Twisted Cord

[frostedpineminis]

Hey everyone, I just had to have one of the vets from work out to help me pull a foal that was not due until may or june, she said that it looked like it aborted due to a twisted cord, foal and placenta both looked good, a little filly

but mare is ok, which is of course number one! Anyways my question is, does anybody know much about this condition, she lost a foal the same way in 2009 at the previous owners farm so I am worried that it will happen again, she has5 live foals on the ground.

 

[Relic]

sorry to hear...we've had a few over the years lost to twisted cords..some l remember were just like a rope very tight. Have no idea why this happensl used to think the mares rolled to much but that doesn't seem to hold water with my vet.

 

[Miniv]

Often a twisted cord indicates that the foal was in distress, but reasons will usually be unknown. The twisted cord cuts off the vital nutrients and blood supply, but it doesn't answer what the cause was.....and it could be one of several possibilities. One is an infection in a certain part of the uterine lining, so the foal isn't affected until it reaches a certain stage in growth. Another is Rhino. Sadly, we don't have all the answers and neither do the vets.

 

[Sandy B]

We just had a mini mare abort at 8.5 months pregnant too. I suspect a twisted cord was the reason as the mare had a severe bout of colic 2 days prior. The cord was pretty twisted with intermittent white areas like would be lack of blood supply to me. I talked to my vet who deals a lot with minis and she said unfortunately one will never know if the initial colic was the cause or the mare coliced due to something wrong with the foal.

I am sorry for your loss. It is hard to take this far along.

 

[REO]

I'm so sorry for your loss! I lost a colt to that many years ago. There are no answers as to the cause

{{{{HUGS}}}}

 

[Riverrose28]

Sorry for your loss, I lost one several years ago to a twisted cord, vet had no explaination.

 

[High Meadow Miniatures]

So sorry for your loss

 

[Reble]

I have heard that the cord can be extra long so twisting happens easier, or the baby is smaller and more room to make turns.

Not sure how true this is.

Normally abortions are caused by some kind of infection. etc.

We really never know the reasons.

Sorry for your loss..

 

[dgrminis]

very sorry for your loss..

 

[HGFarm]

So sorry for your loss. I have lost some in the past from what was explained as a 'twisted cord' but I think there was a problem which must have caused distress to the foal, thus the foal dying once the cord was too twisted. The foals were not particularly tiny so the reason of them being so small with too much room to turn could not have been the case for mine. Never did find any reason for mine happening either......... it's so heartbreaking.

 

[frostedpineminis]

thanks for the support everyone, it is just frustrating to not know and to wait for so long but I didnt know much about it and wanted to know if it was something that she was prone too, I know that the previous owner said that she always threw foals smaller than her so it was better to breed her to a taller stallion and her tummy was HUGE so maybe they went together by what some of you are saying...could have been a combo of a small foal in too much room. I wanted to send her out to be bred by another stallion but wanted to make sure that this wasnt going to be a regular occurance as this would have been my first foal out of her.

 

[Julie/Azariah]

We lost our first foal... a filly about 3 wks ago. The cord was twisted tight. I did a culture on the mare the other day.... there was no infection, so we are sure the twisted cord is what caused the foal to die prior to delivery. I have photos of the cord... pm me or email me if you would like to see the photos. My vet had never seen a cord so coiled.

The filly was tiny, but perfect, cord length... I would say average to long. The placenta was "beautiful" I just think some foals move around, roll more ....who knows. A huge loss for me as I had wanted this foal so much.... and the sire is in Alabama.... will be hard for me to breed another mare to him.

 

[minie812]

We have lost several to twisted cords over the last couple of years for reasons unknown.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

I have no idea why your foal died.

Unfortunately, many foals have a cord that is twisted , whether or not that cord was twisted enough to lead to abortion or whether it was simply a normal amount of twisting is a different issue. So, as the twisted cord presentation is frequently present with an abortion then it is labeled as the cause more often than what it is actually responsible for.

The best thing to do is to send away to a necropsy lab every fetus and placenta to determine the cause of death. This can feel like an unrewarding process as a diagnosis is frequently not able to be made. But, making decisions based on wrong information is worse than making decisions based on no information.

Dr Taylor

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

The umbilical cord does have some twist to it, but to be the cause of death, from what I've been told it would be excessive and have to indicate a reduced blood flow to the foal.

I've lost a few to umbilical torsion, usually around 9 months. The two we know were, had edema at a specific point on the cord. It looked almost like a huge bloodclot if that makes sense. We also had one that the cord strangling the foal. It was wrapped around the foals neck and had the head pulled back over the foals back (like a duck sleeps).

Info on abortion, specifically cord torsion: (there is quite a bit of info online about this.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/05-061.htm#umbilical