MIRACLE was born on Good Friday around 7am in the morning, the mare was down when I found them and the baby was in the bag lifeless. I broke the bag and rubbed him to stimulate him, nothing. I realized he was not breathing and had probably drowned in the bag. So instead of just giving up I broke the cord, picked the colt up by the hips and spun around to force the fluid out of his lungs. I laid him back down and still no breath. I then started blowing air into his lungs by covering his nostrils with my mouth, after 10 hard breaths the colt took one of his own. He started coughing and gaging. I though all right we are ok now. NOPE! The mare stayed down for two hours, retained her afterbirth and had no milk! ARG!
Luckily I had a mare that foaled four hours before, so I started milking her and feeding the baby. The baby could not stand without assistance . I just kept on trying, feeding and holding him up every hour. He was getting stronger each time I would get him up. Finally after twelve hours he got up on his feet on his own. Now both the mares that foaled this day were maiden and both were completely comfortable with what I was doing. Sweetie who bacame my cow for a couple of days even tried to surrogate the colt. Miracle on one side and hers on the other. Miracle was still too weak to stand and nurse alone so after two days of trying we separated the two mares and just went to the bottle. I kept hoping Miracles mother would produce milk but there was nothing.
The weekend had gone by and we pulled blood to see if the baby had gotten enough antibodies from the mare....NOPE! So now he had to have a transfusion of antibodies. Over a two week period he had five blood tests and two transfusions, plus hourly feedings, shots,care, etc.
Now Miracle is two months old and off the bottle, he eats like a champ, and plays with another colt. We still have him with his mother as she really likes him and she started to make milk although it is not very much. We trully feel God has something special in store for this guy and gave me the strength to do what it took to save him.
Update: miracle is now 6 months old, weaned from his mother which was not hard as I am his momma. He went to his first show and placed second even after going airborn while trotting past the judge (bad boy). He plays with all the other colts and thinks he is mr. stud muffin ( we will wait and see about that). He might have a future as our next stallion if he stays sweet!