Search

Placeholder Content Image

New NASA images capture birth of a star

<p dir="ltr">The James Webb Space Telescope continues to stun with its images of the universe following the release of an image showing a “fiery hourglass” housing a newborn star.</p> <p dir="ltr">The image of the protostar (a young star that is still unstable and cocooned in a cloud of dust and gas) has offered scientists insight into what stars might look like “in their infancy”.</p> <p dir="ltr">With the star located in the dark cloud L1527 and only visible in infrared light, the image was captured using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).</p> <p dir="ltr">The protostar itself is hidden from view within the “neck” of the hourglass shape.</p> <p dir="ltr">"An edge-on proto-planetary disk is seen as a dark line across the middle of the neck," NASA said in <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-catches-fiery-hourglass-as-new-star-forms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a release</a>.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5b29e609-7fff-75b1-1c05-9a8cee017e57"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">"Light from the protostar leaks above and below this disk, illuminating cavities within the surrounding gas and dust."</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/11/star-birth1.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a photo of a young star using its infrared camera. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Blue and orange clouds forming above, below and around the protostar that form the hourglass represent empty spaces created as material shoots away from the protostar and collides with surrounding matter, with the colours being caused by layers of dust between the camera and the clouds.</p> <p dir="ltr">The thicker the dust, the more orange the clouds appear, since blue light is unable to escape and be perceived by our eyes.</p> <p dir="ltr">While it may appear small, the disk in the middle of the hourglass is about the size of our solar system.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to NASA, the protostar is relatively young at about 100,000 years old and considered a class 0 protostar, “the earliest stage of star formation”.</p> <p dir="ltr">‘Protostars like these, which are still cocooned in a dark cloud of dust and gas, have a long way to go before they become full-fledged stars,” NASA said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"L1527 doesn't generate its own energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen yet, an essential characteristic of stars.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-83fc6d66-7fff-9fca-4c7e-d55b846fada4"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">"Its shape, while mostly spherical, is also unstable, taking the form of a small, hot and puffy clump of gas, somewhere between 20 and 40 percent the mass of our Sun."</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Our universe is beautiful. <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAWebb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NASAWebb</a> captured a stellar birth which is so poetically nestled in this hourglass shape. A truly stunning marker of time. <a href="https://t.co/8UflbFPdid">pic.twitter.com/8UflbFPdid</a></p> <p>— Shannon Stirone 💀 (@shannonmstirone) <a href="https://twitter.com/shannonmstirone/status/1593026314310934528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The protostar will get closer to stable nuclear fusion (the requirement to be a star) as it gathers more mass and its core compresses.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The scene shown in this image reveals L1527 doing just that," NASA said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The surrounding molecular cloud is made up of dense dust and gas being drawn to the centre, where the protostar resides.</p> <p dir="ltr">“As the material falls in, it spirals around the centre.</p> <p dir="ltr">"This creates a dense disk of material, known as an accretion disk, which feeds material to the protostar.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Ultimately, this view of L1527 provides a window into what our Sun and solar system looked like in their infancy.”</p> <p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><em>Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)</em></p>

Entertainment

Placeholder Content Image

Grandma gives birth to her own grandchild

<p dir="ltr">While it might be her fifth time welcoming a grandchild, the way this US woman has done so is a first for her and her family.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nancy Hauck gave birth to her granddaughter Hannah last week, according to the <em>New York Post</em>, and did so for a special reason.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 56-year-old from Utah offered to be a surrogate for her son Jeff and his wife Cambria after her daughter-in-law experienced a traumatic birth and underwent a life-saving hysterectomy.</p> <p dir="ltr">Speaking to <a href="https://people.com/human-interest/utah-grandmother-gives-birth-son-daughter-in-law-baby-feeling-so-blessed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>People</em></a> magazine, Ms Hauck said giving birth to her granddaughter “went perfectly” and that they are feeling “so blessed to have her in our family”.</p> <p dir="ltr">She said the nine-hour labour was a “remarkable and spiritual experience”, but admitted to feeling “some sadness” since the birth.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Even though I know that the baby’s going to my son, I know there’ll be a little bit of that empty feeling,” she said.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8b8cb539-7fff-98da-9dd5-146942999604"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Now, the grandmother plans to take a break from work and write a book about her experience.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkihR3cMu-0/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkihR3cMu-0/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Cambria Hauck (@cambriairene)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Her son and daughter-in-law were high school sweethearts and always knew they wanted a big family.</p> <p dir="ltr">“From the time I was a teenager, I knew that if I could only be one thing, I wanted to be a dad,” Jeff told <em>People</em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">"We always had in our mind that we wanted four to six — whatever the Lord would bless us with, is what we would always say," Cambria added.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, the couple struggled to fall pregnant for six years before having two sets of twins, four-year-old Vera and Ayva and 13-month-old Diesel and Luca, through IVF.</p> <p dir="ltr">After giving birth the second time in 2021, Cambria was advised to have a hysterectomy and was unable to safely carry more children - which is when Ms Hauck stepped in.</p> <p dir="ltr">Starting hormone treatments in January this year, Ms Hauck injected herself every day for 12 weeks with the help of her husband Jason.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e9b25e37-7fff-f21e-015b-b8223b6704d8"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">A month later, a fertilised embryo created by Jeff and Cambria through IVF was transferred to Ms Hauck and she became pregnant with her grandchild.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CgvWEb_LtM2/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CgvWEb_LtM2/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Cambria Hauck (@cambriairene)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">According to the couple, baby Hannah’s name has a special meaning and is a tribute to her grandmother.</p> <p dir="ltr">Jeff said that six days after the transfer, when his mother tested positive on a pregnancy test, she was “woken up in the middle of the night, and she heard a little voice that said, ‘My name is Hannah’”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Ms Hauck was also convinced her grandchild was a girl even before testing, and soon convinced Jeff and Cambria as well.</p> <p dir="ltr">Cambria explained that they discovered that “the name Nancy comes from Hannah” and that “they both mean grace”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I knew instantly that that was her name,” the 30-year-old added.</p> <p dir="ltr">Since Hannah’s birth, Ms Hauck and her husband have been adjusting to the idea of being her grandparents.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I hope that we won’t treat Hannah any differently,” Jason said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But we’ll always have that connection — that Nancy carried her for nine months. Just the magic of the whole experience will always be unique in our eyes.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Ms Hauck added that she wants all of her grandchildren to know that they’re equally loved and she “would’ve done it for any of them”.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fa4cd013-7fff-2175-632c-b33d2ecaa8ce"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @cambriairene (Instagram)</em></p>

