SKITTLES' THREAD

[Skittles]

This gives me a little hope. I am a total newbie raising a now 1.5-2 week old EGS. I am a little freaked about the formula. He didn’t seem dehydrated when found but I gave him a few rounds of homemade pedialyte before I started on Esbiliac puppy with probiotic (what was recommended on a website because it’s easy to find and then switched him to FV 32/40 a few days later when I got it in (as they suggested).

He seems healthy (active, pees every feeding, poops almost every feeding and on his own sometimes, has black fuzz on his head, back and tail and a white chin now &#128151 except he’s not gaining hardly any weight! I read about HWC and added a very small amount because I wasn’t sure of ratio then I read FV 32/40 is bad so I switched back to the Esbiliac yesterday and added a tiny bit of cream. I think it’s Henry’s that has the healthy and unhealthy babies pics at each age and he’s not as emaciated as that poor little fellow at 2 weeks but he’s uncomfortably close and has dry skin now too. There is no way he’ll be as huge as the three week old any time soon! I ordered a new scale as mine shows a lot of fluctuation so maybe it’s the scale? He was 14 g when we found him and somewhere between 17 and 19 g now. Please help!! Here he is now and the day we found him. What’s a normal newborn weight?

Ok, I admin a group with KCassidy and another rehanber on FB. We started two years ago about the time the sh1t hit the fan. We currently have 13,000 members and we are recommending a formula blend of FV 32/40, Zoologic 33/40 or Esbilac Puppy with heavy cream. However, we do have a number of members who have been using Esbilac either alone or with HWC successfully. If I'm not mistaken, Island Rehabber uses Esbilac without issues.
I would not go crazy hitting the panic button until we see some xrays of these babies to be sure it is mbd.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Skittles. I’m glad you found us. Your baby is very compromised. I’m afraid it will start failing soon.
He is very dehydrated. Can you give us the ingredients in the homemade hydration fluid? I think you need to buy some Pedialyte as it has more minerals than the homemade type.

I think you are wise to get him off of the FV32:40. Based on problems from the past, it is nearly impossible for a pinkie to digest FV32:40. I would go ahead and order the FoxValley 20:50 as you will need it in the future but I’m not sure now is the time. Continue with the Esbilac and heavy cream until someone with more experience sounds in. My experience with pinkies is limited and due to the serious condition of your baby I would rather someone else make formula recommendations. They might recommend goat milk, cream and yogurt. Pinkies can digest that easily. Actually, pinkies have problems digesting most commercial formulas. It is clear that your baby is not digesting anything based on the lack of weight gain.



Can an admin move Skittles post to a new thread in the Emergency section.?



For the rehabbers. Why did Henry’s eliminate the salt in the homemade hydration? They also say to dilute Pedialyte 50:50 with water due to the high salt content. What brought about these changes? I must have missed something and need to be brought up to date. What would you recommend for this baby?

[Charley Chuckles]

I never saw the homemade pedialyte change🤷
I've always thought GMF is used for pinkies, however I have only had 2 pinkies and I did feed Esbilac, but that was way before issues.

Skittles, I'm praying for that baby

[redwuff]

Hey Skittles,

HRT is right on, your baby looks very dehydrated and is not able to utilize the nutrition you are feeding. It is not too late to change and pull him through. When you first got him, he was a fat healthy baby from Momma.

I use the goat milk formula for pinkies. It is 3 parts goat milk, 1.5 part heavy whipping cream and 1 part full fat yogurt. I do get fresh goat milk that is sold in a health food store. Then I freeze the goat milk in much smaller quantities like in an ice cube tray.

[redwuff]

Do you grind the blocks into a powder? Then how much do you add to formula?

Hey Tuff,

I put the Mazuri block in the cage with them. They will chew it a bit, but ar this age they have not gotten molars in. They will come in at 7 weeks. At 7 wks I cut back from 5 formula feedings to 4. They really start eating block vigorously then.

