The average is 12 months, but they have been known to go as early as 11 months and as late as 14 months.

Assuming the pregnant jennet is otherwise healthy and has good teeth, a lot of special feed is not really necessary. Good quality grass hay (alfalfa is not necessary and can make donkeys excessively fat pretty quickly), a trace element supplement (we use California Trace, though there are lots of others), and maybe a highly digestible pellet, to add some protein, would be sufficient. An example would be Equine Senior, at half the horse dose. Again, a lot of starches and sugars (grain and molasses) are just going to make the jennet fat, and maybe cause laminitis. They just don’t need that.

Yes, they can be wormed

Separation from the rest of the herd depends on the personalities of the animals involved. It is possible that a jennet who is low on the ‘pecking order’ with aggressive individuals in the herd may benefit from being fenced off, allowing her to give birth and start raising her foal by herself. In general, however, this is not necessary. Donkeys don’t like to be without their herd mates. So keeping them together will be the best in most cases.

The basic answer is “yes, you can feel a donkey foal move in the jennet’s abdomen”. However, it depends on a lot of things, including the size of the jennet and the conformation of her body wall. Some have a more pendulous abdominal conformation than others and a thinner body wall, with less abdominal fat. So it would be very hard to age a fetus by feeling it through the body wall. Depending on the breed and size, I would think that a fetus would need to be at least 6 months of gestation before motion could be felt in any donkey, and probably more like 9 months plus in most cases. Transcutaneous ultrasound, looking at cardiac and cranial size, would be a much more accurate way to age a fetus.

Yes, the fetus moves around in the abdomen before foaling. The “bumps” can also be affected by the amount of feed in the colon, especially in a jennet that has had several foals and whose abdominal wall has been stretched as a result. There are more accurate ways to predict foaling, such as udder confirmation, waxing, milk dripping, and “softening” of the muscles at the base of the tail.

If your donkey has been in stage 2 labor (cervix is open, and membranes and fluid have appeared at the vulva), she is in very serious trouble. One hour is a long time for a donkey or horse delivery. You need to get emergency veterinary assistance immediately!

Females of all species become somewhat more insulin-resistant in pregnancy. So a jennet’s body will tend to store more energy closer to birth. Certainly, it is important for your donkey to have adequate nutritional intake, especially protein and minerals. I have attached a PDF of Recommendations for feeding pregnant and lactating jennets. The recommendations are for a UK-produced ration balancer, but using something like Topline Balancer would be available at your feed store. You do need to control her feed intake, and the fact that her neck is becoming fat means that she is getting slightly more than necessary. It is nearly impossible to control feed intake on pasture. Keep feeding her just slightly less than you are, and divide it into 3-4 feedings a day. Grass hay or straw could be free-fed to keep her happy. Do not overfeed the supplements, as they tend to be high in energy, as well as protein, and you do not want her to get fatter.

Generally, jennets are very good at handling birth all by themselves. Like horses, they need to deliver in a relatively short period of time. So after the “water has broken” and membranes appear in the vulva, you should observe the jennet and be sure that the birth is progressing, to be completed in an hour. Many will deliver in a few minutes. It is a good idea to alert your veterinarian once the birth process (stage 2 labor) begins, especially if you do not have experience with foaling.
A “red bag” occurs when the entire placenta separates prematurely from its attachment to the uterus. This is a problem because the fetus gets its oxygen from that attachment, making it essential that the foal is out and able to breathe right away. A “red bag” looks just like that: a red bubble coming through the vulva at birth. If this happens, it should be opened and the foal’s head exposed right away. Normally, the inner membranes, the allantois, are clear, and you can see the foal’s legs and head through it. This should also be removed from the foal’s head to allow it to breathe. These membranes can be torn open by hand, but CAREFULLY using a pair of scissors may be necessary. Red bags are rare and usually occur because the birth has been induced, which is not necessary and not advised, except in a very limited number of high-risk pregnancies, where veterinary presence is required.
You do want to have your foal examined by a veterinarian after birth. They will look for congenital abnormalities and test it for transfer of immunity from the jennet, which is essential for the survival of the foal. Again, if you do not have experience foaling mares or jennets, it is a really good idea to talk to your veterinarian about specific recommendations. That said, the vast majority of jennets handle foaling and their foals just fine.

I do not know where you are located, but your jennet needs veterinary attention. I cannot imagine a veterinarian not helping you. If the entire placenta passed, I would worry about a uterine intussusception, where the uterus folds back on itself, kind of like you would with a pair of socks. While it is possible for this to resolve on its own, veterinary intervention is almost always required. At the very least, this jennet needs analgesics because the condition is painful. Of course, there could also be other problems and a variety of post-birth complications. Can you take her temperature (insert a regular thermometer in the rectum for a short period of time)? Can you try another veterinary practice or take her to a veterinary hospital that deals with horses? How is the foal doing?
would also be concerned with such a high temperature that part of the placenta did not pass. Ideally, a uterine lavage to attempt to flush the uterus. Considering her behavior, the possibility of a twin with colic-like behavior, which is similar to parturition behavior. Dystocia and twinning are common in mini donkeys. To increase milk production, it’s possible to administer Domperidone under the guidance of a veterinarian.

She may have an intestinal obstruction, but if this has been going on for 10 days, she could not be completely occluded. What concerns me is her temperature of 104, which is a fever. In the postpartum period, she could also have a uterine infection, which could be quite serious. If you can get close enough to take her temperature, can she be restrained in any way? She really needs a veterinary exam to determine the source of the fever, antibiotics, and probably fluids, either IV or by tube. A veterinarian could sedate her for the exam and treatment. There are short-term medications that you can give for the colic pain, but they are only a short-term solution and could have serious side effects if she is dehydrated. It sounds like you are in a desert area. Finding a veterinarian or an experienced rescue that works with donkeys should be possible. Psyllium (Metamucil) can soften feces and ease impaction colics if they will eat it, but it must be taken with water, and that does not address the fever. If you would like to discuss this more or possibly look for local help.

You could give a progestin, but I would only do that if I had a reason to think that the donkey was not producing adequate progesterone itself. This can easily be tested for with a small blood sample.

If you have an accurate breeding date and it is 14.5 months, it is time to call your veterinarian. An ultrasound of the fetus(es) would tell you if there is a heartbeat, and, depending on the skill of the sonographer, may also tell you if the fetus has abnormalities.

Jennets close to foaling will get really wide in the abdomen. This has to do with the larger percentage of the donkey’s body that is behind the rib cage, compared to horses. However, jennets, particularly older ones, can also appear pregnant with distension that is the result of weaker abdominal muscles, especially if they have been stretched by previous pregnancies. So, to tell if a donkey was pregnant and close to foaling, one would have to see an enlarged udder in addition to a larger abdomen, and/or visualization of the fetus by ultrasound examination. Did you ever have the pregnancy diagnosed by a veterinarian? I am wondering if the change in your donkey after she was put in the barn is not the result of a dietary change, rather than loss of pregnancy. This is assuming that no fetus or membranes were found.

Congratulations, especially in these times, the world needs more beautiful donkeys! However, the mother not eating is NOT normal. You need to get a veterinarian out to look at her right away. It has been 3 days and there are a large number of things that could be causing your mother donkey to not eat. Many of these are serious and potentially life-threatening. She needs a detailed physical exam (including temperature, pulse rate/strength, and listen to lungs), a reproductive exam to be sure that she passed the whole placenta and there is not evidence of infection (metritis), a complete blood count (to look for evidence of infections or blood loss – which could be hidden in her abdomen), and a chemistry panel with triglyceride measurement (especially if she is a little fat). This needs to get done today. You can take her temperature yourself with a regular digital thermometer inserted in her rectum, but the other tests really require professional attention. Good luck, and please have your jenny looked at as soon as you can.

