August 27th, 2022

These are times I rely heavily on my FB Farm Family. And I can't reach them.
Yesterday we had a heavily bred mini jenny arrive. She came (along with a couple others we found homes for) from a small farm in TX whose family's property burned in the wildfires down there. So they had to sell their mini donkey herd.
Anyway, I prayed nonstop that Lady Bug would make it here without foaling. When she stepped off the trailer yesterday I knew it would be last night that she foaled. For some reason my monitor didn't got off, but I woke up right around midnight to a new foal. Mama was doing a good job and baby was moving around, trying to stand. I decided to just let them be for a bit. About 45 minutes later baby was up but just standing against the fence, so I went out. She was cold so I dried her more and then milked mama and gave her some colostrum. I tried to get her to suckle from mom but she had no suck reflex, which I do find sometimes in foals that are a bit too cold.
This morning she still had not nursed and she was holding her head up like she was looking into the air. So I did the madigan squeeze but it didn't seem to reset her (this was after 2 hours of working with her). Then we did it again about thirty minutes later. Still seemed to have done nothing. I called the vet, she just said do all I could to get baby to nurse, as we wanted to avoid a feeding tube. When I went back out to milk mama more and syringe feed baby, the baby actually had a suck reflex! I praised God for this change. However, then mama didn't want to be messed with, so I left them for an hour until I got some help.

Baby's suck reflex has gotten stronger all day and mama has relaxed again, however she doesn't seem to feel great. I have been syringe feeding baby colostrum all day (every 60 to 90 minutes) and then also trying to get her to suckle mama. Baby seems to have decided I am her mama and Lady Bug loves her but seems to feel bad enough, she's not overly motherly.

My heart is breaking as this jenny has been through so much the past 10 days... and this baby, I'm doing all I can but I've lost many like this in the past... so I'm riding on prayer. If you read this, please pray for both Lady Bug and baby.

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And in other news, our rescue (needs a name) also arrived. She may be the sweetest jenny I've ever met. But she definitely doesn't feel the greatest either, but she has perked up as the day has went on.