Mary's Pregnancy & Foaling Thread- SHE FOALED 5/22~~~FILLY~~~!!! New PICS pg 56

[mthowdy]

Alright everyone, after a LOOOONG day outside in the hot sun, we are finished with her new pen! I still need to finish the barn- I decided to add an extra foot to it today (that's as much as I could ad on, but I think it will be the perfect size for her to foal in.

I messed up on measuring it, because the pen is actually 11 feet by 35 feet, and now the shed/barn is 8 feet by 9 feet inside. I think this will give her plenty of room to move around, and to have the foal in. Especially considering I will keep exercising her in the areas where there isn't fescue- I think she will have plenty of room to move around. She has the one dry lot where I keep her and Rowdy at night (has an attached stall) and now her new pen (I'm going to move her around between the two until she seems to be about a week or two out then I'll keep her in the foaling pen til she has the foal and for a couple days after) so she won't get bored of the scenery I hope.

Today was her first day without grazing the grass, but for the safety of her and the foal I decided it was best to switch to alfalfa- so now she is having alfalfa spread throughout her pen daily, along with her grains. I might go pick up the foal/mare feed, but we will see.

Rowdy wasn't too happy that Mary wasn't allowed to be turned out with him today, but he got over it after about half an hour.

No new developments in her hooha, Or belly- but this morning her udder was rather full compared to yesterday, but it went way down over the day. I will post pictures tomorrow or the next day, when I have my own Internet access and hopefully there will be noticeable change!

I think that's all for now! Now I am finally going to take a shower and clean up from a hard days work!!

Hope everyone is having a great day, I'll be back on later to check on all the mares & foals!!!

 

[chandab]

Just curious, where are you located? Just state is fine.

 

[palsminihorses]

Welcome Ben! I'm just now getting a chance to read your thread. Your mare is lovely, and Rowdy is a handsome feller too! I live in an area that has mostly fescue grass. I try to get my mares off of the pasture 60 days before their due date. Of course, sometimes they don't read the book and foal sooner. I didn't see where anyone else posted about a wonderful product that is now available through a veterinarian..............in cases where mares don't have milk. It is called Domperidone. One brand name that I have used from my vet is Equidone. It comes in a paste form. It works amazingly fast! You can as your vet about it.

And as everyone else has already mentioned, we love pictures!! I need to get some updated pictures of our four foals posted here. We have one more mare due this month.

 

[Eagle]

Pam thanks for coming in and sharing your experience, I am so glad that you will be here to help and reassure Ben.

It sounds like you have had a busy day making a new home for Mary, she is one lucky lady

 

[AnnaC]

It sounds as though you have everything perfectly set up for Mary, as Renee says, she's a very lucky lady and her foal is going to have a wonderfully caring home.

And thank you Pam for posting about your experiences coping with fescue!

Ben you need to get Mary started on her mare and foal feed as soon as possible - you will have to do the change over slowly - over about a week would be good - so to get her fully established on it you need to start soon. She wont need anything else in her feed bowl and the 'mare and foal' is safe for the foal to nibble at, whereas other types of horse food are not suitable.

Sounds as though Mary is progressing beautifully towards presenting you with her baby.

 

[mthowdy]

Thanks Pam for the great info, I will be sure to mention that to my vet!

And thanks to everyone else with the great tips, and the compliments!!!

Mary is progressing nicely, at a very steady pace- but not very fast, or at least not at fast as I want!

I swear her belly changes every day! Today it was pretty low, and flat on the sides. She had been rubbing her butt all over the poor fence today. And her udder seemed to get bigger through the day, because it was noticeable from behind her- which it wasn't this morning. She definitely has some shopping to do, and her hooha is far from being ready! (at least from all the pictures I've seen of all your wonderful ladies- not that I'm an expert by any means!)

