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303-902-1741 (C) 303-651-0785 (Fax)
Lessons Learned From a 382 Day Pregnancy While I was giving my seminar on “Healthy Moms and Crias” at the AOA fleece conference in late June, we had a birthing issue I hadn’t seen before.
Our cria, Rumor Has It, was born at 382 days gestation at 23 lbs – 8 lbs more than mom’s last cria. It was Bordelaise’s 3rd cria and, although she’s small, she had a normal delivery. She had lots of milk and was very bonded to her cria. Rumor gained 1 pound by Day 2.
But on day 3 Rumor lost 3 pounds, and mom had no milk. We started tube feeding Rumor right away with 6 oz of milk [based on her size] every 4 hours to stabilize her. Nursing had become very painful to mom. She panted and screamed when Rumor tried to nurse.
Thanks to Rhonda Deschner, we diagnosed either uterine bruising and swelling or a uterine infection from the overly large cria and long gestation. I learned that the bruising can cause the dam severe uterine contractions and pain for up to a week after birth. Mom alternately pulled up her milk so that her udder was empty, or her udder was hard and swollen with edema. We unsuccessfully tried hot and cold pads and massage.
We started mom on 1cc banamine every 12 hours for pain and penicillin for 7 days to treat possible infection. Our vet inserted a nose tube for Rumor, and we continued 4 feedings of 5 oz each whole milk daily looking for a steady .25 daily gain from Bordelaise’s milk and the supplement. Rumor began gaining .5 pounds per day so we backed off supplement by 1oz per feeding each day, with no reduction in cria weigh gain. 4 days into supplementing, mom’s udder began to return to normal, and Rumor is now gaining well from just mom’s milk. Incidentally, mom’s weight dropped 10 pounds from the day we discovered the problem until the day Rumor was nursing on her own, seeming to show she had had a large fluid buildup that resolved.
303-902-1741 (C) 303-651-0785 (Fax)
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