[redwuff]

Skittles, please stop using 32/40 immediately. Start with rehydrating and get ingredients for GMF. This is full fat goat milk (fresh bought at store,is best) heavy whipping creme, and full fat yogurt.

GMF 3 parts goat milk, 1.5 heavy whipping cream, 1 part full fat yogurt,

Can you get him to take hydration fluid? He looks a bit bloated. Has he pooped recently?

Get some infant gas x and give him two drops. If not pooping get him pooping.

[Skittles]

I am so grateful to both of you who responded, and extremely grateful to have found this forum! I have sourced some goats milk and I’m on my way to buy it now along with Pedialyte. Should I do exclusively Pedialyte for a few feedings? Or what would you recommend?

Thank you!!

Hey Skittles,

HRT is right on, your baby looks very dehydrated and is not able to utilize the nutrition you are feeding. It is not too late to change and pull him through. When you first got him, he was a fat healthy baby from Momma.

I use the goat milk formula for pinkies. It is 3 parts goat milk, 1.5 part heavy whipping cream and 1 part full fat yogurt. I do get fresh goat milk that is sold in a health food store. Then I freeze the goat milk in much smaller quantities like in an ice cube tray.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I am so grateful to both of you who responded, and extremely grateful to have found this forum! I have sourced some goats milk and I’m on my way to buy it now along with Pedialyte. Should I do exclusively Pedialyte for a few feedings? Or what would you recommend?

Thank you!!

Grocery list:

Goat milk (fresh is best). Publix has it in the milk refrigerators. Meyenburg is the brand. It’s in a white and purple container. Look up on the top shelves. You have to look for it as it’s not at eye view.

Heavy cream

Full fat yogurt… I buy StoneyField YoBaby Vanilla. StoneyField also has Vanilla Full Fat in a larger container that is very good. I don’t like the weird flavors of YoBaby that you are forced to buy in multipacks.

GasX for bloat. The generic is simethicone.

Pedialyte.

[Skittles]

He poops frequently. At and/or between every feeding. I did buy some gas drops previously in case so I can give him a few. That photo was immediately after he ate also. His belly gets smaller after each meal then plumps up after.

I am returning home with fresh goats milk now and organic grape pedielyte. They didn’t have unflavored. Should I do only rehydration at this point, or try to get him to take a little in between feedings? I am eager to get him on formula he can properly digest but I know the rehydration is super important as well.

Skittles, please stop using 32/40 immediately. Start with rehydrating and get ingredients for GMF. This is full fat goat milk (fresh bought at store,is best) heavy whipping creme, and full fat yogurt.

GMF 3 parts goat milk, 1.5 heavy whipping cream, 1 part full fat yogurt,

Can you get him to take hydration fluid? He looks a bit bloated. Has he pooped recently?

Get some infant gas x and give him two drops. If not pooping get him pooping.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Yes, I would hydrate with Pedialyte several times before giving the GM formula.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Be sure to warm the Pedialyte.

[redwuff]

After two hydration’s, start with 50%water 50% GMF for one feeding. Next feeding go to 75% GMF 25% water. Stay there two feedings. Go to full strength. Feed @5% body weight every 4 hours.

[Skittles]

He took the pedialyte extremely well, so too the gas drops. Thank you to everyone for your quick and thoughtful responses. I am glad I listened to my intuition that something wasn’t right and found you all. (My DH thought I was being paranoid!) I am prayerfully optimistic now that we can turn it around for this precious little guy. He certainly is spunky so I think he’s a fighter.

Skittles, please stop using 32/40 immediately. Start with rehydrating and get ingredients for GMF. This is full fat goat milk (fresh bought at store,is best) heavy whipping creme, and full fat yogurt.

GMF 3 parts goat milk, 1.5 heavy whipping cream, 1 part full fat yogurt,

Can you get him to take hydration fluid? He looks a bit bloated. Has he pooped recently?

Get some infant gas x and give him two drops. If not pooping get him pooping.

[HRT4SQRLS]

He is definitely a fighter. Is his name Skittles?

