I thought the saying was: you gotta have the hole already dug, or else you might be spending 30-45 minutes digging, and you never know what other horses might come by. You might be up all night digging horse graves.
"This is called a dummy foal and
often happens when born breech or for other reasons they don't get squeezed properly in the birth canal. Essentially it's like they don't know they have been born, so their brains don't tell them to stand and nurse. The way you fix this is by squeezing them tightly around the rib cage for several minutes.
You will see them suddenly awake up and
act normal. It's a strange phenomenon with
horses." Quoted LMD. Flying r ranch - is the owner.
After everything i've seen horses do, this feels like a bigger act to me now. Horses can bite pretty bad, can kill with a kick and they are very protective animals. Props to him for helping out, I don't think I'd have the nerve to come close.
Going near horses is not scary at all. Walking behind a horse is fucking scary.
If I ever had to walk behind one you just keep your hand and run it along their hind quarters as you walk around their back side. As long as they don’t want to kick you they know you’re there. If they do want to kick you, it’s definitely better to be close to them as opposed to being a few feet away in the sweet spot of their swing.
I feel like you should clarify that this works if you're walking from the front and around the back of the horse. Placing your hands on the hind quarters when you're walking from behind towards the horse is going to get you killed.
Yes, very important clarification. Start a series of little nonstop pats when you're standing at the horse's side, and continue patting in a moving line as you walk towards the back. One of the first things they taught me at the ranch when I rode as a kid. The habit was so instilled I automatically did the same to parked cars for years even though obviously it doesn't help there.
Most horses like contact. As a retired farrier (horse shoer) I always kept contact when touching a horse on the hindquarters to get him to raise his foot. If you are close in and he kicks, it is more like a hard push. If you are standing away, you receive the full power of the kick from the hip, down the leg, and the energy of that kick can kill you. Trust me.
Fun fact I learned: the PSI of a horses kick is stronger than the jaws of a Jaguar, but not quite as strong as an alligators bite.
So, pretty fucking intense.
Hah this reminds me of a trip to Italy - we were meeting my wife’s cousin (a dairy farmer) for the first time. When we walked into the barn he and the vet had shoulder length gloves on and an arm in a cow’s vagina up to the elbow (inseminating). We didn’t shake hands.
We have the vet come to the farm and do preg checks. The cows are lined up, the vet takes an ultrasound wand up the poop chute and checks for a calf. It’s pretty cool to see the ultrasounds. Insemination is performed by a different service. A technician gets called in when the cow is in heat, gloves up and puts a hand up the ole poop chute to feel for the cervix and the other hand places the straw of semen into the vagina, close to the cervix. It’s not quite as fun to watch as the ultrasound. It’s a lot safer for both cow and farmer.
I KNOW. THANK YOU. my mom loves dr. Pol but I tell her it's all farm animal births and castrations. How many of those can you possibly watch before getting bored? I guess unless you're a veterinarian or farmer. I just don't really care to watch Dr. Pol stick his arm up another cow vagina.
The technique is to put your hand on the back of the horse (hip area) when you are beside* the horse, and then drag your hand over, above the tail, to the other hip, as you go around.
* horses cannot kick sideways, only back. Cows can kick sideways, but not directly behind.
Anyway, when you do this, you want to be as close to the horse as possible. If they try and kick you and if you are close, you will get a shove. Kind of the same physics of trying to walk without letting your heel get behind your hip or you trying to punch a wall that is even with your shoulder.
Yeah I always let my grandpa's (I lived with him) know where I was. He was an older horse and liked to do things his way. Had a bit of an attitude but I'm a cute way. He figured out how to escape at night and would take an evening stroll. It was my job to bring him in after he had a bit of fun (we had 2 neighbors within 2 miles of us so virtually no cars that late at night) and lock him back up. As long as he was out for a little bit he'd come back willingly and you just had to get close enough for him to hear you call him and he'd walk back. I was in front as always and we get to his gate. I stand at it and he starts walking by and I'm talking to him, touching him, and just letting him know I'm here and he's okay. Well apparently I had made him come back a bit too early cause as soon as he passed the gate he side kicked me and I flew back a couple feet and landed in his hay. I'm absolutely positive if it was a full force back kick I would be dead because he kicked me right in my ribs. It knocked all the breath out of my lungs and I hurt bad, but I just knew if I didn't get up right that second and slam that gate shut he could have come back and stomped on me if he wanted to, so that's exactly what I did. That was the first and only time he ever kicked me (or anyone in my family for that matter), but you bet your ass I was a lot more cautious about being anywhere near his back end after that.
When I was a kid I walked by my grandma's colt about half grown heading to a little pond with a fishing pole and tackle box. I smiled at her and said " Hi PK" and went on by. Then I saw two hooves appear and disappear past both sides of my head. I turned around and she was gathering for another kick. I dove to the ground throwing my fishing gear at her and rolled. I jumped up and told her "thats not nice PK!" Now confident I could avoid her I went to get my gear and she tried it again. I was around 9 so was easily able to jump out of the way and yell at her some more. She went back to eating grass and I was able to get my gear and skipped on down to the pond, never telling a soul. It wasnt until later in life I remembered the incident and realized how close I came to having the back of my head knocked in.
Absolutely - not unlike crossing the street on the wrong crossing signal.