It is a little hard to say how much pawing or restlessness a donkey should show before foaling, because the repositioning of the foal in the uterus will cause some discomfort for a day or more prior to birth. However, if you are getting white milk, discharge, and pawing, that foal should come today. If not, having a veterinary exam may be a good idea. Making that choice before it gets late in the evening will be appreciated by your veterinarian.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles with the donkey foals. Some of the comments I am going to make may involve mention of things that might be disturbing, but to solve the problem, everything needs to be objectively considered. Agalactia (lack of milk production) can be related to a number of things. The ones that are treatable include fescue toxicosis, which is very common in the east and southeast. Some mares and jennets with extreme anxiety post-foaling will also benefit from acepromazine, a tranquilizer. However, if you are not feeding fescue hay or have fescue pasture, and the jennet is not rejecting or acting aggressively towards the foal, it could also be that she has some metabolic or hormonal deficiency that is interfering with milk production. There are a host of other causes of neonatal deaths in donkeys that would require veterinary investigation and autopsy of the dead foal. I am assuming the jennet is otherwise healthy, but investigating her liver, thyroid, and adrenal function would be an avenue that should be considered. Castrating the jack would be a good plan, partially because there are thousands of unwanted donkeys in the world. They live as long as 40 years, so creating another individual is a very long-term commitment to its welfare. Donkey castrations are not difficult, and we are happy to talk a veterinarian through the anesthesia and surgical aspects of gelding a jack.

I would definitely put another donkey in the barn, where she could see it. When in actual labor, they want to be alone, but otherwise, she will be less stressed if she can see other donkeys. There are a number of reasons why she may have been looking at her flanks and being restless: foal moving, foal repositioning, or some other cause. It does not sound like she was in labor. Generally, soon after labor starts and the cervix softens and begins to dilate, “water” (amnionic fluid) is expressed from the vulva, and membranes appear. Is her udder full, and are there waxy plugs on the ends of her teats? They also usually drip milk as the hormones of labor cause both uterine contractions and milk expression from the mammary gland. So I don’t think she stopped labor, but please watch for the above signs.

While this will result in a larger foal, it will not be halfway between a mini and a standard. There is a phenomenon called “the maternal effect”, where the dam’s size has more to do with the size of the foal ( or calf or lamb or fawn or baby) has more effect on the size at birth than the sire. So while this jennet would bear watching and should be attended, it will not necessarily be dangerous to the jennet. Alternatively, if you do want to abort the pregnancy, that is best done in the first month of pregnancy. At that stage, a hormone called ‘prostaglandin’ will cause changes in the ovaries, which will result in terminating the pregnancy. Later on, the process becomes more difficult.

Without seeing the donkey (you could send a video to give me a better idea of what is going on) there are several things that could be causing this. A heavily pregnant donkey could be having an attack of laminitis (founder), which would make her unwilling to walk and may cause shivering in the hind legs from pain. If her udder is getting large, there may be an electrolyte or trace mineral imbalance, depending on her diet. Calcium, magnesium, or selenium could be deficient. This is a serious situation and requires a specific diagnosis. Have your veterinarian look at her as soon as possible. They would be able to sort this out.

That does sound like the amnion, the inner membrane that surrounds the fetus, and, if so, that would be a miscarriage. It is important that this gets checked by a veterinarian immediately, because if the membranes and fetus are not passed, a uterine infection could occur, and this could be very serious or fatal. I do not know how the pregnancy was diagnosed, but, at minimum, your jennet needs a vaginal exam to see where those membranes are coming from and if the cervix is dilated.

That is very unfortunate about your mini having Strangles. The disease is caused by Streptococcus equi and is very contagious to other donkeys, mules, and horses. So, your first issue is to make sure that no other equids come in contact with nasal discharges or drainage from your mini’s abscesses. The Streptococcus can live for a short period of time on hands or instruments. Cleanliness is essential. Those abscesses that your donkey has will heal regardless of whether you clean them or not. It would be a good time to start making friends with your donkey, though. Feeding carrot slices to get her to come to you would be a start. Eventually, allowing you to touch her nose should be linked to a carrot reward. You can progress to touching her further down her neck, her legs, her body by using this process and being VERY patient. It is important with food rewards that if they start trying to push you for carrots, you do not reward that behavior. If nipping or nose butting doesn’t get her what she wants, she will stop. Then, when she behaves and allows more hands-on from you, she will get the reward that she has been looking for. It is important that you start on this journey, as when she foals, you will need to be able to catch, lead, and be handled.

The question of pregnancy could be resolved easily with an ultrasound exam, which just involves a veterinarian putting an ultrasound probe on the side of the jennet’s abdomen. If it is 10 months pregnant, it is way too late to terminate the pregnancy safely, so you should be prepared for foaling. While a father/daughter mating is not ideal, it does not necessarily mean that the foal will have a problem. The birth should be observed and the foal examined by a veterinarian right after, for any congenital problems. That is about all you can do at this point. I would get the jack castrated, though, as this may very well happen again otherwise.

There are a couple of reasons why the 8-year-old jennet is trying to nurse off the one with a foal. She may have had a history of not being properly weaned when she was younger. Donkeys will nurse their foals for up to two years in the wild, and trying to wean them much earlier, say 3 or 6 months, is not a good idea. Additionally, are you sure that she is 8 years old? Aging donkeys by their teeth after they are 5 or 6 years old is not highly accurate, and she may be younger than you think, which, if she is actually much younger, may cause her to want to nurse. Finally, donkeys can exhibit something called “pica”, which is a medical term for “an abnormal craving for and eating of substances not normally in the diet. This occurs in nutritional deficiency states (as a lack of phosphorus ) in humans or animals or in some forms of anxiety “. I would look at the jennet’s diet first. Are you feeding a mineral supplement? Is the roughage (hay) of good quality? This can be a problem because you need to balance the intake of nutrients to avoid deficiency, but at the same time, not feed things like alfalfa, which are way too high in digestible energy and will lead to obesity. You can find good information on what to feed donkeys at: https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/what-we-do/knowledge-and-advice/for-owners/what-to-feed-your-donkeys. There may also be something in this jennet’s history, like separation from a bonded ‘friend’ or relation, or something in the herd dynamics, that is causing stress. This can lead to abnormal behaviors like pica. I encourage you to continue trying to get your donkeys as gentle as possible, trained to be caught, and to lead and be tied up. Making a daily routine out of feeding a mineral supplement mixed with carrot shreds can help with this. Do it at the same time every day and give each donkey its own bowl, until they come to expect it. Then, for the one that you cannot touch, stand closer and closer to the bowl, eventually holding it in your hands until she allows you to touch her. Drape a rope over your arm, so that she gets used to seeing that, and eventually start showing her a halter. By doing small steps every day, with something that the donkeys see as a treat, you can make a lot of progress, but you have to be patient and dedicated.

If she has been developing mammary tissue for that long and there is a discharge from her vulva, she may be close to foaling. If she is eating well and the discharge does not have a pungent odor, you do not have a lot to worry about, at least no more than with any other foaling. Since she is large and may have a large foal, I would make arrangements to make sure that somebody is in attendance when she foals, in case there is trouble. I would also alert your veterinarian to an imminent foaling. When I was in practice, I really appreciated knowing when I needed to expect an emergency call. It is good that she is getting exercise. I do not know how “poor” her body condition is, but she should be on a higher level of protein. This can be achieved with pelleted supplements or a small amount of alfalfa added to her diet. Alfalfa is generally not an appropriate feed for donkeys, but a large mammoth in late gestation can use both the protein and calcium that alfalfa provides.

Good to hear from you, though I wish your mammoth jennet was behaving more normally. 15 months would be a long gestation, even for a donkey. I would have to ask if you have had her pregnancy confirmed by palpation, ultrasound, or blood test. If not, certainly do that. Then milking some of the fluid from the mammary gland will allow a veterinarian to determine if it is milk, serum, or an inflammatory exudate. Each of these has different causes and treatments. If she has been previously confirmed pregnant, an ultrasound, done percutaneously (through the skin of the abdomen) by a veterinarian with a background in equine reproduction, can tell if the fetus is viable and alive. It is possible that you have a dead fetus or an abnormality that is causing prolonged gestation. In that case, you would have to discuss with your veterinarian the ways in which the pregnancy could be ended before a dead fetus makes the jennet really sick. This is a complicated problem, and it would be great if you could tell me what you and your veterinarian decide to do and how it turns out.

