and had a normal healthy foal but she was obviously still in labor and soon a bubble of placenta presented itself and I ran for a kitchen knife. My DH cut through the placenta and another bubble appeared immediately with two more feet in it. The second baby was born normally and quickly with no problems but is smaller than the first.
Both of our new foals are fillies, the first born is coal black with a blaze, two hind socks and two partial front socks. The second is solid bay with no markings whatsoever. The bad news is that they are Appaloosas with not one spot between them. But the good news is that our Appaloosa Stallion is a 100% color producer, so they will both roan out into colorful, spotted ApHC horses.
The second filly is small and a little on the weak side, she did stand and walk quickly with some assistance from my DH. But we did have to milk the mare and give her a bottle because she still has not nursed on her own.
Of course, Dandee has not been a problem in the least, she is a great mother that nurses other mares babies, so having two of her own is no big deal. She has tandem nursed before with a foal on each side and one of them was just a thief.
Dandee is a Quarter horse mare, a few years ago we had bred her to a paint stallion. she had a loud dun paint filly. One of our Appy mares had a Leopard colt, so here was Dandee, a solid bay mare with a loud paint foal on one side and a leopard foal on the other, that was quite a sight.
Here are the first pictures of our twin foals born at Pintura Springs.
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