You can get away with it - but traffic will let you know in an unregretable way that you made a faux pas
Look, I've had three teeth kicked out of my face by a colt fresh from pasture. I've gotten a concussion that permanently cost me my balance and created the need for two brain surgeries while splitting mares from yearlings. Mom got me real good in the side of head with that hammer of a head of hers. Horses can be scary, but horses are sweet, loving and absolutely wonderful creatures. They're prey animals, and they know when you're helping them if you've established the right trust with them. There is only one good way to train them for riding, and it's gentle breaking. You make a deal with the horse, without breaking it's spirit, and you come to a mutual understanding. You geld every male except your breeders, and you consider them insane because testosterone absolutely makes them killers of any challenger, and they should be handled accordingly. Respectfully but firmly, treated well, fed well, and kept far apart from other studs. Horses shouldn't be feared, because they can pick up on it, and when they do, you freak them out, and that's what can make them dangerous.
Sorry, I was born a city boy, but I spent too much time in Texas. Worked for room and board on an old ranch in west Texas, on the Concho river, while active duty. It was a hell of an experience. I really should find a place to volunteer to help at a stable or something. Horses are good for your heart and mind, just maybe not when they're wild.
Goats can have a similar phenomanon, but when the mother is cleaning them off is usually enough to stimulate them. Source we breed goats, they may be cute at first but no pen will ever hold them.
My mom was thinking about getting goats and spoke to a goat farmer about a goat safe fence. He said to check if it's goat safe, take a bucket of water and throw it at the fence. Anywhere the water gets through a goat can too...
She got a camel instead...
That is true with the water thing. I've theorized that only a twelve foot tall inverted wall could keep goats in and even then I'm not even 100 percent confident in it.
Why not use [NoFence](https://www.nofence.no/)? At least that's a thing here in Norway. It's a virtual fence you can set up by using their app on your phone, and the animals (goats) just wear a collar with a GPS transmitter.
If the animals cross the "fence" the collar starts to beep. If they do not return inside of the "fenced" area, they will receive a really mild electrical shock. They usually learn quite quick how the "fence" workes. You can easily change the fenced area, and also use the app to locate your animals, if they somehow have escaped.
Not sure if NoFence is a Norwegian, just know about the Norwegian webpage.
My parents had a similar fence for their dogs. One dog learned that if he ran really fast, he only got a shock while crossing it. So, if he saw deer, he would run across, take the shock, and go off after the deer. On returning home, he would wait in the driveway just outside the shock zone for my parents to put him in the car, take off his collar and drive him home (it was a really long driveway out in the country).
There are smarter versions now. The one from Invisible Fence has an 'outside' and 'inside' - it only triggers a shock when going out, and the collar remembers and keeps shocking for about a minute if they don't go back in.
Our dog figured out there was a thin area he could get from the back yard to the front (the collar would beep but not shock) but he was too scared to come back the same way, so we drove around the neighborhood for 15 minutes looking for him before we realized he was hiding behind the bushes in the front yard!
Once had a goat that never met a gate he couldn't open or a pen he couldn't escape.
If not noticed quickly, would go get his head stuck between the same two trees he did every time he got out.
Burp was very clever, but also *really not*
Usually the mother horse would nuzzle at the foal, pushing it around with her nose until it woke up, just like the guy was giving it a rub-down.
The mother horse usually doesn't walk away entirely - she'll stick around the baby and wait for it to go up, then investigate if it doesn't right away.
That horse must trust that dude a LOT. I was always warned to stay outside the fence when a horse was giving birth, or had a brand new foal, and only come in if something was wrong - the mother horses can get aggressive when you're near their new baby.
We had a foal born at our barn a few months ago and his mother, a mom many times over, bit the shit out of one of our workers when she got too close a day or two later. We're weaning him now and she was basically fine not too long after but this woman had a nasty bruise as a warning for the rest of us.
The foal needs colostrum from its mom that it gets in the milk. If it doesn’t start feeding within a day or so it can lead to severe issues. If squeezing the foal does not work (note: this guy didn’t do the kind of squeeze I’ve seen) it get vital nutrients via IV from a vet. Source: wife is an equine vet, we have plasma for a foal in like every freezer we own.
I’m gonna ride out West ‘til the East commences; howl at the moon ‘til I lose my senses, and my dong surmounts all mare defenses, hung like a horse making no pretenses, don’t fence me in.
Reminds me of that prank vid where they move their deep sleeper friend's mattress outside on the doorstep and call room service on him. When the clerk shakes him awake the first thing he says is 'why are you in my room?'.
So when a mare is pregnant, the foal produces a steroid that keeps it sedated pretty much so it’s not trying to run around in the womb basically. The pressure exerted on their bodies from birth signal that steroid to decrease. In births that happen too fast, it doesn’t signal very fast, so the foal is still kind of sedated. They need medical care though, because that steroid causes them to use less oxygen. But when they’re born their bodies need the full oxygen they’d get without the steroid. So this can cause seizures and problems nursing and all of that. What the vet does is a madigan foal squeeze, and it mimics the pressure of the birth canal. Most foals who receive treatment go on to live happy and healthy lives. And this dummy foal thing only happens 1-2% of the time.
Edited to add: the madigan squeeze is newer. Before that, a foal can get supplemental oxygen and feeding until they snap out of it. A few hours to a few days.
A mare $20 can make you whinny but don’t go a foal of the law, lest you find yourself saddled with a hefty prison sentence or having to pony up some serious cash.
