Ross's Belle Star
"Belle"
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| In June of 1996 Cassie was bred to Hobby Horses Roan Ranger | |
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May 6th, 1997 Cassie had spent the day pacing and fidgeting so it was no surprise when she went into labor about 5:30 after having her supper. We had returned to the house and turned on the monitor and noticed immediately when she lay down and started contractions. Back to the barn we went to keep a close eye on progress. 30 minutes later we knew we were in trouble, a normal delivery takes 15-20 minutes. We checked to see if the foal was positioned correctly....it was but once the front feet and nose were out it seemed to be stuck. We called our veterinarian, who luckily was only 10 minutes away. He strolled into the barn with a jug of mineral oil in hand to lubricate the birth canal. At Cassie's next contractions we took hold of the foals legs and pulled to help her get the foal out. Half an hour and dozens of contractions later we were no further along and we were getting frantic and Cass was exhausted. Thinking that the chances of a live foal were pretty slim Dr. Beebe went to his truck for instruments for a C-section. At this point Cassie started pushing again so I braced and pulled once more. Finally, the foals head popped free and came the rest of the way out easily. I cleared the foals mouth and nose and she took her first breath.....we had a live, healthy filly :o))))) Mom and babe were both given a clean bill of health by the doc and half an hour later they had recovered enough to be up on their feet. Our first minihorse foal, she weighed 15 pounds and stood 17" tall :o) |
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Little did we know we still had a sleepless night ahead of us. Our new filly showed no interest in nursing. Knowing how important the first milk, known as colostrum, is to the health of a foal we tried everything we could think of to no avail. Close to 6 hours went by and still no luck so we milked out Cassie's bag into a baby bottle and hand fed her filly every hour for the next 16 hours. Finally, almost exactly 24 hours after her birth, the little girl decided to eliminate the middleman and nursed from her mother!!!!!! |
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| It had been a long tiring first 24 hours for all of us especially our new little filly. She settled in for the night and we retired to the house for some greatly overdue sleep :o) | |
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| Go to Belle's Next Page | |
