It was a very long night. After basically no sleep, the jennet was still refusing to have anything to do with her foal. I also did not have the reflexes to stay out of her way, so at 6 AM I decided to try to foster the foal on another jennet that foaled two days ago. It takes several days for the donkey bonding to be complete. The other jennet, Red Hot Mama, is a heavy milker and a very gentle jennet, and has had several foals before. She was confused, but tolerated the new foal along with hers. It took several hours, but by 1 PM, she was accepting nursing by the new foal without my having to be there petting her and feeding her cookies while she let him nurse. It helps that the new foal is very persistent about going to nurse, he was very hungry. I think he was born around 10 PM last night, and he definitely had not been getting the right amount to eat all that time. So now that she is nursing two, she will have to be on very rich rations for the next couple months. She is getting alfalfa, for the calcium, along with lots of extra grain, and I will talk to my vet about how to feed her. The nursing takes a lot out of the jennets as the foals put on 80% of their growth in their first year. You can watch them pack on the pounds daily!

This whole spring/summer has been challenging. I guess I will start again and see how well I keep this blog. Tonight, went to the barn at 1:30, something made me wake up and decide to check the barn. A maiden jennet (first foal) had had her foal, and was rejecting it. The foal was approaching a couple other jennets. So the first thing to do was get the jennet into a stall of her own and see how she behaved with the foal, without the other jennets around. Well, she kicked that foal hard. So I tied her up and milked some colostrum out of her, and she let down her milk ok, lets me handle her udder fine. But every time the foal came near, she kicked it, or bit it if it was near her head. Now it is 3:30, I have milked out 55cc of colostrum and given it to the foal in a syringe. She has hay and water to eat and drink, and I gave her some banamine. The foal is safe on the other side of a low fence panel, and I am going to get an hour of sleep. Maybe she will relax some and with her udder full, will be more receptive to the foal. It's going to be a long night.