It does sound like your jenny is pregnant, given that her udder is enlarging, and she has a body form typical of pregnancy. She is probably in the last trimester, and a pregnancy diagnosis would be easy with an ultrasound done on the outside of the abdomen, not requiring a rectal palpation. A simple blood test would also show whether she was pregnant or not. A third technique, not requiring a veterinarian, is called “ballotment”, which works in late stages. It involves making a quick push against the lower flank and then holding your hand on the skin to see if you can feel the fetus and uterus swing back against the body wall. Unfortunately, this is not very accurate and takes some experience to learn. If you do not have veterinary services, the best thing to do is to check the udder and see if the nature of the milk changes. The 5-month-old foal is nursing. So, there will be milk in the udder. It will increase in quantity as it gets close to birth and change from white milk to colostrum, which is sticky and often yellowish. It is critical that the new foal gets some of this “first milk” at birth, because that is how foals get all their initial immunity and protection from infections. If you do not have experience with foaling, you should either find a veterinarian who can help you if there is a problem with the birth or a rancher who has similar experience. While jennies rarely have trouble giving birth, labor should be completed in about 30 minutes, as is the case with horses. If labor takes hours, the foal will rapidly die, and the jenny can too. Having clean water, towels, disinfectant (Betadine or chlorhexidine), and obstetrical lubricant (KY jelly, methylcellulose, or Ivory soap flakes without detergent) should be available. Having a lamb nipple or baby bottle with a large nipple is also a good idea if the foal does not drink colostrum right away. Foals should have a minimum of a quart of colostrum in the first 24 hours of life, but drinking a pint in the first hour of life is much better. Never attempt to pour milk down a foal’s throat, as it can easily end up in their lungs. More information can be found here: https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/for-owners/mares-and-foals

This is an emergency situation requiring veterinary care. A mare who is due to foal and is down for extended periods could have some really serious problems. The lameness does not sound like laminitis, with one front and one hind leg affected. However, without seeing the donkey it is really hard to tell from this brief description. Certainly, you should get a look at the jenny’s gum color, capillary refill time, and take her temperature. I do think you need to call your veterinarian now.

No, the currently available sedatives (Acepromazine, Xylazine, Romifidine, and Detomidine) do not have any effect on pregnancy and fetal development. So don’t worry. On the other hand, it would be ideal if you trained your donkey to allow hoof trimming without sedation. All donkeys can be trained to do this, with patience and carrots. It is safer, cheaper, and better for the donkey.

I am assuming the colt was a year old or more when he was castrated, making it possible to impregnate this jennet. If that is the case, there are several things. First, I would not worry about sedation from the standpoint of the pregnancy. Available sedatives and even anesthetics do not cause either birth defects or induce labor. So if you are going to have to sedate to trim feet, it might be a good time to have your veterinarian take a blood sample (which can be used to diagnose pregnancy) or do an ultrasound through the skin in the flank, which will allow pregnancy diagnoses after about 100 days gestation. i would also like to encourage you to work with this Jennet to try to get her to overcome her fears and stress by slow, patient, but persistent, training. I know this can be a serious time commitment, as my wife specializes in gentling with feral donkeys. She is out there with them every day, and the really wild ones require months of contact just to get to where they can be haltered and handled. It takes patience and a lot of carrot pieces. While you may not plan on taking her anywhere or hiking with her, it is MUCH less stressful for routine procedures like hoof trimming and vaccinations if donkeys are trained. Further, in emergencies (injuries, colic, foaling problems, etc OR in the case of evacuation for a natural disaster, which is, unfortunately, becoming common here in California…..) a donkey’s long life will be much better if it is trained.

This is definitely not normal. If your jennet is normally healthy and she has dilated her cervix and is expelling amniotic fluid, that means she is in second-stage labor. This could be a premature stillbirth, or if the people that you got her from were wrong in their breeding date, it may be a term birth. Either way, especially if she does not have milk, you need veterinary help right away. If you have experience with goats, the process of delivery is similar. It is just that equids, including donkeys, need to deliver in about 30 minutes after stage 2 labor has started. They can go longer, but with increased chances of complications to both the mother and the newborn. If you have obstetrical experience, you can handle this the way you would with a goat. Thoroughly scrub the vulva area to avoid contaminating the jennet’s reproductive tract. Then use some KY Jelly or Ivory Soap as a lubricant. Wear a clean glove (sterile is better but not essential) and put your hand into the vaginal to feel the cervix and see if it is dilated adequately. If you contact a fetus, determine if it is presenting with both front legs and the head coming first, OR both hind legs. It is fairly easy to tell the difference: Front legs come with the soles of the hoof down, hind legs come with the soles up, and you can tell the difference between hocks and knees pretty easily. If you have two hind legs coming, DO NOT try to turn the fetus around. They can deliver just fine backwards, but once the hind legs are out the fetus has to come right away or it will suffocate. So, if you have hind legs and things are not moving, do not be afraid to grasp the hind legs and pull firmly until the foal is delivered. What is called a “Breech Presentation” is different. That is where all you will feel is the fetus’ tail, because it is facing forward into the mother, and its legs are pointing forward too. These are difficult and require somebody really skilled in obstetrics to sort out. If this turns out to be a small stillbirth, the jennet needs to have the uterus flushed with a dilute disinfectant like providone iodine or chlorhexidine (1% of either in distilled water or saline will work). Then the jennet should pass the placenta. I would advise a veterinary examination or, at least, taking her temperature twice a day (should be 101.5 F or less) to ensure she is not getting a uterine infection, which could be life-threatening.

Hopefully, your donkey has not foaled by now and if she has, I hope it was without complications. Jennets can carry a foal for as long as 14 months. So if you got her in July, and she had just been bred, it could be that she is close to foaling. Perhaps the most important thing is: Has she developed milk in her udder? If she is not there is going to be a problem when the foal comes because it should get some of that first milk (called “colostrum”) within the first hour after birth. I prefer to see foals nurse in the first 15 minutes. If it does not get colostrum milk within 24 hours, you have a very serious problem, and the foal will require IV plasma to survive. You can use goat or cow colostrum (horse or donkey is better), but after 24 hours, the foal will not be able to absorb the antibody proteins in the colostrum, and it is likely to get a severe systemic infection. The discharge from the vulva could be the cervical plug of mucus breaking down and the jennet preparing to foal. Birth should occur within a day after this. Cloudy discharge could also be urine, since all equines have a lot of mucus and calcium carbonate in their urine. It could also be exudate from a vulvar or uterine infection. A veterinarian could look at a sample under the microscope and tell for sure. Again, if your jennet has not already foaled (and even if it has), a veterinary exam would be a very good idea, since some of the causes of cloudy discharge can mean serious problems.

It would be a very good idea to have your jennet examined by a veterinarian, including an ultrasound of the abdomen to get an idea of the size of the fetus and how many months she has been pregnant. This could avoid a number of problems, because while donkeys very rarely have trouble giving birth, once the cervix opens and membranes appear at the vulva, the foal should be born within half an hour. This means that IF there are problems, you will have a limited time to recognize them and call your veterinarian for help. Also, the jennet should be vaccinated for at least tetanus in approximately the last month of gestation. This will allow her to maximize the immunity that she will transmit to her foal in the “first milk” (colostrum). It will also protect the jennet from tetanus, which, like all equids, donkeys are very susceptible to. Your veterinarian can help get the mother and foal on an effective yearly schedule of vaccination and deworming. The bump on her belly is most likely edema from the development of the mammary gland as she moves toward foaling. As the mammary tissue develops, there is a lot of blood circulation in the area, and some of the fluid from this “leaks” out into the tissues and causes a doughy swelling. It is nothing to worry about and does not require treatment.