It was day two of her staying in the dry lot only- she doesn't seem to be very upset by it, but she does long for the pasture- I can see it in her eyes! She still has PLENTY of room to move around, and she uses most if not all of it. She has been so good, and I felt guilty this evening when I put Rowdy back in there with her (she just looked mad that he got to go out and she didn't) so I gave her a handful of grass

I brought the grass over from the lawn, where I'm sure we don't have the tall endophyte fescue. I've thought about letting her graze in there for an hour or so every day, just so she still gets some grass to eat- what do you all think?

The changes still arent picture worthy- but I promise some for tomorrow!

 

[mthowdy]

I think that would be just fine as long as you're sure it's not fescue. The grass will do her system good, and it's a great bonding time to be with you as well!!

Good thinking!

Good to hear! I'm sure she will be very happy tomorrow when I let her on the lawn

I was just on here reading through some other threads and decided I would go check on Mary at 9:30pm and she has done some shopping!! She must be a late night shopper, I can't wait to see what she looks like tomorrow!

Every day she has been getting more and more- in about four days I would say she doubled its size, slow and steady I guess.

I'll post pictures tomorrow when I go out in the morning!

 

[mthowdy]

Hey everyone! I have some updated pictures, but this dang wireless card is not working on my computer (AGAIN!! And they were just out here on Monday!) so I can't post them, unless someone wants to assist!

Now that I have had the people come out twice in a week, I'm switching Internet service! Hopefully by next week, or maybe even this weekend, we will have an Internet service that is reliable!

Well, hope everyones mares and foals are doing good! I sure wish Mary would pop this baby out- but she has been doing good on the dry lot with her alfalfa, so hopefully with time her system can get rid of the fescue toxins before she gets ready to have the baby.

 

[Eagle]

Hi Ben, you can email mme the pics

 

[mthowdy]

I think I may have figured out the problem with uploading the pictures!

Lets see if this works...





Continued...

 

[mthowdy]

Heres more.... I dont know why these are loading sideways- I have them saved the right way!









Her belly has been getting a lot lower over the past two days, but it could clearly drop more- and the baby doesn't seem to be lined up, judging by her sides poking out like that.... Am I right?

She has been doing some slight shopping, but only a few items here and there apparently.... Haha!

The edema in front of her udder has been fluctuating in size from huge, to medium sized.

Her hooha could definitely do some relaxing and elongating- don't ya think?

She has been hoovering down her alfalfa everyday, and I have been trying to get her out on the lawn for at least half an hour to an hour- in places where there isn't fescue. She has been getting one flake of the alfalfa everyday, plus the grass grazing occasionally, and some whole oats. She seems to be good on feed, and although I might go get the mare/foal feed, I think I will stick with what I have been doing. Sound good?

Oh, and she has been butt scratching and rolling around quite a bit lately. And getting a ton of exercise prancing around in her dry lots! She likes to show off or something, it is pretty funny to watch!

 

[mthowdy]

Thanks for the offer, Renee- but it seems I have figured it out! Lucky you, don't have to help me out anymore- well at least not with uploading pictures, I still need PLENTY of help with the whole mini horse thing!!

 

[mthowdy]

Oh, and I wanted to share some pictures of my other kids

Elvis & Kosmo

(Kosmo is the smaller one, he will be one year old on November 10. Elvis will be one on May 5.)



Kosmo



Elvis

 

[Eagle]

This pic is amazing

Well done for working out how to upload pics, did you do it from your iphone?

Mary looks like she has a way to go yet which is good as it gives her time to clean her system if it is fescue

 

[mthowdy]

This pic is amazing

Well done for working out how to upload pics, did you do it from your iphone?

Mary looks like she has a way to go yet which is good as it gives her time to clean her system if it is fescue

Thanks, I love that pic! It is one if my favorites of him...his little tongue barely pokin out!

Think she is closer to a month or closer to a couple weeks? I'm just sure she will hold out for months to torment me.

Her previous owner gave me an estimated due date closer to June, but the vet said May- and with my thinking she should be due in May as well.

She had her foal last year sometime in May, then she was turned out June 1st with Rowds- so I just put a rough date of June 15th as a breeding date, which would put her at 330 days sometime in the second week of May. My Mom's birthday is May 12th, and Mothers day is the following day- so maybe she will wait til then? AH! It's killin me.