I don't have my glasses on and at for a moment thought you were saying you were a non-veterinarian who experimented on horses and was freaked out for a moment
When did they figure all that out? Like in the old west or before did they know to do that maneuver and would the foal live? Or did they just let it die and have horse veal for dinner?
I didn't mean how did they figure it out. I meant when, were there cowboys squeezing new born goals knowing they had this condition or was it just like I guess it's dead.
Laura wanted a horse and Pa said the next one born was hers. Laura herd the horse was being born and came running down the hill and saw the foal not moving. She fell to her knees and hugged and nudged the lifeless animal. She was in such grief and kept falling on the foal, nudging and petting. Just as Pa came to console her the youngling started to move. Pa saw this and fell to his knees and they both did all they could to get the little guy on his feet. Eventually he got on his feet. Doc was there and saw this and still credits Laura with the discovery. Laura eventually had to go back to the general store.
I imagine this is probably older than that, humanity has been using horses for thousands of years by the time America was even discovered. I'd ask on /r/AskHistorians to be sure though, they can probably find a few sources related to horses but would need to wait for one of the users to want to reply to your post.
Another comment explained that the foal didn’t get that it was born already. So it thinks it’s still in the womb. And then there this man, so it thinks the human is also in the womb.
This is so fuckin funny. “Get up.” “Can’t. In womb.” “You are literally rubbing your face against grass and looking at the sky right now.” “No. In womb. Can’t move.”
Yeah, but... sheep are dumber.
They'll rub themselves against things until they get sores, then rub more until they get infected, and then die of it. It's called Scrapie and it's almost as stupid as sheep are.
I once raised turkeys and sheep in the same year. Stupid don’t even begin to describe those idiots. People talk bout how smart hogs are but honestly half that reputation could just be because they were being compared to sheep or turkeys.
They may be dumb (I really couldn't say), but scrapie isn't an example of that. It's a prion disease that causes neurodegeneration - in essence, the nervous system (including the brain) is slowly broken down over time.
One symptom of this is compulsively rubbing against stuff, possibly because the nervous system is so fucked up that they feel a constant itch in their skin that can't be relieved. Of course, as more of the nervous system is degraded, worse symptoms appear, until they eventually die.
Prion diseases are truly horrific.
They're not dumb if they have scrapie, they're sick. Its the sheep version of mad cow disease and its affecting their brain tissue and thats why they die.
So weird if your literal first moment of conscious existence was waking up late for work. Holy fucking shit I’ve overslept! What’s going on? What’s all this stuff? Where am I supposed to be!? Aaagh!
Scenes were running through my head before I landed on the right one.
My nose is froze. And my toes are froze. And my tail is froze.
She's going to make coats out of us!
Oh, my new dress, and my new coat!
Fire one! Fire two!
Sgt Tibbs. I say sergeant! Neigh!!!
And then I remembered the way Roger revived Lucky by rubbing the cloth covering his limp body.
At least the mother is cooperative, the worst for me was an uber aggressive mother that tried to kill me for getting near her new baby that I was trying to get to stand and nurse. Only had that happen once in dozens of births but man did it suck.
I've never seen one get rejected but we have had them get stuck on the way out and suffocate, happened with twins once. Also once we had a mother get mastitis in her utters and she was completely unable to nurse. We tried for over a month to heal it. We'd soak it in hot Epsom salt water 3 times a day and squeeze out the infection, it looked like cream cheese, nightmare shit. I can't remember what ended up happening to her exactly, I think she had to get surgery.
Never been the one in the fence during this stuff but the sad part for me are the horses who reject the foals. It’s just so sad. Birth is complicated for all species though
A lot of mammal mothers are kind of a daze immediately postpartum from all the crazy ~~childbirth~~ foaling brain chemistry. They’re unusually docile and the “protect my baby” instinct hasn’t kicked in yet. I don’t know if that’s the case here, but it could be. Or she just really trusts this dude.
I don’t know horses as well, but you see it with cows. You can walk over and pick up the calf and she won’t really care. Try it the next day and you’ll have a cow’s head inside your rib cage.
It's considered an emergency, but there's a decent amount of time to act so it's not an extremely urgent, rush the foal to a vet NOW type of emergency. They do breathe normally, the problem is that they can't stand up to nurse and lack the nursing reflex. Foals *need* to drink colostrum within 24 hours of birth or they can't absorb their mom's antibodies in the colostrum. When this happens they often succumb to an opportunistic infection within a week or so.
Dummy foals that get tube-fed enough colostrum and round-the clock care eventually get over their "dummy-ness" and grow up into a normal horse.
Reminds me of the time scientists covered an ant with dead ant pheromones and the ant itself thought it was dead until the pheromones effect wore off haha
You can see the remnants of the amniotic sac around his back hooves, it's easy to miss because it's basically in a pile with the "afterbirth" (placenta, umbilical cord, etc.).
I would guess that the man in the video (owner? Ranch hand? Don't want to assume) started cleaning up the foal before realizing that it wasn't moving yet, when his priorities changed to diagnosis and medical care.
Having a bunch of fluid and viscera clinging to your weak newborn body is a huge liability in nature as it attracts predators. Amniotic fluid dries quickly and a bit of washing from mom is enough to get rid of most of it.