Your young jack does need to be castrated. Otherwise, he will develop male aggressive behaviors and, of course, potentially sire donkey foals, in a world where it is hard to find enough homes for donkeys. IF you have had him his whole life and you are SURE he has not been previously castrated, his testes are most likely still small and hidden under the skin and have just not formed a visible scrotum. However, it is also possible that the testes were trapped in the abdominal cavity when he was born, and if this is the case, they will never descend externally. Basically, the testes develop right behind the primordial kidneys just under the back of the fetus. During gestation, they move from there to the floor of the abdomen, where the little holes that will become the inguinal canals are developing. Because the hormones from the testes (which are really glands) are essential to fetal growth and development, they get really large in the last trimester of pregnancy. In fact, they take up a third of the abdominal volume. Right before birth, they shrink back down to the small structures that one sees in a newborn foal, become soft, and slip through the inguinal canals to exit the abdomen. The canals then tighten so that no other abdominal structures can get out. At birth, the small foal’s testes are outside of the abdomen. They can be in the outer part of the inguinal canal, under the skin, or in a small scrotum, depending on the individual foal. This means that a foal can be castrated normally soon after birth. Some studies have demonstrated that castrations as early as 10 days of age have fewer complications and seem to cause less pain than those done later in life. Many veterinarians prefer to wait because the small testes of a foal can be a little harder to find and grasp, though there are techniques that make the early-age procedure quite easy. Rarely, before birth, the testes fail to shrink adequately, or the inguinal canals are too narrow for them to exit the abdomen. If this happens, one or both of the testes will remain trapped in the abdomen, resulting in an animal that is referred to as an “abdominal cryptorchid”. The testis or testes that remain in the abdomen do not produce much viable sperm, so abdominal cryptorchids are subfertile. However, they produce plenty of testosterone, making the donkey appear and behave just like an uncastrated jack as it comes to puberty, between one and two years of age. Abdominal cryptorchidism is much rarer in donkeys than it is in horses. However, it does occur, and you can’t be sure that your jack does not have this problem without diagnosing the location of its testes. By the way, complete lack of testes (anorchidism) has not been reported in donkeys or horses. I mentioned that it made a difference whether or not you were sure the yearly jack had ever been castrated. Your veterinarian can tell if he has testes by doing a blood test for testosterone and Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH, which is a secretion of the testis that prevents the development of female organs in a male). If testosterone and AMH are elevated, then there are several ways to investigate the location of the jack’s testes. The simplest is to feel the external end of the inguinal canals (inguinal rings). This may require sedation or short-term general anesthesia. The veterinarian may also opt to surgically explore the inguinal canals, looking for small ligaments and blood vessels that attach the abdominal testis to the skin. Once these are found, the testis can be pulled through the inguinal canal and removed as in a normal castration. There are also techniques that use an abdominal telescope, called a laparoscope, to find and remove the cryptorchid testes. All these abdominal techniques require a specially trained surgeon, longer anesthesia, and some special equipment. However, particularly in young animals, a cryptorchid surgery has a low complication rate. So it would be best for your jack to start the diagnostic and surgical process now. If your local veterinary practice does not have a lot of experience with donkey abdominal cryptorchids

Assuming that your jack is anatomically normal, you would need to get some of his semen to look at the characteristics of the sperm cells. This would require training him to mount a phantom or collecting him with an artificial vagina while he was mounting a jennet in heat. These would require veterinary assistance and some training. The fact is that the only way to be SURE that a male is fertile is for have impregnated a female. The jennet may also be infertile. Does she come into heat regularly? If she does, will she let the jack mount her? Is her reproductive tract normal? Are her hormone profiles through an estrus cycle (24-25 days)? A veterinarian could help you identify the condition of the jennet’s reproductive status too. Another consideration is their overall health status. Are they overweight or suffering from some chronic lameness? All these things could affect their ability to breed. Finally, since there is a real problem finding homes for animals that can live as long as 40 years, is it a good idea to breed donkeys at all? Sanctuaries, rescues, and the BLM have all sorts of donkeys that need homes; this includes foals and pregnant jennets. Adopting one of these would be a good option.

There are several possibilities for the swelling in the remains of these minis’ scrotums (sometimes called the “cod”). I agree with your veterinarian that it could be fat in the cod sack. This is especially likely since male donkeys tend to store fat in their scrotum. I can’t see your minis, so I don’t know if they are chubby, but they tend to be, making fat a likely cause. Assuming there is absolutely no discharge from the swelling, another possibility is a “hydrocele,” which occurs when the membranes that enclose the testis heal after castration and fill with peritoneal fluid. This would make the swelling feel, like a water balloon, whereas the fat would feel more firm. Either way, these are not a health problem and your donkeys should be fine. Glad you had them gelded.

Residual nipples in donkeys can vary in size; however, all male donkeys (gelded or intact) have them. Your minis may be just slightly larger than others that you have seen. Do not worry about them and definitely do not have them removed.

Yes, that sounds normal. It will take 2-3 weeks for those incisions to heal, and they will have discharge, which is often purulent (white or yellow). Field castrations are left open to heal by second intention (the same way wounds heal if you don’t suture them), because it is very difficult to keep field surgeries sterile. This actually leads to fewer serious complications. It sounds like your donkey is healing normally. The pink skin that you see inside is granulation tissue, which is a normal part of the healing process.

While even intact jacks can be trained to “have good manners” and not push on humans, this could, indeed, be an incompletely or improperly castrated donkey. Either way, you need to have a veterinarian look at that sack and do a blood test for Testosterone and another hormone called “AMH”. The test is available in several places around the country, and I don’t know where you are located. The Endocrinology Laboratory at UC Davis (https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/labs/endo-lab) does a panel of these two hormones for $75. The veterinarian might also use an ultrasound unit to see if there is a cryptorchid (or “hidden” testicle). This can be a problem in donkeys because in some young jacks, part of the testicle, called the epididymis, comes through the inguinal canal, leaving the main part, which actually secretes testosterone, inside the abdominal cavity. If this happens, an unskilled surgeon may think that the epididymis is a small testicle and cut it off, leaving the main part of the testicle inside. The blood test would identify this problem. Of course, you are right that somebody may have used an elastrator band. Among the many problems with this technique is that sometimes the testicle actually slips back into the inguinal canal and the band just removes the skin of the scrotum. That would give you the same male behavior. Again, a veterinarian could identify if this is the problem. So your first step is to get your donkey examined, and yes, he might need surgery. In any event, he will also need some behavior shaping, because the bad habits he has developed become “learned behavior” and may persist even after complete castration. PVDR can give you advice on training, and you could also contact Ben Hart at https://www.hartshorsemanship.com. Ben has both printed and video materials that can help you.

While gelding can be done at any age, being 30 years old is definitely a risk factor for anesthesia and surgery. We have successfully castrated horses and donkeys in that age group, but I really try to avoid it. If the history is that he was castrated, it might be worthwhile to have a veterinarian check to see if what is hanging down in his scrotum is actually testes. It may also be a hydrocoel, which happens after castration if some of the tunic is left in, heals closed, and fills with peritoneal fluid. They do not cause any problems, and the animal is sterile. I would check that first.

This is really terrible! While it is difficult to say exactly why this donkey died without an autopsy (which I am sure would have been very hard for you), it does sound like the cause was internal bleeding. Other possibilities would be a blood clot causing a stroke or an abnormal reaction to the anesthesia. However, these would be EXTREMELY rare. Most practitioners put a ligature (suture to close the blood vessels) on the spermatic chord in donkeys. Their scrotum and spermatic chord are much more vascular than those of horses, and in my experience, just using emasculators is not adequate for hemorrhage control. The published rates for mortality in horses after castration are, something like 0.3%. Our rate has been 0.0006% after some 8,000 castrations of horses, donkeys, and mules. Mortality rates just for donkeys have not been published. I know this is not much comfort in losing your donkey. We do recommend ligation of the chord and it is normal to leave the scrotum open to drain with field castrations. That does not affect the amount of hemorrhage and results in fewer complications.

