Flipper update- January 2008. Flipper seems to be a well adjusted yearling now. He had an accident soon after being orphaned that the left side of his muzzle paralyzed. That has now almost all gone away. Only if you know something had been wrong do you notice that the left side of his muzzle droops a little more than the right side. In the spring we will introduce him to the lounge line and if everything goes smoothly he will enter the show ring in lounge line this fall. When moving free in his pen he is absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to ride him someday. Right now he is just growing and playing in his turn out pen enjoying our South Dakota winter.
AQHA steel gray colt Daddy Dun Flipped, aka Flipper, seemed doomed upon his entrance into this world. On a Saturday morning I stepped into the barn to check on his dam Roses, who was due in five weeks, to find her trying to foal. Actually she was no longer trying so we loaded her up and off to the vet clinic we went. Her examination at the clinic showed that Flipper needed to be flipped in order to enter this world. With help from others our veternarian got him flipped and very shortly Flipper entered this world. Despite his traumatic entrance, the next few weeks were thankfully uneventful for Flipper. He grew like a typical appendix quarter horse foal. His luck went south again two weeks later. Once again on a Saturday I entered the barn to find Roses in distress. She seemed to be mildly colicy so we began to walk her and administered Banamine. Within about thirty minutes Roses was wild in pain and once again off to the vet clinic we went again. It was soon found that Roses had an inoperable twisted large intestine so we euthanized her as soon as possible leaving poor little Flipper an orphan.
Flipper refused to take a bottle but after a few days finally decided to drink milk from a pail. Upon catching on to the milk pail feeding went smoothly. Flipper is now a very healthy weanling. He seems to have grown height wise very well, however, he is quite lanky. This could be due to his TB blood as well as his orphan status. Because of his "orphaning" we will probablly wait until he is older to begin to market him for sale. By the time he is two I bet no one will be able to guess his rough start in life.
If you have any foal orphan stories please share them with us. We would love to hear from you!
0 comments:
Post a Comment