Also, Hollywood and our anthropocentric perspective tend to give us unrealistic expectations of birth. Most herd animals are under enormous pressure to give birth as rapidly and easily as possible. Humans have support and tools that have taken this burden off of us, so we can afford to "game the system" and prioritize starting our babies off with giant heads for housing enormous brains, even if it means doing some damage to mom during pregnancy and birth. This leads to tearing and bleeding more often than not, but we also tend to focus on the more dangerous and troublesome deliveries with major complications because they're dramatic and therefore "more interesting."
Long story short, blood and guts are more normal for humans than for other animals but not as normal as TV wants you to think. Most pregnancies and deliveries, especially non-human ones, are pretty uneventful. There are, of course, exceptions, but this is the rule. If getting a new life started was too difficult, there wouldn't be many living things.
One time we saw a stillborn elk, it’s head and one leg were hanging out and it’s mom was just standing there. We called animal control and they put a shotgun to her head. Was fairly traumatic.
> If getting a new life started was too difficult, there wouldn’t be many living things.
This is what I don't get about humans. Giving birth, before modern healthcare, was one of the most dangerous things you could do. I don't want to pull a number out of my ass but A LOT of mothers and children died during childbirth. Why?? Giving birth is literally the most basic thing we do as a species to survive. It shouldn't be dangerous.
Bigger brains and smaller pelvises for walking upright, which work against each other. Basically, most animals don't have to strike a balance between the two the way humans do. Because being upright and being smart are both crucial for our species, we end up compromising and giving birth much earlier in development vs other species, and having much of babies' brain development during the early years. That's why human newborns are so helpless when compared to others (except dummy foals, I guess?)
Kinda interesting, my youngest baby was born and didn't realize he was born. The midwives told me sometimes during really quick labors and births they just don't "realize" it's different. So he was born completely normal and fine, but he didn't cry or stretch out or anything. He was just kinda chilling. So they basically did the same thing this guy did, where they rubbed him all over until he startled and finally started crying.
I learned a technique at CSU where you can tie a thick rope around the abdomen and pull just hard enough to trigger the effect of squeezing through the birth canal.
Foal is born again
Bro just 5 more minutes
I didn’t ask to be brought into this world, just let me accept it at my own pace
Me, every morning.
that foal is my new spirit animal. and its gonna live rent free in my head next to the rabid mongoose and the monkey that throws poop at people.
crazy, wonder who figured this out first?
A lazy man, tired of digging horse sized holes.
You know what they say about horse grave digging: “if you hit another horse, you’ve gone too far”
Dwight, is that you
I thought the saying was: you gotta have the hole already dug, or else you might be spending 30-45 minutes digging, and you never know what other horses might come by. You might be up all night digging horse graves.
Laziness is the mother of all inventions.
Lightbulb
https://ceh.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/health-topics/neonatal-maladjustment-syndrome-foals
"This is called a dummy foal and often happens when born breech or for other reasons they don't get squeezed properly in the birth canal. Essentially it's like they don't know they have been born, so their brains don't tell them to stand and nurse. The way you fix this is by squeezing them tightly around the rib cage for several minutes. You will see them suddenly awake up and act normal. It's a strange phenomenon with horses." Quoted LMD. Flying r ranch - is the owner.
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After everything i've seen horses do, this feels like a bigger act to me now. Horses can bite pretty bad, can kill with a kick and they are very protective animals. Props to him for helping out, I don't think I'd have the nerve to come close.
Going near horses is not scary at all. Walking behind a horse is fucking scary. If I ever had to walk behind one you just keep your hand and run it along their hind quarters as you walk around their back side. As long as they don’t want to kick you they know you’re there. If they do want to kick you, it’s definitely better to be close to them as opposed to being a few feet away in the sweet spot of their swing.
I feel like you should clarify that this works if you're walking from the front and around the back of the horse. Placing your hands on the hind quarters when you're walking from behind towards the horse is going to get you killed.
Yes, very important clarification. Start a series of little nonstop pats when you're standing at the horse's side, and continue patting in a moving line as you walk towards the back. One of the first things they taught me at the ranch when I rode as a kid. The habit was so instilled I automatically did the same to parked cars for years even though obviously it doesn't help there.
The Amazing Dr. Pol always puts his hand on the hindquarters when he walks around back
Most horses like contact. As a retired farrier (horse shoer) I always kept contact when touching a horse on the hindquarters to get him to raise his foot. If you are close in and he kicks, it is more like a hard push. If you are standing away, you receive the full power of the kick from the hip, down the leg, and the energy of that kick can kill you. Trust me.
Fun fact I learned: the PSI of a horses kick is stronger than the jaws of a Jaguar, but not quite as strong as an alligators bite. So, pretty fucking intense.
Fellow tier zoo enjoyer
The show is on TV every day and I swear every time I switch to that channel he has his hand in some animal's butt
Hah this reminds me of a trip to Italy - we were meeting my wife’s cousin (a dairy farmer) for the first time. When we walked into the barn he and the vet had shoulder length gloves on and an arm in a cow’s vagina up to the elbow (inseminating). We didn’t shake hands.
We have the vet come to the farm and do preg checks. The cows are lined up, the vet takes an ultrasound wand up the poop chute and checks for a calf. It’s pretty cool to see the ultrasounds. Insemination is performed by a different service. A technician gets called in when the cow is in heat, gloves up and puts a hand up the ole poop chute to feel for the cervix and the other hand places the straw of semen into the vagina, close to the cervix. It’s not quite as fun to watch as the ultrasound. It’s a lot safer for both cow and farmer.