Lifestyle

Placeholder Content Image

It’s a boy! Doctor leaps into action to deliver baby mid-flight

<p dir="ltr">A pregnant woman has unexpectedly given birth mid-flight, prompting a fellow passenger and doctor to set up a temporary maternity unit to help deliver the baby.</p><p dir="ltr">The Ghanian woman, who gave her name as GG, was on board a flight from Ghana to the US on January 29 when she prematurely gave birth. </p><p dir="ltr">After a Ghanian doctor delivered her baby, converting the plane’s business class area into a temporary maternity ward. </p><p dir="ltr">The woman was then met with “shock and applause” from those around her.</p><p dir="ltr">However, she was expecting to give birth later in February, an eye witness told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60219964" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>.</p><p dir="ltr">Journalist Nancy Adobea Anane, who was also on the flight, told BBC News Pidgin that an on-board announcement for medical assistance initially prompted confusion among passengers.</p><p dir="ltr">“Most of them heard the call for assistance from medical personnel but didn’t know what was going on,” she said.</p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-650fd780-7fff-5aa7-2acd-d96975929135"></span></p><p dir="ltr">“I became anxious for the safety of the baby and mother, and the possibility of a detour for an emergency landing.”</p><p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/doctor-baby.jpg" alt="" width="976" height="549" /></p><p dir="ltr"><em>Dr Stephen Ansah-Addo (left) helped deliver the baby on route to the US. Image: Nancy Adobea Anane (BBC)</em></p><p dir="ltr">Dr Stephen Ansah-Addo, who practises in the US, heard the request for help and set about delivering the baby.</p><p dir="ltr">“Myself, a nurse and the flight attendants … took [the mother] slowly through the process and she delivered a beautiful baby boy,” Dr Ansah-Addo said.</p><p dir="ltr">Ms Anane recalled that the birth was quite quick, with the baby boy entering the world within 45 minutes of the birth process starting.</p><p dir="ltr">“Her delivery was quick, like 30 to 45 minutes,” she said, which was then followed by “screaming and the familiar cry of the baby”.</p><p dir="ltr">Paramedics met the new mother and baby once the plane landed in Washington, where they received further care.</p><p dir="ltr">With the chances of going into labour naturally higher after 37 weeks of pregnancy according to the UK’s National Health Service, some airlines prohibit pregnant women from flying after this point.</p><p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-dc3b6e6f-7fff-952e-2c6f-b4a19f56c2e2"></span></p><p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Nancy Adobea Anane (BBC)</em></p>

