The
Birth!
(the real details of what happened and a few graphic pictures - that's
all the warning you'll get)
:-)
Heather decided to stay, yet again, the final night. Lynn
had to go away with her man, she KNEW it would happen when she couldn't
be there... but she kept staying over night after night towards those
final days, until she had to go for the weekend saying, (although I didn't
believe it anymore then), 'it had to happen eventually!
Heath knew I was quite anxious that night, but still after 3wks of maybes, I could barely keep my eyes open, so Heath really made the effort to stay awake for the wee hours. I might not have any horses now if she hadn't so I can't say how thankful I am she did.
The mare did little of her normal nocturnal wanderings that evening. Mostly just the 'butt pressing'. I drifted off, that TV show was getting old! At the 4:45 tape rewinding, Heather woke me up to say she'd been 'quite active' suddenly. Normally my mare wasn't moving around this time of night. How sad is it that I have her sleeping patterns down pat now! :-)
So I grudgingly stare and stare and attempt to read a Dick Francis novel to stay awake (Slay Ride). Since the sound was cranked up loud enough to hear their breathing and any shift of feet in the straw, it was easy to hear when she got up or down (did that just a little more than usual). Then, after one big flop, I notice the tail is extremely twitchy and saw the breaking water splash out slightly from underneath the stiff tail. I have this fleeting moment caught on video, and most people miss it. The time was 5:15.
Little happened right away after that. She lay there groaning and pushing periodically, got up once more and while she was laying down again, we could see a quick glimmer of 'the sack'. (Bags and sacks... horse breeding lingo is pretty graphic, eh?!). As mentioned before, she flopped down completely out of site for the first time in 3wks... soooooo, I have to go out and look. Little else is visible for several seconds, then a foot clearly comes out.
My mare truly didn't give a hoot about
our presence at that point.
At that point, after feeling the foals legs pointed up dorsally, I rush off to call the vet. His answering service didn't answer (we talked about that later, I was obviously miffed). I then called another vet in the area and after much confusion and back and forth from the stall to the phone, he got the directions to the farm and the mare's status.
By that point, Heath and I had been trying to get the mare up in hopes that she'd stop pushing and allow the foal to get sucked back in and rotate to the proper position. Horses have shoulders built in such a way that they cannot pass through the birth canal if not directed towards the mare's spine. The foal was stuck for a good 30minutes before the rolling of the mare was just enough to suck him back in and rotate out correctly without us manually having to reach in and turn him (she refused to stand, she thought she was dying). Once we felt feet and legs aimed correctly, we got back there and held on to the legs. Foals cannot live for long after the water has broken, a labor of longer than 1hr apparently can kill a foal in the birth canal, we were at 45minutes now.
After a few more pushes, Fussy managed to get the head out and we cleared off the membranes. The foal was completely unresponsive and I just tried to hold his head out of the pool of fluid in the sack. It wasn't until his legs came out, at 6am, that he seemed to come to life.
At
that point, Fussy expelled a good deal of the placenta as well. I tied
this to her tail with baling twine and went over to her head to try
to direct her attention to the foal.
She was really really out of it. After 5minutes, she got up and sort
of noticed him with a wary look.
Then she violently expelled the whole placenta and her hind legs froze
up in stifle lock. This is about when the vet arrived (the one who'd
never seen her before).
She
staggered around and suddenly we had to worry about her falling on the
kid. We worked busily at drying the little guy off (he struggled violently
at any touch, from the moment he became alert after coming out!). Then
we dragged him over to her head so she could sniff him and hopefully
bond and feel less shocky.
At a few points she stretched out the way a colicing horse does. We
moved the foal away, only when we had to, although he seemed to find
safe places to flop onto her neck and she was licking her lips which
showed she did have maternal responses switching on. Obviously all hands
were needed for that (we can't have pictures of everything now can we!)...
some of it was caught on video though.
When
the vet gave her a good dose of Banamine (IV), we were able to keep
her standing long enough to get some milk into the kid. Close to two
hours had passed since he arrived and he still couldn't nurse because
she kept staggering and adopting the saw-horse laminitis-style stance
which put her belly too low for him to reach under her. The vet, Heather
and I worked for about 15minutes to direct the little guy to the teats.
Soon after the Banamine really set in we were able to stop holdingthe
mare up and covered her with a cooler pinned up so he could nurse.
Then I went out and had some coffee and a cigarette (or twenty) while
the vet went out back and examined the placenta. Sorry, no pics there
either, like I really had the inclination to be inquisitive about more
potential problems!
FYI for those crazy non-horse reproductively savvy; the afterbirth has two horns, one for each portion of the uterus that spreads out into a 'Y' shape. The embryo in my mare had settled in the left horn during the first two months after conception, initially they float back and forth. What the vet is looking for is tears, in either horn, that can mean a piece of the whole mess was left behind stuck to her uterine wall. Mares don't tend to flush these out well after they've expelled the whole placenta and the leftover pieces infect, causing 'placentitis'. All of the afterbirth mess, with horses, should be carefully removed (the mares WILL eat it as they do in the wild), and put into a bag and a bucket until the vet can get to it.
And
finally, something a little NORMAL! :-)
The mare eventually became somewhat curious in the foal and began to
sniff him intently.
She
still remained colicky, and at a few points had to be calmed down as
she rushed around the stall. We got a hold of our normal vet, he came
out around 10am and left me with more injections in case she got too
violent and dangerous for everyone. Both vets examined her for uterine
torsion and arterial rupturing. She showed no signs of these serious
complications beyond the anxious, painful behavior.
Things became fairly normal from this point on, but currently she still is under critical surveillance for impaction colicing, which she did as a result of dehydration 2 wks later. Beyond that, however, she's very sparky and happy. She's on electrolytes and lactation suppliments now to help her keep up with the little guy's demanding feedings.
HE, is huge, and seems to show no adverse effects at all from the whole event. In fact he was up before her and after bumping into a wall once, has been incredibly graceful for a gawky new horse. They went out very shortly after the birth so that mom could move around more and not cramp up. The colt was running and hopping about, already, on his still shaky legs. :-)