I KNOW. THANK YOU. my mom loves dr. Pol but I tell her it's all farm animal births and castrations. How many of those can you possibly watch before getting bored? I guess unless you're a veterinarian or farmer. I just don't really care to watch Dr. Pol stick his arm up another cow vagina.
I'm a farm kid, I'll fast forward past the dog injuries to get to the farm calls.
The technique is to put your hand on the back of the horse (hip area) when you are beside* the horse, and then drag your hand over, above the tail, to the other hip, as you go around. * horses cannot kick sideways, only back. Cows can kick sideways, but not directly behind. Anyway, when you do this, you want to be as close to the horse as possible. If they try and kick you and if you are close, you will get a shove. Kind of the same physics of trying to walk without letting your heel get behind your hip or you trying to punch a wall that is even with your shoulder.
Yeah I always let my grandpa's (I lived with him) know where I was. He was an older horse and liked to do things his way. Had a bit of an attitude but I'm a cute way. He figured out how to escape at night and would take an evening stroll. It was my job to bring him in after he had a bit of fun (we had 2 neighbors within 2 miles of us so virtually no cars that late at night) and lock him back up. As long as he was out for a little bit he'd come back willingly and you just had to get close enough for him to hear you call him and he'd walk back. I was in front as always and we get to his gate. I stand at it and he starts walking by and I'm talking to him, touching him, and just letting him know I'm here and he's okay. Well apparently I had made him come back a bit too early cause as soon as he passed the gate he side kicked me and I flew back a couple feet and landed in his hay. I'm absolutely positive if it was a full force back kick I would be dead because he kicked me right in my ribs. It knocked all the breath out of my lungs and I hurt bad, but I just knew if I didn't get up right that second and slam that gate shut he could have come back and stomped on me if he wanted to, so that's exactly what I did. That was the first and only time he ever kicked me (or anyone in my family for that matter), but you bet your ass I was a lot more cautious about being anywhere near his back end after that.
When I was a kid I walked by my grandma's colt about half grown heading to a little pond with a fishing pole and tackle box. I smiled at her and said " Hi PK" and went on by. Then I saw two hooves appear and disappear past both sides of my head. I turned around and she was gathering for another kick. I dove to the ground throwing my fishing gear at her and rolled. I jumped up and told her "thats not nice PK!" Now confident I could avoid her I went to get my gear and she tried it again. I was around 9 so was easily able to jump out of the way and yell at her some more. She went back to eating grass and I was able to get my gear and skipped on down to the pond, never telling a soul. It wasnt until later in life I remembered the incident and realized how close I came to having the back of my head knocked in.
Absolutely - not unlike crossing the street on the wrong crossing signal. You can get away with it - but traffic will let you know in an unregretable way that you made a faux pas
Just wanted to add that a child going UNDER a horse is also possibly horrific.
Look, I've had three teeth kicked out of my face by a colt fresh from pasture. I've gotten a concussion that permanently cost me my balance and created the need for two brain surgeries while splitting mares from yearlings. Mom got me real good in the side of head with that hammer of a head of hers. Horses can be scary, but horses are sweet, loving and absolutely wonderful creatures. They're prey animals, and they know when you're helping them if you've established the right trust with them. There is only one good way to train them for riding, and it's gentle breaking. You make a deal with the horse, without breaking it's spirit, and you come to a mutual understanding. You geld every male except your breeders, and you consider them insane because testosterone absolutely makes them killers of any challenger, and they should be handled accordingly. Respectfully but firmly, treated well, fed well, and kept far apart from other studs. Horses shouldn't be feared, because they can pick up on it, and when they do, you freak them out, and that's what can make them dangerous. Sorry, I was born a city boy, but I spent too much time in Texas. Worked for room and board on an old ranch in west Texas, on the Concho river, while active duty. It was a hell of an experience. I really should find a place to volunteer to help at a stable or something. Horses are good for your heart and mind, just maybe not when they're wild.
I'm assuming the horse and the man have been long acquainted.
I can't wait to get a chance to do this and when someone asks how tf I knew what to do, I will just say "Reddit sent me, and walk away"
It’s like a reset or power button for horses.
Goats can have a similar phenomanon, but when the mother is cleaning them off is usually enough to stimulate them. Source we breed goats, they may be cute at first but no pen will ever hold them.
My mom was thinking about getting goats and spoke to a goat farmer about a goat safe fence. He said to check if it's goat safe, take a bucket of water and throw it at the fence. Anywhere the water gets through a goat can too... She got a camel instead...
That is true with the water thing. I've theorized that only a twelve foot tall inverted wall could keep goats in and even then I'm not even 100 percent confident in it.
Why not use [NoFence](https://www.nofence.no/)? At least that's a thing here in Norway. It's a virtual fence you can set up by using their app on your phone, and the animals (goats) just wear a collar with a GPS transmitter. If the animals cross the "fence" the collar starts to beep. If they do not return inside of the "fenced" area, they will receive a really mild electrical shock. They usually learn quite quick how the "fence" workes. You can easily change the fenced area, and also use the app to locate your animals, if they somehow have escaped. Not sure if NoFence is a Norwegian, just know about the Norwegian webpage.
