Zuzu, born on our farm in 2017 had her first kid yesterday 1/29/19. Of course, it’s right when the polar vortex descended upon us and everything is frozen with biting colds winds to top it off.
Mike went out to the barn for the turkey’s and found Zuzu standing in one of the stalls near the gate having just given birth. Because it’s her first time, she wasn’t certain exactly what she should have been doing and she wasn’t quick on the clean up. Mike put her in a stall with a heat lamp and came into the house to tell us. We gave her about 45 minutes and then went out to see if there was anything we needed to do.
The little buckling was still half covered in mucus so JoAnne got some old towels and wiped him down. Because he was still very wet, and now shivering, she also got a blow dryer and dried him off to warm him up. She and Jenelle worked for a while on warming him. Once he started to get warm he started squirming around and wanted to nurse. Zuzu wasn’t exactly pushing him away, but she was so focused on licking him that she wasn’t really giving him the opportunity to nurse. JoAnne stripped the plug out of her teat and then worked to get the little guy to find the teat and start nursing.
Because of the extreme cold we’re experiencing, we thought it was best to put a coat on him for a few days until the cold weather breaks. He was doing great this morning and Zuzu is being an attentive mom. Good Job Zuzu! if you have name suggestions, leave them in the comments.