Cautiously optimistic...

It's been 6 days since LadyBug delivered her cria.  As I mentioned in my last post, the little guy was really struggling the first day, so we contacted our vet and left him in her expert care for the weekend.  Having shown signs of improvement, we brought the two of them back to Pronkin' Pastures on Sunday evening. It all felt pretty precarious that first day - he was still quite wobbly and he still didn't seem very keen on nursing (though he would try if prompted).   On top of that, LadyBug seemed quite agitated being confined to smaller digs while her baby gained strength.  She was humming and pacing constantly - which made us wonder if she was stopping long enough for her baby to nurse.   So we made some adjustments and let LadyBug and her cria into a larger pen with a select group of females that would be pleasant to the baby, but not overly interested to the point that they were interfering with LadyBug and her baby.  

Sweet Laurel checks on the new baby.

He was often seen standing still with his head hanging down like this.

LadyBug is a sweet and attentive mama!

Slowly but surely, he seems better each day.  We see him nursing on his own more and more, and happily following mom around the pasture.  Each day we are adding a few more females to the group with them.  We are even seeing him run and play a little bit.  

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​Though we are not out of the woods, yet we are feeling relatively confident that he will make it, so we have finally given him a name!
We are pleased to introduce Rudy of Pronkin' Pastures...

This afternoon, Rudy will see the vet again for a plasma transfusion which we hope will help keep him on the right track!  Keep your fingers crossed for Rudy!