Mother Necessity

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  Well, I had a bit of necessary inspiration with Gidget’s little girl, Gypsy.  She was tangled up with one of her brothers, so she didn’t develop leg muscles before she was born.  Both she and her brother got Nutri-drench, and he was fine in the morning.  Gypsy, however, was constantly spraddle-legged.

Gypsy

She would get down and couldn’t get back up.  It literally took me five tries to leave the room before she was not all spraddled out again.  Building muscle is the only way to fix it.  Her mother, however, is a pain in the butt very protective mother.  She would stomp her hoof and shake her head and push me when I’d try to help Gypsy stand and nurse.

I had to get creative.  I made an orthopedic band for her legs that would hold them close enough together that she could move and walk, but she couldn’t get totally spraddled out.  Amazingly, it worked.  She could stand!  It was stretched tight to keep her legs in place, but it was working.

She could pee!

She fell, but she could get herself back up.  For the first time, when she was two days old, she stood up on her own.

Gidget wasn’t too sure about it, but since it meant I would leave her little girl alone, she was okay with it.

By this morning, Gypsy could just pop back up and was positively dancing!  She is one happy girl.  She’s already holding her legs better.  The elastic isn’t stretched tight from holding her now.  I’m guessing I’ll be able to remove it in a day or two.