I worked on a premature foal that didn't get enough colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk that a mother produces and is what provides neonatal animals with their immune system. Animals are born without immunity to any diseases, so they are at high risk for infection. This special formulation of milk is only absorbed in the intestines for the first 24 hours of birth, so if a baby doesn't nurse right away, their immune system is not equipped to handle any diseases they encounter in their environment. This particular foal did not nurse enough and required a transfusion of plasma, which is the fluid part of blood that carries all of the antibodies. We kept the foal and mare for a few days and let them bond and they went home in very good health.
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| Note the milk mustache! |
Then I saw a 2 day old puppy that it's mom wouldn't accept. There's not specific reason why this happens. Some feel that a mother animal can detect a problem with her baby and just won't take care of it. Another reason may be that a dog with a large litter simply can't make enough milk to feed all of the puppies and will selectively decrease her litter size. Lots of people think this is cruel, but animals have been doing just fine on their own for thousands of years without our help. Anyhow, this particular puppy did not nurse well (or mom kept kicking her off) and kept crawling away on the cold garage floor. She got so cold our thermometer wouldn't read her temperature and her blood sugar was also really low. A little warmth, milk, and TLC later, the puppy went home doing well. However, then next day the same thing happened, so now the owners are having to bottle feed the puppy.
And then there's always baby calves..... :) Think someone is trying to tell me something?
That baby pup is SO tiny! Very cute:)
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