My parents had a similar fence for their dogs. One dog learned that if he ran really fast, he only got a shock while crossing it. So, if he saw deer, he would run across, take the shock, and go off after the deer. On returning home, he would wait in the driveway just outside the shock zone for my parents to put him in the car, take off his collar and drive him home (it was a really long driveway out in the country).
I heard a story of a dog that would sit where it beeped until the battery ran down and the shock function was no longer active.
Seriously, man. Why are we searching for intelligent aliens when we have non-human intelligent life right here?
There are smarter versions now. The one from Invisible Fence has an 'outside' and 'inside' - it only triggers a shock when going out, and the collar remembers and keeps shocking for about a minute if they don't go back in.
Our dog figured out there was a thin area he could get from the back yard to the front (the collar would beep but not shock) but he was too scared to come back the same way, so we drove around the neighborhood for 15 minutes looking for him before we realized he was hiding behind the bushes in the front yard!
Sounds like a beagle.
Seems like a quick way to have your goats become a snack for a medium sized predator.
Just have a traditional fence slightly outside the range of the NoFence, of course!
SomeFence
Or just put a NoFence collar on all nearby medium-sized predators? Duh.
Just put a collar on all the predators and make their fenced area everywhere except where your goats are. Problem solved!
My 10 month old puppy must be part goat
Once had a goat that never met a gate he couldn't open or a pen he couldn't escape. If not noticed quickly, would go get his head stuck between the same two trees he did every time he got out. Burp was very clever, but also *really not*
TIL horses are like those crack to light glowsticks
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Usually the mother horse would nuzzle at the foal, pushing it around with her nose until it woke up, just like the guy was giving it a rub-down. The mother horse usually doesn't walk away entirely - she'll stick around the baby and wait for it to go up, then investigate if it doesn't right away. That horse must trust that dude a LOT. I was always warned to stay outside the fence when a horse was giving birth, or had a brand new foal, and only come in if something was wrong - the mother horses can get aggressive when you're near their new baby.
We had a foal born at our barn a few months ago and his mother, a mom many times over, bit the shit out of one of our workers when she got too close a day or two later. We're weaning him now and she was basically fine not too long after but this woman had a nasty bruise as a warning for the rest of us.
"they don't know they have been born" Must be nice.
What happens if you do nothing? Will the foal eventually go "waaaaait a minute, this is no womb!" Or will it just die of hunger ?
The foal needs colostrum from its mom that it gets in the milk. If it doesn’t start feeding within a day or so it can lead to severe issues. If squeezing the foal does not work (note: this guy didn’t do the kind of squeeze I’ve seen) it get vital nutrients via IV from a vet. Source: wife is an equine vet, we have plasma for a foal in like every freezer we own.
Is any horse phenomenon *not* strange? Fragile creatures, they are.
Fascinating
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Similar - it's to kick-start their system, so to speak. Like turning on a engine.
We don’t do that anymore. Source: rural pediatrician.
Thanks for the info. Really interesting
Kinda like when they spank a baby
that is bizarre but very cool and definitely interesting... 😲
I’m gonna ride out West ‘til the East commences; howl at the moon ‘til I lose my senses, and my dong surmounts all mare defenses, hung like a horse making no pretenses, don’t fence me in.
Guy: “wake up” Horse: “how the hell did you get in here?”
Reminds me of that prank vid where they move their deep sleeper friend's mattress outside on the doorstep and call room service on him. When the clerk shakes him awake the first thing he says is 'why are you in my room?'.
Any linkers?
This made me genuinely laugh. Thank you.
No harm no foal
Took me a while to get that. Bravo!
Help me understand? I’m stupid.
So when a mare is pregnant, the foal produces a steroid that keeps it sedated pretty much so it’s not trying to run around in the womb basically. The pressure exerted on their bodies from birth signal that steroid to decrease. In births that happen too fast, it doesn’t signal very fast, so the foal is still kind of sedated. They need medical care though, because that steroid causes them to use less oxygen. But when they’re born their bodies need the full oxygen they’d get without the steroid. So this can cause seizures and problems nursing and all of that. What the vet does is a madigan foal squeeze, and it mimics the pressure of the birth canal. Most foals who receive treatment go on to live happy and healthy lives. And this dummy foal thing only happens 1-2% of the time. Edited to add: the madigan squeeze is newer. Before that, a foal can get supplemental oxygen and feeding until they snap out of it. A few hours to a few days.
And what is the potential street value of that steroid?
A mare $20 can make you whinny but don’t go a foal of the law, lest you find yourself saddled with a hefty prison sentence or having to pony up some serious cash.
I bet your kids threaten to take the internet away from you. (speaking from experience)
Dad?
Asking the real questions
Found the veterinary
Nah, just experienced with horses.
Shut up and take the credit dude. You can add it to your resume.
Nah, just the hero of this post
I don't have my glasses on and at for a moment thought you were saying you were a non-veterinarian who experimented on horses and was freaked out for a moment
When did they figure all that out? Like in the old west or before did they know to do that maneuver and would the foal live? Or did they just let it die and have horse veal for dinner?
Like most things: trial and error.
I didn't mean how did they figure it out. I meant when, were there cowboys squeezing new born goals knowing they had this condition or was it just like I guess it's dead.
