Welcome, Lil Peanut!

Our colt has arrived! Beauty surprised us on Saturday night, June 6, 2009 with her baby boy. I checked her over around 4 p.m. and she wasn't showing any signs it would be soon. So Shawn and I took the children to a hot air balloon festival, a little over an hour away. We enjoyed watching 23 balloons take off, and return later in the evening for a night glow. We got back around 11 p.m., and Shawn, Noah and I went out for the night feeding and check-ups. To our surprize, we found Tinkerbell (goat), in the dog pen with our border collie and cocker spaniel! It was quite the shock to greet the dogs that were jumping up the side of the pen, and be greeted with a third nose jumping up baaing at us. Shawn went into the horse and goat pen, and Beauty greeted us like normal. Shawn's light shined enough that I saw a tiny object laying on the concrete behind Beauty. I said,"There's a baby!" and Shawn said, "A baby what?" I wondered what kind of baby he thought we were expecting, but told him a horse. I quess I kinda wondered if it was a goat too, as our goat is getting plump, but she was only 9 mos old when we got her. Anyway, the baby was already cleaned off and pretty much dry. Momma had problems though. She didn't clean like she should have. Dad came up and helped the little guy nurse. We decided to call the lady we got Beauty from, and she said Beauty should have passed the placenta by now. So I put in an emergency vet call at 12:15 a.m. Shawn and I waited up till 2. I put in another call, in the mean while I kept checking to see if she cleaned. She was up and down, rubbing, rolling, trying to pull out the placenta. At this point, we wondered if she prolapsed her uterus. Finally went to bed at 3, I got up and went out at 4:30 and 6. At 8, I called one of the vets at home. Turns out this vet was on call, and didn't hear her pager. She came out around 10. We didn't make it to union meeting. :-(

Beauty did pass the placenta right before the vet arrived, however, she did need 2 shots, and medicine for infection of the womb. The colt checked out fine. Beauty did bleed every few minutes all afternoon. Called the vet a few more times, she decided to come and check. Again, right before she arrived, Beauty passed a large volume of blood, then that was it. Both doing great today. So cute to watch the little fellow run around.

We couldn't decide on a name for him. He is extremely tiny. When he is laying down, he is only 7" from belly to back! He almost gets lost in the hay. He stands at 17". Weighs between 20 and 25lbs. Sorry, didn't get a length. He goes under his mama's belly with no trouble, (she is around 38" high.) Josh wanted to name him Peanut, and we all agreed it fit him.I will try to include a video of him running and playing later.