This jack is ready for gelding now. Waiting is not going to make things any easier. At the time of birth, the testes are either outside of the abdomen in the inguinal canal or the scrotum, or they are trapped inside the abdomen and will require a more involved surgery. What your veterinarian needs to do is to determine the location of the testes. This can be done by palpation of the inguinal canal, which may require either sedation or short-term general anesthesia to get the jack to relax so that the characteristic gonads can be identified. Most equine veterinarians have an ultrasound machine nowadays, and this can make finding the testes easier. In the vast majority of “undescended testes,” they are just small or have not appeared in the scrotum yet. If this is the case, the surgery is no harder than a regular castration and should be done while the jack is young and has not developed unwanted male behaviors. In a small percentage of males, the testes do not get through the internal inguinal ring and are trapped in the abdomen. These require a veterinary surgeon who is experienced in “cryptorchid surgery”. These abdominal testes will not “descend” no matter how long you wait, and the older the jack gets, the harder the surgery will be to do. If this guy is over 2 years old and there are no testes evident, a blood test can be done to identify if the presence of testicular tissue (the hormones that you are looking for are Testosterone, AMH, and Estrone Sulfate). It is important to do the blood work before doing a cryptorchid surgery, as you want to make sure that there is actually something to remove. It is possible that somebody castrated the jack previously, and that didn’t get recorded. Young, gelded jacks will occasionally exhibit male sexual behaviors without having testes present. You don’t want unnecessary surgery. So the steps are:
Have a veterinarian find the testes by palpation or ultrasound
If the testes are outside the abdomen, remove them. OR if no testes are identified, test blood for Testosterone, AMH, and Estrone Sulfate (Labs at Cornell and UC Davis do these tests). Find a veterinarian who does crytorchid surgery. Have the jack castrated

At their ages, these two are likely subfertile, but that only means a decreased chance of pregnancy. If your yearling jennet is pregnant and carries to term, it will stunt her growth and potentially be a problem with delivery. If she was bred just in the last month, you could have your veterinarian give her a shot to “short cycle” her (bring her into heat again), which would likely terminate the pregnancy. That can be done later in gestation, but it is more likely to have complications. I would have your veterinarian ultrasound her to see if she is pregnant and at what stage. This is a simple, safer procedure, and most equine veterinarians have the equipment now. I have attached an article for your veterinarian if they are unfamiliar with the technique in small donkeys. You need to get that jack castrated as soon as possible. There are no “pros” to leaving him intact. It may be that you may want a donkey foal someday, but there are plenty of those with no homes. With the current overpopulation of donkeys in rescues and sanctuaries, breeding more donkeys is a bad idea. It is nearly impossible to guarantee a good life for a donkey that is going to live as long as 40 years. So even though you may think that you can do that, you need to have a plan for that period of time, and very few people do. Further, as your jack ages, the hormones are going to start developing behavioral problems in his personality. These will become “learned behavior,” and then, after he is several years old, castration will have less of an effect on his behavior, even though it will make him sterile. As a veterinary surgeon, I admit that I do not like having to castrate male donkeys, though we do hundreds every year. However, in this world and in this culture, adult intact jacks have no future, and it is unfair to deny them a good life. I hope you will have your veterinarian castrate this 8-month-old jack while he is still young, as the procedure is simpler than when they are old, and the possible complications are fewer. Have a veterinarian find the testes by palpation or ultrasound. If the testes are outside the abdomen, remove them. OR if no testes are identified, test blood for Testosterone, AMH, and Estrone Sulfate (Labs at Cornell and UC Davis do these tests). Find a veterinarian who does crytorchid surgery. Have the jack castrated

Is it possible that your jennet is on fescue grass? If so, there is a toxin produced by a fungus that grows in the plant that can interfere with milk production. This can be treated with a medication called Domperidone. This is a problem in the southeast of the USA. I don’t know where you are located, but something to consider. I also don’t know how old this foal is, but foals will start chewing on things very early. If the foal will not nurse a bottle, they will usually eat Foal-Lak or other types of milk pellets made for foals. You might have to put some Karo syrup on them and physically put a few in its mouth until it decides that they are tasty to get the foal to start eating them, but they can substitute for milk. You might also consider getting the foal to drink milk from a bucket. Start with a little warm milk in a pan, again, with a sweetener in it. Put it up to the foal’s lips and get some on your fingers. Put your fingers in the foal’s mouth until it starts licking them or nursing on them. Then slowly lower your fingers into the liquid until the foal gets the idea to start drinking. Either way it will take some patience, but it is really critical to get that foal to start taking in high protein/high calcium-phosphorous milk-base food as soon as possible.

The first question is: how long has it been since your donkey has not passed feces? You can administer an enema (use a Fleet Enema and be sure to lubricate the tube well). Also, is the donkey showing signs of abdominal pain (colic), such as lifting its tail, straining, or rolling? If it really has not pooped in a day or two, you should have a veterinarian examine the little guy. Constipation is common in foals, but usually occurs soon after birth rather than 4 weeks.

I am assuming that your jennet just has an engorged udder and is not acting otherwise sick, as she might if she had an udder infection, like mastitis. Analgesics that you could give her would be Flunixin (Banamine) at 1 mg/kg twice a day (though I would not continue this for more than 4-5 days), or Gabapentin at 20 mg/kg twice a day (this is quite safe and could be given for long periods). If possible, you might also remove some of the milk if she has excess, either by hand milking (which takes some technique) or using a “mare milker” (here is one you can make yourself that I’ve always used: https://cavvysavvy.tsln.com/blog/mare-milking-device/ Mare Milking Device CavvySavvy.com – We Know Working Horses
It’s foaling season for many people, and if you are foaling mares, you have probably had occasion to milk one to get a foal started with a bottle. As you have noticed, the “handles” are pretty short on a mare, and even if she is 100% cooperative, it’s a back-breaking, slow process.
cavvysavvy.tsln.com
Or you could spend the money and buy a similar device. Warm compresses applied to the udder will also break up congestion and make her feel better. Various types of medications used to be available for “udder edema” in cattle, which is what your jennet is experiencing, but most have been taken off the market because of milk contamination concerns. Your veterinarian may have a compounded formulation of Lasix (furosemide) that would work.

Maiden mares or jennets sometimes have trouble accepting their foals, especially if there is any noise, dogs, or other distractions around. (I am using the name “mare” here for either horse or donkey females). Make sure that none of these are a problem. It is essential that the foal gets colostrum milk (which contains antibodies that are important for the foal’s survival) in the first few hours of life. I want to see them nurse in the first hour. Be patient and quiet, and try to get the foal to lick some milk off your finger and then replace it with the nipple of a baby bottle containing colostrum. If you cannot milk the mare, you will have to find colostrum somewhere. You can use horse or even cow or goat colostrum (which may be available at a local horse breeding farm or dairy). If things really are not going well, it may be necessary to have a veterinarian out to pass a tube into the foal’s stomach to give it colostrum. This will buy you some time to get the foal nursing. Further, the veterinarian may need to sedate the mare with Acepromazine, which will decrease her anxiety (which is what is probably causing her unwillingness to nurse the foal). Acepromazine also helps with milk letdown, making the mare easier to milk. If her udder is really distended, the discomfort of the foal nuzzling the udder may also be causing the problem. Some warm towels on the udder, along with hand milking to relieve pressure, can help. Your veterinarian can show you how to make a simple hand milking tool out of a 60 ml plastic syringe. These are often better accepted by mares than hand milking, especially if the ‘milker’ is inexperienced. Summary: Try to provide a quiet environment. If that doesn’t work, look at sedation and/or milking. AND it is critical to get colostrum milk into the foal. After about 12 hours, they start to lose the ability to absorb antibodies, and after 24 hours, that post-natal ability is gone altogether. Of course, by several hours, the foal is also becoming energy deficient and hypoglycemic. So don’t wait too long to get professional help.

Although this sounds promising, it might be a good idea to have a blood test for passive transfer of immunity. It is possible for premature foals to lack maternal immunity even if they appear to nurse well. This is because they may use up their mother’s protein antibodies for energy, or they may not absorb them properly. The trouble is that when foals lack adequate maternal immunity, the septicemia and bone infections that develop can hit very suddenly and be nearly impossible to treat. Another concern would be the degree of calcification, especially in the tarsal (hock) bones. This is common in “preemies” and can result in joint collapse if the foal exercises too much. This can be examined with ultrasound or x-rays, but, at a minimum, I would avoid turning the foal and dam out for a lot of exercise until the foal is a couple of weeks old. ANY sign of lameness or lethargy in this foal is an emergency and requires veterinary examination right away.