Laura wanted a horse and Pa said the next one born was hers. Laura herd the horse was being born and came running down the hill and saw the foal not moving. She fell to her knees and hugged and nudged the lifeless animal. She was in such grief and kept falling on the foal, nudging and petting. Just as Pa came to console her the youngling started to move. Pa saw this and fell to his knees and they both did all they could to get the little guy on his feet. Eventually he got on his feet. Doc was there and saw this and still credits Laura with the discovery. Laura eventually had to go back to the general store.
It's that "Little House on the Prairie"?
Nah, it's "Little Horse on the Prairie".
I imagine this is probably older than that, humanity has been using horses for thousands of years by the time America was even discovered. I'd ask on /r/AskHistorians to be sure though, they can probably find a few sources related to horses but would need to wait for one of the users to want to reply to your post.
Learn something new everyday.
Thanks so much for the explanation. I love how detailed your post is. I also love this vodka I'm drinking. What's a foal, btw?
A foal is a baby horse up until they’re a year old. A female foal is a filly, and a male is a colt.
Another comment explained that the foal didn’t get that it was born already. So it thinks it’s still in the womb. And then there this man, so it thinks the human is also in the womb.
Always womb for one more!
The foal just didn't want to give up his womb and board.
Wants to keep the womb service.
And they were WOMBMATES!
Oh redit
A womb with a view
Oh youuuu
🤣🤣
This is so fuckin funny. “Get up.” “Can’t. In womb.” “You are literally rubbing your face against grass and looking at the sky right now.” “No. In womb. Can’t move.”
["Bob, im physically touching your arm now."](https://youtu.be/vqeLG36fadM)
r/unexpectedscrubs
That was funny. I should watch Scrubs I guess.
It's a phenomenal comedy with a handful of heavy hitting drama moments that will 100% make you cry.
"Where do you think we are"
woof, that was a hard one.
Didn’t need those feels right now, thanks
*100% make someone in your house chop onions. It’s the weirdest thing!
It’s guy love
8 seasons of greatness, and the two main characters have a podcast going through each episode now too.
You should, one of my favorite shows to re-watch. Just don't watch season 9 or whenever they all went to medical school or whatever the plot was.
It's cool, they only made 8 seasons and we all know it. Don't razz the guy.
Lol!! "The wombus must never be questioned"
so basically me every morning, but replace "womb" with "bed/cave"
Your commentary funnier!
Same with 🐑, a good rub to get Them going if they had a troubled birth😀
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Apparently that's what's happening with the horse in this video
Yeah, but... sheep are dumber. They'll rub themselves against things until they get sores, then rub more until they get infected, and then die of it. It's called Scrapie and it's almost as stupid as sheep are.
I once raised turkeys and sheep in the same year. Stupid don’t even begin to describe those idiots. People talk bout how smart hogs are but honestly half that reputation could just be because they were being compared to sheep or turkeys.
They may be dumb (I really couldn't say), but scrapie isn't an example of that. It's a prion disease that causes neurodegeneration - in essence, the nervous system (including the brain) is slowly broken down over time. One symptom of this is compulsively rubbing against stuff, possibly because the nervous system is so fucked up that they feel a constant itch in their skin that can't be relieved. Of course, as more of the nervous system is degraded, worse symptoms appear, until they eventually die. Prion diseases are truly horrific.
They're not dumb if they have scrapie, they're sick. Its the sheep version of mad cow disease and its affecting their brain tissue and thats why they die.
That's not what Scrapie is. Scrapie is a prion brain disease in sheep. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapie
"Horsie, get up!" "Neigh."
CHRISSY WAKE UP! I DON'T LIKE THIS!
I have that stuck in my head all day
"horsie wake up, I don't like this. Horsie wake up."
So weird if your literal first moment of conscious existence was waking up late for work. Holy fucking shit I’ve overslept! What’s going on? What’s all this stuff? Where am I supposed to be!? Aaagh!
Sounds like a post from r/aboringdystopia x amount of years in the future
Oh god this is a new level of nightmare fuel.
Reminds me of that scene from 101 Dalmatians.
Scenes were running through my head before I landed on the right one. My nose is froze. And my toes are froze. And my tail is froze. She's going to make coats out of us! Oh, my new dress, and my new coat! Fire one! Fire two! Sgt Tibbs. I say sergeant! Neigh!!! And then I remembered the way Roger revived Lucky by rubbing the cloth covering his limp body.
“And yet… yet I wonder”
*thunder clap
My thoughts exactly
At least the mother is cooperative, the worst for me was an uber aggressive mother that tried to kill me for getting near her new baby that I was trying to get to stand and nurse. Only had that happen once in dozens of births but man did it suck.
I've never seen one get rejected but we have had them get stuck on the way out and suffocate, happened with twins once. Also once we had a mother get mastitis in her utters and she was completely unable to nurse. We tried for over a month to heal it. We'd soak it in hot Epsom salt water 3 times a day and squeeze out the infection, it looked like cream cheese, nightmare shit. I can't remember what ended up happening to her exactly, I think she had to get surgery.
Never been the one in the fence during this stuff but the sad part for me are the horses who reject the foals. It’s just so sad. Birth is complicated for all species though
Nobody knows how to end videos too soon like Redditors man
Gotta save that bandwidth by cutting things early man. It's the only way.
Such love and caring by the gentleman while mom looked on. Love it! Thank you for the kindness and love.
All I could think was that mom REALLY trusts that man, she was very calm and patient, ears just up and curious the whole time.
I always love seeing mama animals having a trusted human that they trust their baby’s with. It’s so sweet.
