Monday, January 25, 2010

Puppy-Paca?








What else can you call a cria that looks like THIS???!!!  This beautiful little girl (yes, we started 2010 with a female after long strings of males last year!) was born a few weeks ago early on a chilly 22 degree morning.  We found her already dry, nursing, and warm (in the due barn, of course) with her maiden mother who was attentive and maternal.  All looked great and normal!


Then, the next day her ears began to droop, and droop, and droop.  She wasn't droopy, in fact she was as spry as you'd ever want a cria to be, with straight legs and a good appetite.   We have had very slightly droopy ears before, and a variety of other aberrations of the ears on crias.  Sometimes their ears are a bit "inside out" for a while from the way they've laid in the womb, and we have had to tape them the correct way for a week or so and then they're fine.  This one was different, and I became concerned that perhaps her ears had been frostbitten following birth.

She was pitiful and cute and funny all at the same time!



We debated about taping the ears, but within a week they were looking like this- 99% normal, and now 100% normal!

All's well that ends well, and I've thought that perhaps those rather canine-looking ears are just and indication of future greatness!

3 comments:

Dar said...

Sometimes during the birth process there is compression of a cervical nerve resulting in a temporary palsy of the ear (occasionally the eyelid or lip as well) As long as the issue starts to correct we just offer support (occasionally using tampons as props for the ears) until all is well. Adorable!

www.martimcginnis.com said...

Thank god the feminine product augmentation didn't have to happen. I'd rather go through life as a Puppy-Paca than a Tampon-Topper any day.

Lindy and Paul said...

You are too funny, Marti, what a vision! (We have actually used tampons for this, though, and none have been warped for life or anything). Interesting comment, Dar. We have had some "dummy" crias before (slow to nurse, etc. from a difficult birth), but I'm not so sure this was a birthing issue as all of our floppy ears can be attributed to one sire! Again, all have straightened up on their own. Strange...