 

[Eagle]

Do you have any way of finding out the actual date that she foaled last year? This would be a big help.

 

[mthowdy]

Do you have any way of finding out the actual date that she foaled last year? This would be a big help.

I have called her old owner, and emailed her twice to ask- and it looks like she has dropped off the face of the earth! Or she doesn't want to answer my calls or questions....

This morning, Mary's udder was quite a bit fuller than last nights and it might be my imagination but I swear her sides aren't poking out like they were yesterday.

I'm going to put my bet on May 12th.

 

[Equuisize]

I'm late to your thread but welcome from another Pacific Northwestener.

I'm mid-coast, in Western Washington.

As you described the rain...I'm quessing you are from Western Oregon and have

a similar climate.

Your girl looks like she is progressing nicely and it would be fun for her to foal

on your Mom's birthday.

My breeding mare is not one to follow to foaling manual, at all, ever. I so envy all

these gals that say this mare does this or that.

Only once, with her 4th foal, did she even act like she realized there was a manual.

She doesn't develop much of a bag till right after foaling but then milks like a cow till

weaning.

I do watch how loose her tail head becomes and her hooha for elonogation and how far her

sides are poking out but it's varied so much with all her foals it's still a quessing game with her.

This past 2011 foaling season, when we had such a cold wet spring and damp summer she went

exactly 365 days from the day she was removed from her sweetie pie's paddock.

She normally has foaled between 312 to 328 days.

These gals love to torment us!!

I've actually used the Allegra Senior feed, for years. It's a bit of a softer chew, to me, and the baby will begin

to test grains, with his mom very quickly. Don't want to worry about choke cause the feed doesn't

break down quick enough.

I don't let my pregnant mares get to overweight as I fear it will make delivery harder on them. She is

kept in a nice size paddock with minimal grazing and so I can control her feeding.

Our pasture grasses here are very high in sugar so this has worked well for us.

(Sometimes it's hard to compare what other's are doing when we aren't actually comparing apples to apples

situation wise, as to how we have to keep our horses at their healthiest.)

30 days out I increase her alfalfa and grain to be sure her milk production is rich and healthy for baby.

I'll enjoy watching Mary's progression.

If you're like the rest of us you'll get hooked on having babies. I'm in withdrawl this year as I didn't breed.

So I'm depending on the forum family to relieve my baby itchies.

 

[mthowdy]

Thanks for the welcome, Equuisize! We are in Western Oregon, very rainy right now.

Hearing about your mare makes me worry a little that I havent been watching Mary enough! I was thinking I probably have at least another week until a serious watch begins, maybe even two weeks, but now I am beginning to think I need to be checking on her more than four times a day!

Not much progress from the last pictures. She is definitely going shopping everyday, but still hasn't made a huge purchase

Her belly does seem to be dropping, and her sides seemed a little flat today. I took pictures, I will try to upload them later- but the girl and I decided to take a one night trip out of town before things get so busy that we can't leave the house, so it might have to wait until tomorrow. I was a little hesitant leaving her for the night, but with her udder being so small and her hooha not being relaxed (AT ALL!) I just cannot imagine her having it tonight. So tonight I will enjoy my peace and quiet and relax as much as possible- when I get home, I am starting FOAL WATCH

 

[AnnaC]

Thanks for the pictures Ben - brilliant! You are doing a great job with Mary and it sounds as though she is progressing steadily.

Whole oats are not the best feed for horses - they dont break down the hard outer 'shell' very easily which means they dont get the goodness from the kernal inside. Bruised or crushed oats are better and more easily digested. The reason why we suggested a mare and foal feed for Mary is that any changes to her food must be made slowly and with her possibly this close to foaling, any changes need to be started soon. Oats would not be a good feed for the new foal who will undoubtedly be trying out Mary's food within days of its birth. Nothing wrong with a senior feed either, as long as the protein level is high enough, but go for the pellets as the mix can contain some 'hard' bits that may cause the foal to choke.

Really hoping Mary foals for you and your Mum on the 12th May!