CharmedMinis
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Well Ruby foaled last night at 330 days gestation.
The foal is dead........Ruby seems to be ok for now.
It was a very strange red bag, so please read.
She started early signs of labor at 9 PM last night. Went into full labor at 10. I called my friend that lives up the street because I had a bad feeling and I wanted someone else there with me.
Before my friend got here Ruby started pushing, but not much was showing up. I didn't want to disturb too much yet, so I peeked inside her vulva, and wasn't sure what I was seeing. It wasn't a white clearish sac, but it wasn't what I was expecting for red bag.
For what I've always heard about red bags, they look like bright red velvet. Well what I was seeing was a smooth glasslike bubble that was bruise colored, kind of light bluish purple. So I thought maybe just a discoloration on the normal sac, so decided to wait just a second to see if I could see more. Well when a little more was visible it was still smooth but redder, so I decided it must be a red bag, though I still wasn't sure. I decided to cut it because I couldn't feel a baby part right there, so I gave that bubble a snip and after some fluid came out, then out popped the white bubble.
I immediately went in and found the front feet, about 4 or 5 inches back, one was normal......one was slightly folded. Pulled the feet and the head out got the shoulders and things slowed down.
By then my friends were there and we started pulling. We got the baby out to the umbilical cord. He was alive, making some attempts at breathing, allthough he was kind of gasping. We were assisting him as much as we could.
I knew the foal was either hip locked or had a back foot caught. I had the vet on the phone and he was on his way. He said the foal probably had a back foot caught because with how far we had him out it didn't sound like just hip lock.
We tried rotating the foal upward towards the mare's tail but that didn't do anything.
At that point we all tried to get a hand in the mare to fix the foal's position, but there was just absolutely no room. We could barely get a couple of fingers in past the foal.
The mare finally got up and tried pushing that way, and we all tried pulling that way. She got up and down several times. Eventually she got tired enough and I think she relaxed her muscles enough that one of the times she was up, my father was able to squeeze his hand in and push the foot back in. One of the hind feet had been tucked up and stuck on the pelvic rim.
As soon as he did that my mare laid back down and we were able to pull the baby. He had a very faint heart beat. I did compressions, my friend Karen (foalfan) did mouth to nose. We couldn't get his lungs to inflate. We tried swinging him, but he was just deprived of oxygen for too long. We lost him a couple of minutes before my vet got here.
I'm pretty sure the reason we couldn't save the foal even though he was mostly out, was because of the red bag he was deprived of oxygen long before my mare even started pushing. Labor basically started at 9 and I broke through the bag at 10:25, so he had plenty of time to become oxygen deprived.
My vet checked Ruby out and said everything seems to be ok. We did hear something rip at some point but he couldn't find anything obvious, though he didn't check her cervix real well because she was really sore.
She's on antibiotics and banamine and is being watched closely. The last few minutes before we got the foal out she was having a really hard time, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. She seems to be ok this morning, just really sore. She's sleeping quite a bit and isn't too interested in food at this point, just nibbling a bit.
FIY information: It was a 22 inch bay colt. Ruby had no milk in her bag at 6 PM, when I checked on her at 9 she had plenty of good colostrum. The foal never dropped into position, she stayed carrying wide. Ruby's tail never got real loose. Her vulva never relaxed or changed color. Her poop never changed either. So please don't always count on all the signs, had I not been watching her this all would have turned out very differently, and we would have lost Ruby too.
Don't count on a red bag to look bright red and velvety! This one was a glasslike bubble, and purplish blue and the red started further back.
As of now I'm about 99% sure that I am done breeding. I had 4 mares bred for this year, I've lost 3 of the babies. 2 to abortions and now this one. I have one more mare who is due in June.
I don't want to single any one person or any group of people out, and I'm definitely not meaning for this to sound harsh, so I'm sorry if it does, but.............For those of you out there that are new to this and thinking of breeding your mares for whatever the reason.....Here are my not so good statistics, maybe it will change your mind.
This is my 3rd year breeding, I've had 13 pregnant mares. 3 live healthy births, 1 live bad dystocia birth, 1 normal birth but preemie foal with many problems, The dystocia last night, 2 still births, 2 late term abortions, and 2 absorbtions/early abortions. My vet bills for everything pertaining to these pregnancies had now exceeded $10,000.
Those are not good odds! Luckily all of my mares have made it through their ordeals, I'm crossing my fingers for the one due in june. But like I said, I'm pretty darn sure I'm done! I don't think I'm willing to risk my mares anymore, and I don't know how much more I can take either.