Your intuition was right on target. He wouldn’t survive much longer the direction he was headed.
When on the proper formula, they should gain weight every day.
He reminded me of the scalded milk babies we have seen. There is a website that recommends that. It has killed more babies than you can imagine. It really does ‘scald’ me when I see it being promoted.

I’m pulling for Skittles.

When an admin comes on that can manipulate the thread, we want them to pull this information to a dedicated thread for Skittles. They will advise you where to find the new thread. It will contain all of this information.

[HRT4SQRLS]

You might want to go ahead and order the FoxValley 20:50 for later use. It is back ordered on some sites so you might need to look around. As of a day ago they had it at foxvalleynutrition.com .

You won’t need it now but when things settle out and he’s a little older you will need to start adding the FoxValley to transition to that. The goat milk formula is an excellent formula for the pinkies and compromised ones but he can’t stay on that. It’s not nutritionally complete.

I’m sorry that you’ve had to spend so much money on formulas you can’t use. FoxValley 20:50 is great for the older babies and no one I know has had issues with it. As for the FV32:40, everyone that uses it alone or with pinkies has problems. It is now pretty much accepted that it is deadly to pinkies.

[Charley Chuckles]

Thank you for doing all this for Skittles👍
I'm praying hard he gets on the right track now🙏

HRT and redwuff

[Skittles]

Yes he is Skittles because he’s tiny and so sweet. He’s already looking less wrinkled and feels plumper. He’s even more active too. I’m pleased with the progress of just one day, but he’s got a ways to go still. Thanks again.

He is definitely a fighter. Is his name Skittles?

Your intuition was right on target. He wouldn’t survive much longer the direction he was headed.
When on the proper formula, they should gain weight every day.
He reminded me of the scalded milk babies we have seen. There is a website that recommends that. It has killed more babies than you can imagine. It really does ‘scald’ me when I see it being promoted.

I’m pulling for Skittles.

When an admin comes on that can manipulate the thread, we want them to pull this information to a dedicated thread for Skittles. They will advise you where to find the new thread. It will contain all of this information.

[Charley Chuckles]

Glad to see his improvement

[redwuff]

Glad to hear that your baby is improving. Do you weigh every day? I usually do before I do the first feeding.

Are you feeding at 5% ? So if he weighs 70 g, he would eat 3.5 ml at each feeding. I would feed 5-6 x day if you can. I also would feed a nighttime feeding until his condition improves and he is out of the woods. You have already proven that you are dedicated to this little man. He came in as a 5-6 day old pinky and you got him this far. Not too many people can do that. Good job Momma!

If you can, keep us posted on him as much as you can. It helps us head off problems quicker.

[Skittles]

Can an admin please move my posts to its own thread under Emergency? I'm not sure how to do this but I've seen several senior members suggest this and I agree. I'd like to update the thread to keep everyone apprised of Skittles changes but have been waiting to see where it will ultimately land. Thank you!!

This gives me a little hope. I am a total newbie raising a now 1.5-2 week old EGS. I am a little freaked about the formula. He didn’t seem dehydrated when found but I gave him a few rounds of homemade pedialyte before I started on Esbiliac puppy with probiotic (what was recommended on a website because it’s easy to find and then switched him to FV 32/40 a few days later when I got it in (as they suggested).

He seems healthy (active, pees every feeding, poops almost every feeding and on his own sometimes, has black fuzz on his head, back and tail and a white chin now &#128151 except he’s not gaining hardly any weight! I read about HWC and added a very small amount because I wasn’t sure of ratio then I read FV 32/40 is bad so I switched back to the Esbiliac yesterday and added a tiny bit of cream. I think it’s Henry’s that has the healthy and unhealthy babies pics at each age and he’s not as emaciated as that poor little fellow at 2 weeks but he’s uncomfortably close and has dry skin now too. There is no way he’ll be as huge as the three week old any time soon! I ordered a new scale as mine shows a lot of fluctuation so maybe it’s the scale? He was 14 g when we found him and somewhere between 17 and 19 g now. Please help!! Here he is now and the day we found him. What’s a normal newborn weight?