If by “newborn” you mean a day or a few hours old, I would be concerned that the foal is not swallowing milk normally. Is milk coming out of the foal’s nose by any chance? If so, a veterinarian should examine the foal and see if it has a cleft palate or some neurologic problem with swallowing. If the foal is a few days older, there are a host of things that could cause a cough, from environmental irritants like dust to virus infections. I would start by being sure that the foal has been nursing eagerly and regularly. I would take its temperature (should be less than 102 F). You can take the temperature by using a regular electric thermometer and inserting it into the foal’s anus. If the foal continues to cough, has an elevated temperature, or shows any signs of lethargy or lameness, you need to have a veterinary examination right away. Among other things, the veterinarian will listen to the chest for signs of infection or inflammation, and will likely also want to do a blood test for immunoglobulins, which are the critical proteins that the foal gets from its mother in the first milk (colostrum) and are essential for allowing the foal to fight off infecting bacteria and viruses until its own immune system can get going. It’s foaling season for many people, and if you are foaling mares, you have probably had occasion to milk one to get a foal started with a bottle. As you have noticed, the “handles” are pretty short on a mare, and even if she is 100% cooperative, it’s a back-breaking, slow process.
cavvysavvy.tsln.com
Or you could spend the money and buy a similar device. Warm compresses applied to the udder will also break up congestion and make her feel better. Various types of medications used to be available for “udder edema” in cattle, which is what your jennet is experiencing, but most have been taken off the market because of milk contamination concerns. Your veterinarian may have a compounded formulation of Lasix (furosemide) that would work.

I would check the jenny’s udder to make sure she does not have mastitis (an infection of the udder). If she seems painful or the udder is warm, you need to call a veterinarian to get her antibiotics. For the foal, it is essential that you start getting some nutrition into it. Using a commercial foal milk replacer or goat’s milk, keep trying to get it to suckle that baby nipple. If it is too weak or just won’t suckle (this may take a lot of patience on your part), you will need to have a veterinarian pass a tube into its stomach and feed it with the tube until it gains some strength. In many, many foals (horses and donkeys), I have never seen one that would not eventually nurse if it was given adequate nutrition by stomach tube. The technique is easy and the tube can be left in place for a few days so that you can feed the foal until it starts nursing. The trouble is that a lack of milk intake results in hypoglycemia in the foal, which directly affects the brain and will depress the suckle reflex, which all foals have. The only exception would be a foal with severe neurologic disease. Again, that would require veterinary diagnosis.

It depends a bit on how old the foal is, and I cannot tell from your question. If the foal is older, the Nutrena and hay might be fine, but if it is younger, it will need a higher protein and calcium level. The diarrhea could be the result of a lot of things, but if the foal looks otherwise okay (normal gum color, normal temperature, alert and willing to eat), it is likely a digestive upset that will respond to Pepto Bismol. I would give the Pepto and 2 oz. every 6 hours. If that does not resolve diarrhea or if the foal looks weak or dehydrated, you need to contact a veterinarian to look at it.

Judiciously wait until the foal gets hungry, wipe the nipple on the bottle with Karo syrup, slip it into its mouth, and be patient. They nearly always drink when they get hungry enough. However, if the foal has lost its suckle reflex (it will not nurse on your fingers when you put them in its mouth), or it seems depressed, or shows any other symptoms, you need to have a veterinarian examine it and test it for transfer of immunity from the jennet. Foals will go downhill really fast, and about 3-4 days of age is when infections acquired at birth, failure of passive transfer, and neonatal maladjustment can start showing up. A foal needs to drink about 10% of its body weight in milk a day to avoid becoming weak and hypoglycemic. They can survive for a day or two with less, but, again, they can crash fast. Sometimes a veterinarian needs to place a nasogastric tube so that the foal can be given nutrition while waiting for it to overcome other problems. You can also try to get the foal to drink milk or milk replacer from a bucket. To do this, hold the milk up to the foal’s nose, dip your fingers in the milk, and see if you can get the foal to start suckling your fingers. Then lower your fingers into the milk to try to get the foal to drink. You will have to be patient; this may take a while. DO NOT try to squirt milk in the foal’s mouth with a syringe. You won’t be able to get enough into it to do any good, and if the foal has any difficulty swallowing or you do it too fast, the milk will end up in its lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia, which is usually fatal. As far as the jennet goes, here ceasing to produce milk could either be because she is not making any or because she is “not letting it down”. The former could be because of some disease process in the jennet, such as a uterine infection or mastitis; the latter could be because of anxiety or pain. A simple test is to give her a short-acting hormone called “oxytocin”, which is the natural way that milk let-down (expulsion) occurs in the udder. If you can think of anything that might be bothering her, try to remove that from her environment. Otherwise, you need to have a veterinarian examine the jennet. We hope this helps.

I am assuming that your donkey’s sister died last year. There are a great number of possibilities, though a bone or joint infection in a neonatal foal is the most likely cause of its having trouble walking. This happens because the foal fails to get adequate immunity from its mother in the first milk (called colostrum). Even if the foal drank a sufficient amount of milk, it may not have absorbed the protein antibodies that confer immunity. This is why veterinarians often recommend testing the foal for immunity after 24 to 48 hours. This can be done with a simple test done right in your barn. However, other possibilities include a deficiency in a trace mineral called Selenium or a congenital neurologic problem. Would it be possible for you to send me a video of this foal trying to walk? A cell phone video would be fine. I could give you a much better idea of the foal’s problem and what you could do about it after seeing a video.

The first thing I would do in addressing the change in your jenny’s behavior is to consider anything new in the environment that may be upsetting her. Aggression in donkeys after foaling is usually due to fear and anxiety. Barking dogs, traffic, new animals in the herd, people she is not used to, changes in weather, screaming children, and other things could be causing this. If such distractions can be removed, that would be ideal. Pain, from lameness or some other source, could also cause this and may require veterinary examination and treatment. Occasionally, for unexplained reasons, the personality of a new mother will change toward people that she normally is okay with, or even her foal. This is probably something like the post-partum depression that is seen in humans. If that is the case, she may require tranquilization. Agents like acepromazine or Gabapentin could be prescribed by your veterinarian to help her reconnect with her foal and be more tolerant of people. It is important not to discipline her, as that will increase the level of anxiety and make matters worse. There is a protocol that sometimes works for mares and jennets that reject their foals, involving readily available hormones and oxytocin. Usually, this is done immediately after birth, but it might also work in your jennet. You would need to work with a veterinarian to use this, and if they need a recipe

I am assuming that the jenny had enough milk and would just not let it down, with the veterinary clinic giving the hormone oxytocin, to cause her to eject milk for the foal. If she was not producing milk at all, that is another matter, and usually the result of being on a fescue pasture, with a different hormone requirement. If the jenny has been resistant to letting the foal nurse for 10 days, you may not have a lot of luck changing that. However, a tranquilizer like Acepromazine may help because usually the reason a mare or jennet will not allow nursing is because they are stressed and anxious. This could be used with another drug called propranolol, which decreases anxiety and fear. Every effort should be made to keep things quiet and NEVER punish the jennet. That will only make matters worse. Neither of these drugs will hurt the foal, and Acepromazine will slightly increase milk production. Also, unless this jenny is in really bad physical shape and very thin, be careful feeding alfalfa, especially along with pellets. Alfalfa hay and most horse pellets are way too high in digestible energy for donkeys and will rapidly make them obese and potentially develop laminitis or hyperlipemia. Starting to get the foal to drink milk from a bucket should also be tried. Put some milk in a bucket with a little Karo syrup, and rub it on their gums. If the foal will suckle your fingers, let it, and then slowly submerge your hand in the bucket of milk to get them to start drinking. You can use horse milk replacer or whole goat’s milk, with the former being a little better. It takes patience, but they will eventually come around. Foals need to drink something like 15-20 % of their body weight each day in milk to get adequate nutrition. Good luck!

This is, of course, a very serious matter. A foal needs to drink 10% of its body weight a day to maintain itself and grow. So that foal, if it weighs 50 lbs (guessing, but since it is a mini), needs to drink, which means it needs a little over a half gallon of milk a day (5 lbs out of a gallon, which is 8 lbs of liquid). To do this, the foal should drink small amounts frequently (every 1-2 hours on average). If a jennet is rejecting its foal, first look for things that may be frightening her. Dogs, “drama” with other donkeys, lots of strange people, noise, etc. Often, anxiety and fear in a dam are expressed as aggression toward the foal. Keep her in a quiet place and limit the number of people working with her. Do not attempt to force or discipline her, as that will only make things worse. There is a hormone protocol involving a prostaglandin (Prostin F2 -alpha) and oxytocin (the milk letdown and “feel good” hormone) that will often reset a mare or jennet’s brain and stimulate her motherly instincts. You would need assistance from your veterinarian, as the initial part of the protocol requires that the jennet be sedated. I would try to resolve this problem just as soon as possible, before the foal starts getting weak.

