Cria born with their ears turned inside out

If you have a cria born that has its ears appearing “inside out” you may wish to assist in their correction.  If left alone, they will often correct themselves but, by carefully wrapping tape around the ears encouraging those back to their correct position you will ensure a speedy recovery (should be corrected within a few days).  If you choose to assist in the correction of the ears, be careful that you do not apply the tape too tightly, thus cutting of blood flow to the rest of the ear.  

I had a cria that was born like this and was told that it may have been a sign of prematurity.  This was probably not the case as the pregnancy was already at 360 days and there were no other signs of prematurity.  I left the ears to fix on their own, however after a few days I realized that the cria, when it rained, was getting rain in its ears, also, it was getting the tender skin on the inside of its ears burnt when the sun shone, so I stepped in and wrapped the ears with tape.  After 4 days I removed the tape and the cria now has perfectly normal looking ears.

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Tying off the Umbilical Cord

Last year we had a cria bleed from its umbilical cord a few hours after being born. 

I didn’t have the official cord clamp on hand at the time, so, I used some ‘Dental Floss’ to tie it off.  This proved to be very successful.  The Dental Floss was very strong and reasonably ‘sterile’, though perhaps a little more fiddly to use than a clamp. 

The whole experience highlighted the need to check on your new cria every couple of hours that first day just to make sure all is still well.

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The information presented here is from our own experiences, adapted from others to suit our situation, property and our animals. We don’t claim to be experts and you are welcome to disagree, if you find something useful – great. Everyone is welcome to comment and provide feedback – see Contact Us.