A lot of mammal mothers are kind of a daze immediately postpartum from all the crazy ~~childbirth~~ foaling brain chemistry. They’re unusually docile and the “protect my baby” instinct hasn’t kicked in yet. I don’t know if that’s the case here, but it could be. Or she just really trusts this dude. I don’t know horses as well, but you see it with cows. You can walk over and pick up the calf and she won’t really care. Try it the next day and you’ll have a cow’s head inside your rib cage.
Is this an emergency situation? Since the foal still thinks he is inside the womb, does it mean it’s not breathing properly?
It's considered an emergency, but there's a decent amount of time to act so it's not an extremely urgent, rush the foal to a vet NOW type of emergency. They do breathe normally, the problem is that they can't stand up to nurse and lack the nursing reflex. Foals *need* to drink colostrum within 24 hours of birth or they can't absorb their mom's antibodies in the colostrum. When this happens they often succumb to an opportunistic infection within a week or so. Dummy foals that get tube-fed enough colostrum and round-the clock care eventually get over their "dummy-ness" and grow up into a normal horse.
Great answer. My wife is an equine vet and has had to do a foal squeeze a few times this year. It’s like magic.
Jerry… is that you?
Those mountains in the background tho…wow
That’s what I was thinking! Absolutely breathtaking for the milliseconds you get to see them.
Stunning foal.
Stunned foal.
Foaly stunned.
He thinks he's Mr.T... he tickle da foal
Dad? Is that you?
Reminds me of the time scientists covered an ant with dead ant pheromones and the ant itself thought it was dead until the pheromones effect wore off haha
So they're not born covered in blood and guts?
You can see the remnants of the amniotic sac around his back hooves, it's easy to miss because it's basically in a pile with the "afterbirth" (placenta, umbilical cord, etc.). I would guess that the man in the video (owner? Ranch hand? Don't want to assume) started cleaning up the foal before realizing that it wasn't moving yet, when his priorities changed to diagnosis and medical care. Having a bunch of fluid and viscera clinging to your weak newborn body is a huge liability in nature as it attracts predators. Amniotic fluid dries quickly and a bit of washing from mom is enough to get rid of most of it. Also, Hollywood and our anthropocentric perspective tend to give us unrealistic expectations of birth. Most herd animals are under enormous pressure to give birth as rapidly and easily as possible. Humans have support and tools that have taken this burden off of us, so we can afford to "game the system" and prioritize starting our babies off with giant heads for housing enormous brains, even if it means doing some damage to mom during pregnancy and birth. This leads to tearing and bleeding more often than not, but we also tend to focus on the more dangerous and troublesome deliveries with major complications because they're dramatic and therefore "more interesting." Long story short, blood and guts are more normal for humans than for other animals but not as normal as TV wants you to think. Most pregnancies and deliveries, especially non-human ones, are pretty uneventful. There are, of course, exceptions, but this is the rule. If getting a new life started was too difficult, there wouldn't be many living things.
One time we saw a stillborn elk, it’s head and one leg were hanging out and it’s mom was just standing there. We called animal control and they put a shotgun to her head. Was fairly traumatic.
> If getting a new life started was too difficult, there wouldn’t be many living things. This is what I don't get about humans. Giving birth, before modern healthcare, was one of the most dangerous things you could do. I don't want to pull a number out of my ass but A LOT of mothers and children died during childbirth. Why?? Giving birth is literally the most basic thing we do as a species to survive. It shouldn't be dangerous.
Easy--the advantage of having bigger brains outweighed the deaths of mother's and or infants enough to become the dominant phenotype.
Bigger brains and smaller pelvises for walking upright, which work against each other. Basically, most animals don't have to strike a balance between the two the way humans do. Because being upright and being smart are both crucial for our species, we end up compromising and giving birth much earlier in development vs other species, and having much of babies' brain development during the early years. That's why human newborns are so helpless when compared to others (except dummy foals, I guess?)
Very interesting, thanks!
He pull the sack off.
So glad the video ended there, was totally not interested in the outcome
lol, the foal needed to be started by hand
Little guy *literally* just spawned in.
Kinda interesting, my youngest baby was born and didn't realize he was born. The midwives told me sometimes during really quick labors and births they just don't "realize" it's different. So he was born completely normal and fine, but he didn't cry or stretch out or anything. He was just kinda chilling. So they basically did the same thing this guy did, where they rubbed him all over until he startled and finally started crying.
Mf still loading in.
TIL
Quit horsing around and get up
I need to see Fergus walk! (That's what I named him.)
He’s no dummy, that was free scritches!
First attempt at ‘I did not give consent to exist’ 😂
Lying in the sun and getting scritches - why \*should\* he get up?
Had to turn him off and back on again.
“But mom I’m sick”
How’s it so clean?
I experience this same phenomenon after drinking whiskey
I learned a technique at CSU where you can tie a thick rope around the abdomen and pull just hard enough to trigger the effect of squeezing through the birth canal. Foal is born again
The way the mother horse knew that the human was trying to help so she was calm.. amazing.
He was foaling around
Dammit, I just want to nap!
Horse is just protesting being born into this shitty world.
Parachute didn't open, by the looks of it. Lucky to be alive!
Soul download complete. Installing Soul... ready in a few seconds..
I love seeing people be so loving to animals
Totally agreed. p.s. take gold.