Health

Placeholder Content Image

Newborn tested positive for coronavirus 30 hours after birth

<p>A 30-hour-old infant born in a Wuhan hospital has become the youngest person to catch the new coronavirus.</p> <p>The newborn’s mother was found to have contracted the virus before giving birth on February 2 at Wuhan Children Hospital. The baby’s case suggested that the new virus could be passed on to unborn children, scientists said.</p> <p>“This reminds us to pay attention to mother-to-child being a possible route of coronavirus transmission,” said Zeng Lingkong, the chief physician at the hospital’s neonatal department.</p> <p>The infected infant has no fever or cough but experienced shortness of breath, according to <em>CCTV</em>.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">An infant in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wuhan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Wuhan</a> has tested positive for the novel <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> just 30 hours after birth, said the city's children's hospital, raising concerns that infection could be contracted in the womb <a href="https://t.co/j8FIdqKgAS">pic.twitter.com/j8FIdqKgAS</a></p> — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) <a href="https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1225042136980230144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <p>The hospital also confirmed a second case of a newborn showing symptoms 16 days after their birth. The baby’s mother and nanny were <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/newborn-infected-with-coronavirus-raising-fears-illness-can-be-transmitted-from-mother-to-unborn-baby/ar-BBZGdIh?li=AAgfYrC">found to be infected</a> in the days following the birth on 13 January. The infant is not in a critical condition, doctors said.</p> <p>“Whether it was the baby’s nanny who passed to the virus to the mother who passed it to the baby, we cannot be sure at the moment,” Zeng said.</p> <p>“But we can confirm that the baby was in close contact with patients infected with the new coronavirus, which says newborns can also be infected.”</p> <p>However, Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, told <em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wuhan-coronavirus-in-infant-born-from-infected-mother-2020-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">Business Insider</a></em> that an in-utero transmission was unlikely.</p> <p>“It’s more likely that the baby contracted the virus from the hospital environment, the same way healthcare workers get infected by the patients they treat,” Morse said.</p> <p>“It’s quite possible that the baby picked it up very conventionally – by inhaling virus droplets that came from the mother coughing.”</p> <p>More than 24,500 people around the world have now contracted the virus, with the death toll approaching 500.</p>

News

Placeholder Content Image

Airline makes female passenger take pregnancy test ahead of flight

<p><span>A Hong Kong airline has apologised after it demanded a passenger take a pregnancy test before allowing her to board a flight to the US Pacific island of Saipan.</span></p> <p><span>25-year-old Japanese citizen Midori Nishida was checking in for a flight at Hong Kong International Airport when a staff from the low-cost airline Hong Kong Express asked her to take a pregnancy test as part of a “fit-to-fly” assessment.</span></p> <p><span>Despite having marked on a check-in questionnaire that she wasn’t pregnant, the staff escorted Nishida to a washroom and handed her a pregnancy test, barring her from boarding until the test came back negative.</span></p> <p><span>Nishida told the <em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ticket-passport-pregnancy-test-flying-to-saipan-can-be-complicated-11578664961">Wall Street Journal</a> </em>that the experience was “very humiliating and frustrating”.</span></p> <p><span>The airline indicated in the permission form that the test was required for women who are “observed to have a body size or shape resembling a pregnant woman”.</span></p> <p><span>It was reportedly part of Hong Kong Express’s response to immigration concerns in Saipan. The island, the largest of the US commonwealth Northern Mariana Islands, is a popular destination for birth tourism, allowing foreign nationals to ensure their babies become American citizens.</span></p> <p><span>There is <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/saipan-birth-tourism-airlilne-pregnancy-test-intl-hnk/index.html">no federal law</a> banning pregnant foreign citizens to enter the country or give birth on US soil. </span></p> <p><span>“We would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been affected by this,” the airline said in a statement. </span></p> <p><span>“In response to concerns raised by authorities in Saipan, we took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure US immigration laws were not being undermined.</span></p> <p><span>“Under our new management, we recognise the significant concerns this practice has caused. We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it.”</span></p>

Travel

Placeholder Content Image

One eyed mare defies the odds and gives birth to twin foals

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A horse stud owner has been left stunned after discovering that his one-eyed mare had defied the odds and given birth to live twin foals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The chances of twin goals being born alive are considered 1 in 10,000.</span></p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fabcnews.au%2Fvideos%2F933297287036597%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=476" width="476" height="476" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spurrs Stud owner Kevin Spurr said that the birth was a complete surprise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“My first thought was ‘don’t tell me another mare has had a foal and run away and left that’,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“A bit after that I realised she’d had twins. I was a little bit stunned, actually, I didn’t know what to think.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Katanning Regional Veterinary Hospital owner John Maxwell has been practicing as an equine vet for more than 50 years and has said he has never seen the successful delivery of twin goals that go on to survive.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m surprised, very surprised,” Dr Maxwell said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I have had a breeder in Wagin that I’ve [aborted] twice because the chances of both surviving were considered almost zero. So this is an exceptional occurrence.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The twin foals, named Snip and Drop, are being well looked after by Mr Spurr and his farmhand Nicole Kumpfmueller. Round-the-clock care is needed for the foals as their mother has one eye and needs to make sure she does not tread on them. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We get out here and they're already waiting and know the routine," Ms Kumpfmueller said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"And you have to give them antibiotics twice a day.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Every now and then we give them an extra milk bucket as well to make sure they have enough milk because we currently don't know how much she can produce for them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I think it's worth it. If you look at them, they're just too cute not to get up."</span></p>

Lifestyle

Over 60

© Copyright 2024 OverSixty.All Rights Reserved.