If the mother and baby have been together without other donkey contact, they may indeed have a problem if they are separated. The best thing would be to introduce another donkey, probably a gelding, and see if the jennet will bond to it. Then, when you rehome the 3-year-old, be sure that it is going to a home with other donkeys and people who have some donkey experience and will spend a lot of time with their new charge. I agree that leaving either one alone may have serious consequences and will, at least, make separation more difficult. Spending a couple of sessions a day, grooming and giving some low-calorie treats (we like carrot slices) will also help “dilute” their dependence on each other and start to see you as an alternative.

This sounds like a serious condition, and the first thing you need to get is a diagnosis. The unwillingness to move normally could be anything from pain to metabolic disease (liver problems are common in donkeys) to a neurologic problem. This will require some laboratory testing. Specifically: a complete blood count with fibrinogen (CBC) to look for markers of infection, a clinical chemistry profile with triglycerides (to test for liver and kidney function and muscle damage), and an Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) serum test (because the symptoms that you describe could be neurologic disease following a respiratory virus infection). Yes, donkeys are different from horses!

This is a serious situation. Did the foal get any of the “first milk” or colostrum from his mother? This needs to happen in the first 24 hours of life, and foals should get some colostrum milk within the first hour. Otherwise, they will not have any immunity to bacteria in their environment. That is the first thing that I would worry about. If the foal has no suckle reflex (will not suck on your fingers when put in his mouth), you need to have him examined by a veterinarian right away. They can do a test to see if he received and absorbed immunity from his mother, and, if necessary, put a tube into his stomach to provide nutrition until the suckle reflex returns. This is really important because if the foal does not drink around 10% of its body weight per day, it will become hypoglycemic, which will further weaken its ability to nurse, making a downward spiral. The veterinarian can suture the feeding tube into place so that you can continue to feed the foal if it won’t eat. It is also possible that this foal has “Neonatal Maladjustment Syndrome,” where a foal, normal at birth, reverts to a fetal-like state. Techniques such as the “Madigan Squeeze” have been developed in recent years to overcome this. Again, your veterinarian would be able to help with that. I want to emphasize the seriousness of this situation and the importance of getting it resolved just as soon as you can.

With a neonatal foal like this, there are some things that you need to do right away. This foal should have a blood test for immunoglobulin (IgG), because if it is an orphan, it may not have gotten colostrum milk from its mother, and even if it did, the stress may have decreased its ability to absorb the antibodies that are essential for its ability to survive or its metabolism may have used these proteins for energy (making them no longer available). If the blood IgG is low,, the foal is unlikely to survive if it does not get a plasma transfusion. Horse plasma works fine in donkeys in an emergency, though donkey plasma is preferable, it is just hard to find. The sores in the mouth and purulent eye discharge could be the result of either a bacterial infection, which an IgG-deficient foal would be prone to, or it could be a viral infection, such as Herpes, that the foal may have gotten from its mother through the uterus and placenta. I cannot stress the importance of ensuring that adequate immunoglobulins are circulating in the blood. Then, if it does not nurse, placing a nasogastric feeding tube and temporarily suturing it in place will be essential to getting it enough nutrition. This is a procedure that any veterinarian can do. It is safe and won’t hurt the foal. The problem with giving milk by syringe is that a healthy foal needs a minimum of 10% of its body weight in milk per day to maintain its metabolic requirements. In a 60 lb foal, that means 2.7 liters or almost 3 quarts of milk a day. A sick foal trying to fight off an infection will need even more. If the milk is coming in a syringe and the foal is weak and doesn’t swallow properly, milk can get into the lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia, which will be fatal. With a tube in place, you can just put in the calculated amount of milk (you should weigh the foal), and you know it is going to its stomach. After it gains strength and suckle reflex, it is easy to remove the tube and just start feeding it with a bottle. The antibiotics used should have a very broad spectrum. Penicillin and gentamicin are a good combination. Ceftiofur (Exceed or Naxcel) is also a good option. You should discuss these with your veterinarian.

It is a little hard to say what is going on with your young donkey. Kicking or lifting her hind legs. Perhaps you could send us a video. Most likely, this is just a behavioral aspect of her being excited at nursing the bottle or frustration because the milk is not coming fast enough as she gets bigger and stronger. If her legs going down just happened once, it may again just be an expression of excitement, and she lost her balance and fell. However, it is possible that this could be a neurologic problem, with something like a vitamin E or Selenium deficiency in her diet. That would be hard to tell without knowing what exactly she is eating and if she is getting any vitamin or mineral supplementation.

My immediate question is: is she losing hair, leaving bald skin that is black, or is she losing the hair she was born with, and short black hairs are replacing them? If it is the latter, that is normal for foals, and she will end up being a darker color than when she was first born. If the skin is bald around her nose and if it looks thickened or otherwise abnormal, it would be a good idea to have a veterinarian biopsy the skin to get an accurate diagnosis. There are autoimmune skin diseases that can look like this.

Hay and milk are way too low in protein for a foal. He needs some kind of milk-based supplement, or he will not be able to grow or fight off foalhood infections. If he will eat hay, you can get Foal-lak pellets, which are designed for feeding orphaned foals, and, with some coaxing (maybe a little Karo syrup, Molasses, and/or apple sauce on them, he will learn to eat the pellets. Do not use alfalfa pellets as a substitute, as they are still too low in protein. Also, do not try to force milk in his mouth; it is too easy for it to “go down the wrong pipe” and cause aspiration pneumonia. If he will nurse on your fingers if you put them in his mouth (Karo Syrup can help here too), put the milk in a bowl and, once he is sucking on your fingers, submerge them in the milk. Usually, they will learn to drink out of a bowl, but it takes patience. Us a milk replacer designed for horses; the ones for calves are usually too high in fiber. Getting him to eat small amounts of milk frequently will allow for a greater intake (he needs to eat at least 10 % of his body weight per day), and will help prevent diarrhea. Watery manure that you are now seeing may be the result of his inability to digest the hay well, or it may be the start of an intestinal infection. Either way, you need to get him on a more appropriate diet right away. Again, patience and small quantities frequently is the goal.

I do not want to alarm you but this is an EMERGENCY situation. You need to get your veterinarian out immediately to do a blood test for “Passive Transfer of Immunity” (also called IgG). I know you have given the foal colostrum gel, but that product is nowhere near as effective in providing immunity as the jennet’s real colostrum milk. Further, even with the best quality and quantity of colostrum, a foal born in such stressful conditions may not absorb the immune-conferring proteins (antibodies) that are the whole point of colostrum milk. This is a common mistake and the reason why we recommend that if there is any question or if the foal appears lethargic, weak, or won’t nurse, the blood be tested for passive transfer. This is a simple and inexpensive test that the veterinarian can do right next to the foal. The reason that this is so critical is that a foal, who is now 4 days old, will rapidly be overwhelmed by bacterial infections if it does not have that immunity from its mother. These bacteria will get into its joints, its growth cartilage, and even its central nervous system, and be difficult or impossible to treat. Foals only absorb these antibodies for the first 24 hours of life, at which point the pores in the small intestine, which allow passage of whole proteins into the blood, close. The veterinarian can “bypass” this problem by giving serum to the foal intravenously. This will also put some protein into the foal’s blood, which it is likely lacking. Further, a tube can be placed through the foal’s nose into its stomach and fixed in place, so that milk or milk replacer can be given even if the foal will not nurse. Foals must consume 10% of their body weight daily to avoid becoming weak and hypoglycemic. If the foal is not consuming that amount, it is not going to start nursing because its brain function will be depressed due to starvation. DO NOT force feed! It is too easy for that milk to go down the trachea and into the lungs in a weak, depressed foal. That milk will then cause aspiration pneumonia, which is usually fatal. I am really afraid that the seizures that you have seen are either the result of severe hypoglycemia or an infection of the brain or spinal cord. IF you can get the foal’s immunity up (giving more gel won’t do this and will waste money that would be better spent on effective treatment), get an adequate amount of nutrition into it, and possibly start it on antibiotics, the foal will learn to either nurse or drink milk from a bucket. This can take time, but unfortunately, you do not have any time if it is going to survive.

