Burclair Miniature Donkeys

08/11/2025

We are happy to have been featured in the November edition of the Donkey Express. Thank you to the lovely Karen Chicoteau for the write up!

28/10/2025

Frank was very excited to get home!! 🤣🫏

28/10/2025

Our poor little Frankie was attacked by wild dogs last weekend. The infection got so bad in less than 48 hours that he has been in hospital at WestVets Anstead for the last week. He had to have surgery to remove the dead tissue that was already infected to the bone.
He is home now, with an extra large care package and stall rest for the next 2 weeks.

22/09/2025

This gorgeous little monkey was born last night. She is super cuddly and curious already, at just 12 hours old!

🩷 Burclair Lila 🩷

Dam: Burclair Isla Skye
Sire: Joys Jacaranda

She will be looking for her new home in 6 months.

29/08/2025

New paddock. Yummo.

18/08/2025

Being a breeder is not just about cute babies and cuddles with donkeys. There is a super tough side of it as well that rarely gets discussed.

Early yesterday morning, Aussie Girl had her long awaited baby. We were so excited for this baby as she lost her first baby just after birth. Despite keeping a close eye on Aussie, she gave birth without us realising she was that was ready.

We found the baby at 8am and estimate that it had been born maybe 3 hours earlier. It was lying down, back legs stuck in the placenta still and looked exhausted. We held it up to have a feed and called the vet. The baby had a strong sucking reflex which we thought was positive.

The vet arrived quickly and gave the baby a bag of fluids, antibiotics and drew blood. We milked Aussie and fed the baby the important colostrum. After the vet gave us instructions to make sure the baby fed every hour, she left and we had hope.

When we back down to feed the baby, it was obvious that he had deteriorated. The vet rang at that moment and confirmed that he was born with sepsis and that he was born a dummy foal due to being deprived oxygen during birth. We took him straight to the equine hospital.

Once there, he was cannulated in the neck, had an oxygen tube stitched into one nostril and a feeding tube stitched into the other nostril. The poor little boy had been poked with more needles than hours that he had been alive. We left him and Aussie there with the understanding of a long expensive road ahead.

This morning we received a call that he had pulled through the night, he hadn’t gone backwards, but also had not improved at all.

By lunchtime, it was confirmed that he had one lung full of fluid, had pneumonia, bacteria in his bloods, most likely had a heart problem and that his prognosis was incredibly bad.

We made the absolutely heartbreaking decision to do the best thing for him and let him go peacefully. He was sent to his forever sleep shortly after.

We brought him and Aussie home, and gave Aussie the chance to grieve with him in her own paddock with her bond mate. We cried with Aussie this afternoon as we laid him to rest on our farm.

I am writing this post so people understand the heartache that happens with breeding animals. It is often unknown as it isn’t spoken about enough.

We have ended today with tired sore eyes, a grieving Mumma donkey, a buried baby and a huge vet bill. We can however say that we did everything that we possibly could have to save the little one.

RIP Little Aus
16/08/25-17/08/25 🩵

12/08/2025

New fencing! With the foreman and her baby watching on from up high! 🐨

11/08/2025

18/07/2025

Yesterday’s sunset with the big boys!

17/07/2025

Dental day today, the second of the week. 16 donkeys checked on Tuesday and another 12 done today, including the Big Boys and two mini ponies. Little bit of difference in the size of the head for the Vets today.
The Animals are given a mild sedative to calm them, then teeth are checked, then filed because they continuously grow and can develop sharp points or uneven surfaces that cause discomfort and eating problems. Burclair Donkeys are checked annually so work is minimal.