Update on the preemie

The cria that was born on June 11 and showed signs of being a bit premature still has problems. He can’t get up. We’re working under the assumption that he has white muscle disease, since he has responded to injections of selenium. Within a day or so of the second injection, Buster was able to walk once we stood him up. He’s getting stronger every day and can walk across the barn or for quite a distance in the field, he can correct his balance when he starts to teeter and he can stand under his mother and nurse. If we get him up. He can cush from a standing position – once in a while – usually he tips over. He tips over a LOT. Poor guy.  But he eats well and is gaining weight and getting stronger. We’re just hoping that not much damage was done to his muscles and that he will recover enough to be able to move around on his own.

In 12 years, this is the first time we’ve seen this problem. We currently have 9 crias on the ground and only one seems deficient. The others are all very healthy and vigorous. We know that the soils in this part of the country are selenium deficient and we provide a mineral supplement for just that reason. But we are going to add selenium injections to our protocol for newborn crias.