There are a host of things that could be causing this in a donkey foal, and most are serious. Your donkey needs a veterinary examination immediately, including blood work to identify possible infection. We have found that donkeys are much more stoic and do not show serious disease as openly as horses do. So this kind of lethargy should be taken seriously. At this age, an umbilical abscess inside his abdomen would be a major concern. Seeding of bacteria to joints or growth plates at birth could also be showing up at this age. Again, this is going to require veterinary examination and testing to resolve.

Unfortunately, there are a number of things that could cause that diarrhea. If digestive upset from grain is the cause, that could be something that would respond to Pepto-Bismol. However, it could also be an intestinal infection brought on by stress and feed change, caused by bacteria like pathogenic E coli or Salmonella. These would be much more serious. You need to take the baby’s temperature (if it is either below 98 or above 101.5, I would be concerned) and look at her gums to make sure they are a normal pink color and moist. If they are not (dark red or very pale and “tacky”), she may become dehydrated and endotoxic. Also, check her heart rate if you have a stethoscope. It should be less than 60 bpm. If any of these abnormalities are present, she needs veterinary care soon, an IV catheter, and IV fluids. Other anti-endotoxic treatments may also be necessary. You should also make sure that the jennet is not lame and her hooves are not warm, as she is at risk for foundering if she ate too much of the grain.

It can take a while for a foal who is used to nursing to learn how to use a bottle or bucket. Some things that you can try: I don’t know what milk replacer you are using, but you might try whole goat’s milk (not skim!) instead. Handle the foal’s head and slip a finger into the foal’s mouth with some milk with a little Karo syrup on it to get it to start nursing on your finger, then slip a nipple from a milk bottle in next to your finger, take your finger out, and let the foal nurse the bottle. You may have to be patient until the foal gets the idea. A big concern is that if the foal is not drinking 10% of its body weight a day, it will start getting weak and lose the ability to nurse. That starts a serious downward spiral. A veterinarian can put a feeding tube into the foal’s stomach through the nose and tape it in place. You can then put milk into the foal’s stomach to keep it strong until it gets the idea and starts nursing. Given enough time, I have never seen a foal not nurse if it is otherwise normal.

Jennets and mares usually reject foals because they are anxious or upset about something. It is often very hard to tell the level of a donkey’s anxiety because they are stoic and don’t show fear and distress the way horses do. It would be impossible, without looking at your specific situation, to determine what might be causing the problem. Of course, any noises, strange people or animals, or other upsetting things should be avoided. It may also be that having the jack present in the corral or pasture with the jennet and foal may be worrying the mother. This anxiety can be expressed perversely as actually projecting the problem onto the foal and attacking or rejecting it. Jennets normally are solitary in the wild when they foal, and not around jacks. Clearly, some jennets in captivity don’t worry about anything and accept their foals under all sorts of conditions. Like most things biological, there is a “bell-shaped curve, ” and an individual’s personality, based on their own genetics and life experiences, can be on any part of that curve. Your jennet is clearly on the anxious end of the curve. Mares and jennets who reject their foals can benefit from tranquilizers, like Acepromazine or Gabapentin, given at parturition, and I would certainly consider using a tranquilizer with this jennet in the future. The behavior where the jack is picking up the foal is common in donkeys. I have seen jennets do the same thing. He may be trying to protect the foal, or he may see the foal as competition for the jennet’s attention, and therefore trying to remove it. Again, this behavior differs between individuals. I am glad that the foal is doing okay on a bottle. I would suggest that the jennet and foal be placed with another jennet or a gelding rather than the jack.

It is hard to make recommendations, not knowing what part of the country you are in, but unless you are dealing with ambient temperatures far below zero (Fahrenheit), the only thing that you need to worry about is wind chill. In other words if the paddock in which the foaling will take place is protected from the wind and sleet, an actual heater would not be necessary. If the temperatures are really low ( 10 degrees below zero or worse), a dry, straw-bedded stall with a heat lamp in one corner should be fine. I would stay away from any heat source that a donkey could actually reach, because of their propensity to play with new things, which could result in a catalytic heater being knocked over and starting a fire. Once the foal is born, you can help by drying it with towels and putting a T-shirt or sweatshirt on it to save body heat. Good luck with the foaling.

It sounds like you have a good situation planned for this orphaned donkey. It is important that orphans “learn to be donkeys” by living with other donkeys in a herd. The main issue for this young donkey is protein, as it is still growing, and an all-grass or hay diet will not provide adequate amounts for growth and development. While equids can be weaned as early as 3-4 months, they really need to be eating a solid diet, which needs to be milk-based (Foal Lak pellets) to get not only the quantity and quality of protein, but the needed amounts of calcium and phosphorus. In the wild, donkey foals will nurse their dams for a full year, and some will nurse on and off for 2 years. So keeping the foal on milk for at least 3 more months will be important, with some extra protein supplement fed even after that. It is important that she is separated at feeding times, because the other donkeys should not be eating the higher-nutrition diet that she requires. It will also be important to make sure that the orphan does not eat too many highly digestible calories, such as fats and sugar/carbohydrates that can sneak in to higher levels of nutrition. Advice on orphaned foal rearing can be found at https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/what-we-do/knowledge-and-advice/for-owners/care-of-the-orphan-donkey-foal. By the way, in this article they recommend weaning at 5 months. They also have information on nutrition, and you can depend on products by Foal Lak and Purina to have diets formulated for weanling foals. I would keep the protein intake higher than for an adult donkey until the foal is at least a yearling and, better, until 2.

I think what you are seeing is edema (fluid accumulation in the soft connective tissues) that is the result of her udder getting bigger and some of the fluid that would normally go into milk migrating forward under the skin. This should not be a concern in itself, as long as the jennet is otherwise normal (eating well, alert, and moving around). It is important that when a jennet is being “dried off” or “weaned,” she is fed a lower protein and energy diet. Milk production is very closely correlated to the digestible calories and protein content of the diet. So it is important to feed a bulky but not-too-nutritious diet right now. Straw with a little grass hay would be ideal. You could feed a trace mineral supplement, as long as this does not require feeding grain to make it palatable. Another thing that sometimes gets forgotten is that, in the wild, jennets will nurse their foals for as long as 2 years. They generally wean themselves over a period of time. This often does not fit in with human convenience, but nursing longer will not cause a health problem for the foal. I would check on the jennet’s udder and the swelling in front of it, to make sure these areas are not hot or painful

Your plan to wean using another gelded donkey as a “friend” and separating them from the jenny is certainly reasonable, given current practice. On the other hand, there is some new research that suggests that the traditional weaning age for equids may be unnecessarily early. The attached paper describes research in horses. As usual, there have been no studies in donkeys. However, donkeys do, if anything, form tighter social bonds than do horses. Also, studies on wild donkeys show that jennets will remain paired with their foals for an average of one year, often having two years’ foals traveling with them and nursing. As the foals get older, they nurse less often, and the jennet will accept their attempts less and less too, until they are completely weaned. We have observed this in domestic donkeys at our place and have not had the need to artificially separate them. Certainly, having the young jack castrated in a couple of months would be a good idea. If he is precocious and starts mounting his mother, weaning earlier may be necessary, but this may not be a problem. Simply watching their behavior will tell you.

Seven months of age would be a minimal age to wean a donkey foal. One approach to this situation would be to increase the jenny’s nutritional plan to make up for the protein and energy that she is losing in feeding her foal. This is assuming that the jenny is otherwise healthy: good teeth, parasites controlled, etc. Mini’s rarely require supplementation and tend to get obese easily. However, she may not have had adequate nutrition prior to your getting her two months ago and needs to catch up. There are a number of ways to supplement, ranging from feeding some alfalfa hay to processed feeds specifically formulated for lactating mares. I would feed half the recommended amount of a horse of the same size (this may take some extrapolation). If you do need to keep mother and foal separated, it is important that both have donkey friends immediately available. Weaned foals can be pastured with an older animal or with several other foals undergoing weaning. This is often a good time to do your halter training, because the foal will be looking for companionship and attention. For the jennet, being in a small herd of donkeys, or even just one other donkey with which she has a bond, would help. Donkey foals will nurse their mother for a year or even two in the wild. The jenny will gradually wean their foal or yearling. Some believe that this is preferable to earlier weaning from the standpoint of the youngster’s psyche.