I for sure won't be breeding anything back for next year! :no:
The foal is dead........Ruby seems to be ok for now.
It was a very strange red bag, so please read.
She started early signs of labor at 9 PM last night. Went into full labor at 10. I called my friend that lives up the street because I had a bad feeling and I wanted someone else there with me.
Before my friend got here Ruby started pushing, but not much was showing up. I didn't want to disturb too much yet, so I peeked inside her vulva, and wasn't sure what I was seeing. It wasn't a white clearish sac, but it wasn't what I was expecting for red bag.
For what I've always heard about red bags, they look like bright red velvet. Well what I was seeing was a smooth glasslike bubble that was bruise colored, kind of light bluish purple. So I thought maybe just a discoloration on the normal sac, so decided to wait just a second to see if I could see more. Well when a little more was visible it was still smooth but redder, so I decided it must be a red bag, though I still wasn't sure. I decided to cut it because I couldn't feel a baby part right there, so I gave that bubble a snip and after some fluid came out, then out popped the white bubble.
I immediately went in and found the front feet, about 4 or 5 inches back, one was normal......one was slightly folded. Pulled the feet and the head out got the shoulders and things slowed down.
By then my friends were there and we started pulling. We got the baby out to the umbilical cord. He was alive, making some attempts at breathing, allthough he was kind of gasping. We were assisting him as much as we could.
I knew the foal was either hip locked or had a back foot caught. I had the vet on the phone and he was on his way. He said the foal probably had a back foot caught because with how far we had him out it didn't sound like just hip lock.
We tried rotating the foal upward towards the mare's tail but that didn't do anything.
At that point we all tried to get a hand in the mare to fix the foal's position, but there was just absolutely no room. We could barely get a couple of fingers in past the foal.
The mare finally got up and tried pushing that way, and we all tried pulling that way. She got up and down several times. Eventually she got tired enough and I think she relaxed her muscles enough that one of the times she was up, my father was able to squeeze his hand in and push the foot back in. One of the hind feet had been tucked up and stuck on the pelvic rim.
As soon as he did that my mare laid back down and we were able to pull the baby. He had a very faint heart beat. I did compressions, my friend Karen (foalfan) did mouth to nose. We couldn't get his lungs to inflate. We tried swinging him, but he was just deprived of oxygen for too long. We lost him a couple of minutes before my vet got here.
I'm pretty sure the reason we couldn't save the foal even though he was mostly out, was because of the red bag he was deprived of oxygen long before my mare even started pushing. Labor basically started at 9 and I broke through the bag at 10:25, so he had plenty of time to become oxygen deprived.
My vet checked Ruby out and said everything seems to be ok. We did hear something rip at some point but he couldn't find anything obvious, though he didn't check her cervix real well because she was really sore.
She's on antibiotics and banamine and is being watched closely. The last few minutes before we got the foal out she was having a really hard time, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. She seems to be ok this morning, just really sore. She's sleeping quite a bit and isn't too interested in food at this point, just nibbling a bit.
FIY information: It was a 22 inch bay colt. Ruby had no milk in her bag at 6 PM, when I checked on her at 9 she had plenty of good colostrum. The foal never dropped into position, she stayed carrying wide. Ruby's tail never got real loose. Her vulva never relaxed or changed color. Her poop never changed either. So please don't always count on all the signs, had I not been watching her this all would have turned out very differently, and we would have lost Ruby too.
Don't count on a red bag to look bright red and velvety! This one was a glasslike bubble, and purplish blue and the red started further back.
As of now I'm about 99% sure that I am done breeding. I had 4 mares bred for this year, I've lost 3 of the babies. 2 to abortions and now this one. I have one more mare who is due in June.
I don't want to single any one person or any group of people out, and I'm definitely not meaning for this to sound harsh, so I'm sorry if it does, but.............For those of you out there that are new to this and thinking of breeding your mares for whatever the reason.....Here are my not so good statistics, maybe it will change your mind.
This is my 3rd year breeding, I've had 13 pregnant mares. 3 live healthy births, 1 live bad dystocia birth, 1 normal birth but preemie foal with many problems, The dystocia last night, 2 still births, 2 late term abortions, and 2 absorbtions/early abortions. My vet bills for everything pertaining to these pregnancies had now exceeded $10,000.
Those are not good odds! Luckily all of my mares have made it through their ordeals, I'm crossing my fingers for the one due in june. But like I said, I'm pretty darn sure I'm done! I don't think I'm willing to risk my mares anymore, and I don't know how much more I can take either.
I for sure won't be breeding anything back for next year! :no:
Last edited by a moderator:
:no:
