Jill
Aspiring Cowgirl
[SIZE=10pt]Hello, Everyone --[/SIZE]
Our 3rd and final foal of 2009 has arrived, but just a little early and with complications.
Whinny For Me's Finely Dun, a/k/a "Trooper", an adorable little red dun (may grey) colt sired by DunIT and out of Maddie arrived Wednesday, April 29 around 6:30 p.m. and was a few weeks early (310 days gestation) and has some issues due to this but our biggest current obstacle is that his dam has rejected him
Maddie had a fairly easy delivery, however, her contractions did not stop and were extremely hard. We called the vets and one was here within an hour of Trooper's birth with calls from me to her cell along the way as I was afraid Maddie was going to prolapse and expel her uterus. We gave her banamine as soon as she passed the placenta and a total of 6cc of Ropum as we awaited the vet. Maddie's contractions lessed but honestly were still as strong as for a normal foaling if that give an indication of what we had on our hands
Vet arrived and began working on Maddie. She needed an epidural which took quite awhile to place. Once that was done, she was able to push her uterus back from her cervix (it never came outside her body, thank God) :Cold-Scared As scary as this was to witness, Mattie should be completely fine and breeding sound.
With all that had to be done for Maddie to be okay, she was not able to meet her baby until he was 4-5 hours old (prior to the vet arriving she was in too much pain / "labor"). I think that this is primary reason she has "mildly" rejected him. She will allow him to nurse if you hold her and stand her still, but she will not allow him near her if you don't hold her and make her stay. SO we are making her stand still every 1-2 hours and it's exhausting
My favorite vet from the practice came out yesterday morning (16 or so hours old) and examined him, didn't think he needed radiographs of his legs, and gave him a plasma transfusion (which we are doing "routinely" due to having got some sick horses from an out of state farm last fall). He gives "Trooper" a good prognosis. And since he does give him so, I am ready to share him with my friends. Here he is @ about 36 hours old
-------
5/1 "noon" update:I just called the vet b/c Maddie is stretching some like they do with ulcers, etc. She's perky and eating hay very well, and I'm sure she's got plenty of reasons to be sore. The vet wants me to give her some ulcergard for four days, so that's easy enough.
While I had him on the phone, he asked how Trooper is and I told him (he's been playing a lot today) but told him the front leg looks a little better but not much and I'm worried. He said "Oh, Jill, don't worry about that at all. That will end up fine I am sure." (PHEW!)
AND AND ANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDD, I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but Maddie is now expressing some mild interest in Trooper. The last time he nursed, she kept sniffing his rear end and before I got to her, I saw she was following him around a little but still doesn't want him to get too close to her if he is the one approaching. The nursing time before this last time when she's acted better, I started telling her she needed to start taking care of him because he is her baby and all he wants in the world is for her to love him -- and then being a goober, I started sobbing. If nothing else, I think Maddie knows I was tallking about something that's making me sad. Maybe she's coming around..........
05/01/09 3pm Update: Just got some pictures of Maddie and Trooper (2nd set below). For asthetic reasons, I airbrushed out the lead rope, but I was at the far end of it with the camera (which speaks to how "mild" her rejection of him is). Just wanted to capture what I hope are the beginnings of her good intentions towards her son!!!
05/02/09 2am Update:Thanks for the compliments and well wishes!!!
I got up to feed him and going to try and get some more sleep. H fed some early last night and later so I got to sleep like 7-1:30 which was awesome! That's more than a lot of people sleep in a night so that's good.
Unfortunately, though, I may have jumped the gun thinking she's taking a shine to him. I will work with her and more more when it gets lighter out (worked with them so many sessions yesterday to get to stand further from them). She's pinning her ears as he nurses last night and just not too impressed with him still (seems to have taken a step backwards). She does try and bite him sometimes but so far not to kick as he nurses.
We've got some foal lac powder and some big metal dog bowls that should be hard to tip over. I'm thinking we may need to work on getting him to drink from a bowl inbetween nursing times and basically look to have him "weaned" from her extremely early. We're just not going to be able to keep up every 2 hours of holding her so he can eat long term... I think we can go to every 3-4 hours Sunday by what the vet said, but still with having a business and clients to take care of and H having to work, too... I think he's going to need to drink from a bowl if Maddie doesn't very soon come around.
Last night (Thursday night) she had cornered him in the stall and was kicking him. I was sleeping then but when H got out there, he said Trooper was screaming. I just can't even say how that made me feel for him and also about Maddie. I as afraid when it was my turn to hold her, I wouldn't be able to do it without letting her have it but thankfully she's good if you hold her and now we just have to leave the stall open so she's not forced to be in real close quarters w/ him.
Anyway, I really appreciate the comments and please keep praying along with me that Maddie will start to treat him as she has her other babies. I know we interrupted the period of time that they can bond but in hindsight, there was not another way to do it because Maddie's life was very much in the balance.
[SIZE=18pt]Whinny For Me's Finely Dun, a/k/a "Trooper"[/SIZE]
Our 3rd and final foal of 2009 has arrived, but just a little early and with complications.
Whinny For Me's Finely Dun, a/k/a "Trooper", an adorable little red dun (may grey) colt sired by DunIT and out of Maddie arrived Wednesday, April 29 around 6:30 p.m. and was a few weeks early (310 days gestation) and has some issues due to this but our biggest current obstacle is that his dam has rejected him
Maddie had a fairly easy delivery, however, her contractions did not stop and were extremely hard. We called the vets and one was here within an hour of Trooper's birth with calls from me to her cell along the way as I was afraid Maddie was going to prolapse and expel her uterus. We gave her banamine as soon as she passed the placenta and a total of 6cc of Ropum as we awaited the vet. Maddie's contractions lessed but honestly were still as strong as for a normal foaling if that give an indication of what we had on our hands
Vet arrived and began working on Maddie. She needed an epidural which took quite awhile to place. Once that was done, she was able to push her uterus back from her cervix (it never came outside her body, thank God) :Cold-Scared As scary as this was to witness, Mattie should be completely fine and breeding sound.
With all that had to be done for Maddie to be okay, she was not able to meet her baby until he was 4-5 hours old (prior to the vet arriving she was in too much pain / "labor"). I think that this is primary reason she has "mildly" rejected him. She will allow him to nurse if you hold her and stand her still, but she will not allow him near her if you don't hold her and make her stay. SO we are making her stand still every 1-2 hours and it's exhausting
My favorite vet from the practice came out yesterday morning (16 or so hours old) and examined him, didn't think he needed radiographs of his legs, and gave him a plasma transfusion (which we are doing "routinely" due to having got some sick horses from an out of state farm last fall). He gives "Trooper" a good prognosis. And since he does give him so, I am ready to share him with my friends. Here he is @ about 36 hours old
-------
5/1 "noon" update:I just called the vet b/c Maddie is stretching some like they do with ulcers, etc. She's perky and eating hay very well, and I'm sure she's got plenty of reasons to be sore. The vet wants me to give her some ulcergard for four days, so that's easy enough.
While I had him on the phone, he asked how Trooper is and I told him (he's been playing a lot today) but told him the front leg looks a little better but not much and I'm worried. He said "Oh, Jill, don't worry about that at all. That will end up fine I am sure." (PHEW!)
AND AND ANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDD, I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but Maddie is now expressing some mild interest in Trooper. The last time he nursed, she kept sniffing his rear end and before I got to her, I saw she was following him around a little but still doesn't want him to get too close to her if he is the one approaching. The nursing time before this last time when she's acted better, I started telling her she needed to start taking care of him because he is her baby and all he wants in the world is for her to love him -- and then being a goober, I started sobbing. If nothing else, I think Maddie knows I was tallking about something that's making me sad. Maybe she's coming around..........
05/01/09 3pm Update: Just got some pictures of Maddie and Trooper (2nd set below). For asthetic reasons, I airbrushed out the lead rope, but I was at the far end of it with the camera (which speaks to how "mild" her rejection of him is). Just wanted to capture what I hope are the beginnings of her good intentions towards her son!!!
05/02/09 2am Update:Thanks for the compliments and well wishes!!!
I got up to feed him and going to try and get some more sleep. H fed some early last night and later so I got to sleep like 7-1:30 which was awesome! That's more than a lot of people sleep in a night so that's good.
Unfortunately, though, I may have jumped the gun thinking she's taking a shine to him. I will work with her and more more when it gets lighter out (worked with them so many sessions yesterday to get to stand further from them). She's pinning her ears as he nurses last night and just not too impressed with him still (seems to have taken a step backwards). She does try and bite him sometimes but so far not to kick as he nurses.
We've got some foal lac powder and some big metal dog bowls that should be hard to tip over. I'm thinking we may need to work on getting him to drink from a bowl inbetween nursing times and basically look to have him "weaned" from her extremely early. We're just not going to be able to keep up every 2 hours of holding her so he can eat long term... I think we can go to every 3-4 hours Sunday by what the vet said, but still with having a business and clients to take care of and H having to work, too... I think he's going to need to drink from a bowl if Maddie doesn't very soon come around.
Last night (Thursday night) she had cornered him in the stall and was kicking him. I was sleeping then but when H got out there, he said Trooper was screaming. I just can't even say how that made me feel for him and also about Maddie. I as afraid when it was my turn to hold her, I wouldn't be able to do it without letting her have it but thankfully she's good if you hold her and now we just have to leave the stall open so she's not forced to be in real close quarters w/ him.
Anyway, I really appreciate the comments and please keep praying along with me that Maddie will start to treat him as she has her other babies. I know we interrupted the period of time that they can bond but in hindsight, there was not another way to do it because Maddie's life was very much in the balance.
[SIZE=18pt]Whinny For Me's Finely Dun, a/k/a "Trooper"[/SIZE]
Last edited by a moderator:
