We live on a small horse farm. Currently we have a tentative fourteen horses on fifty-three acres. I say tentative because we have just had a female foal born (yesterday) and it seems that the mare has no interest in nursing her baby. Right now, I think that the foals chances are about 65-35% that she will survive.
My wife and I knew that this mare was due to foal any day, but we had been planning a camping trip that coincided with my oldest daughter’s spring break and my youngest daughter’s birthday. Not being able to force this mare to foal, we took off on our camping trip Wednesday morning with the hopes that this birth would be uneventful. However, as with most things you take for granted, this was not to be the case.
I received an urgent message from my father on my cell phone last night around 8:00 p.m. saying that there were problems with the foal and I needed to call him right away. To make a long story short, we loaded up all the camping gear that we could stow quickly, left the rest for my wife’s parents to take care of for us and we started our three and one half hour ride home. Thanks Nana and Poppa.
Driving through the curvy mountain roads at night resulted in my youngest daughter having a bout of nausea accompanied by some minor throwing up. But other than that, our trip home was quick and uneventful. We arrived home a 12:30 a.m., not really sure what we would find.
Thankfully, my parents had found some canned goat’s milk at Kroger, mixed it with water and following the vet’s instructions, had been administering it to the filly (what a female foal is called) every 2 hours via a feeding tube inserted down her nostril and into her stomach. This is standard procedure to make sure the filly is getting nourishment until she develops a suckling response.
We arrived and got the rundown from my parents on the vet’s thoughts and feeding instructions and went to take a look at our new addition. She is a very large, light brown and white paint foal. My wife, daughters and I are thrilled and overwhelmed. This little horse is going to require around-the-clock care.
We went inside our home and slept a couple of hours and then went to the barn to give the filly our first feeding. Using a baby’s bottle, we were able to get her to suckle just a little and we poured the rest down her feeding tube. This was around 3:00 a.m.
At her next feeding (5:00 a.m.), we discovered that the filly had pulled out her feeding tube. This is something that my wife noticed immediately. I don’t know if it was because of her motherly instincts or the fact that she is a speech pathologist and deals with feeding tubes and swallowing issues daily. She asked me if I felt comfortable reinserting the feeding tube and I responded, “No, I’m afraid that I might put it into her lung without realizing it.) So, we began to try to bottle feed her in earnest. I guess she was ready, because she has begun to suck it down pretty well. It’s a lot of extra effort and it’s time consuming, is it worth it?
It is all a matter of perspective. You could see it from the point of view that:
- Sure, it’s going to cost a lot of money. ( additional vet bills, additional supplies, additional medicines, etc)
- Yes, it’s going to take a lot of time. ( Around-the-clock feeding and care, ensuring a safe and protective environment)
- She might die and devastate your kids since they will have bonded with her.
Or, you could see it from the perspective of:
- It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for our family to bond around the care of a nearly helpless and beautiful animal.
- It’s a chance for my daughters to understand and develop the qualities of selflessness and sacrifice.
- It’s an opportunity for us all to become more nurturing and understanding.
Yes, it really is a matter of your perspective. I choose to believe that this filly is going to live and that it is a gift from God to my daughters. I believe that my daughters will grow and develop qualities that may have otherwise taken years to acquire simply because this filly needs us. I’ll keep you posted.
