CRAZY pt 2

While Summer was there at the ranch, I had her look at "Chewy" our crooked legged colt that was dysmature. The prognosis isn't good- nothing much they can do for him. The ligaments aren't working right. So, one last hope is what they call a newspaper splint.

You wrap the legs in newspaper and then wrap vetwrap around that.

Chewy was cooperative while getting the wrap on- but immediately started chewing on it (hence his name-he chwes on everything) when we finished. The splints lasted a day before he had them rendered useless.

It was somewhat comical to watch chewy learn how to walk with them on. It reminded me of the militaries that march with straight legs.

I thought and thought and prayed that I might beable to come up with somehting that will help strengthen his legs. we came up with PVC pipe with an aluminum insert that acts likes a hinge of sort so he has the flexibility to walk. The long piece aligns with his cannon bone and the short with his pastern, with the hinge in the middle where the fetlock joint is.

On Sat morning, I felt like I had an idea that might work. So Tom and I went to Home Depot to see what we could find that we could create the splint with.

Here is the finished product on him and secured with vetwrap (looove vetwrap!) I think it may be working- it will take a week or more to know for sure.

CRAZY part 1

The past 2 weeks have been crazy. Crazy weather and crazy busy and crazy mare foaling. Unfortunately not all of it turned out good.

I'd been keeping a real close watch on Kaydee, one of our Welsh pony mares. She bagged up 3 weeks early (here we go again...) and so I brought her in where she'd be out of the bad weather and I could watch her closer. We bought a nursery monitor and hung it in her stall so I could here any suspicious noises, like, her water breaking.

Kaydee was just HUGE, and i suspected all was not right with the pregnancy. After a week of checking on her through out the night, last Saturday morning she gave signs of early labor. I was off for the day -first to mt Pleasant and then to Moroni where we were holding auditions for a play I'm directing. So Tom was staying back and was going to call me as soon as she looked like she was getting serious. I thought it was odd, when, I returned at 3ish to find her exactly as I left her. So I thought a little walking around would be good for her edema (poor thing had 4 posts for legs) and put her out in the round pen to graze and walk around.

About 1/2 hour after placing her there, she laid down and started to roll (never a good sign with a pregnant mare), while she was rolling I could have sworn I heard her water break and I looked over to see a bit of bloody tinged water. After she finished rolling, she simply jumped up and stood there- no contractions, pushing, nothing. I immediately called the vet- no response, left a message. Called vet #2 (45 minutes away in Spanish Fork) he advised that possibly it was a "pre-waters" bag- keep an eye on her. She walked around a little, then dropped and rolled again. I called him back and he said not good- why don't I go in and see if I can feel 2 legs and a head.

GULP! I went in the house and cut my nails and grabbed some oil. As I was heading back out- my phone rang and it was vet #1- she apologized and I advised her of the sittuation. She was about 40 minutes away.

So the low-down on a mare foaling is that once the water breaks, the foal must be born within 15 minutes to live. IF that was her water that broke- it had already been 40 minutes. Summer, the vet, arrived and went right in to assess the foal. It seemed in the right position, and the water had broke when I thought it did. So she started pulling on the front legs- with no luck. She got her chains and attached them to the legs and then went in to try and determine what the colt was hung up on. Somehow the head wasn't coming along with the legs. She gave a shot of oxytocin to the mare to help her contract. And I took over the head while Tom went back to help pull. Over a half hour later, they finally got the colt pulled. It was still alive, but our relief was short lived when it started fading. within 5 minutes of being born it was dead. It's lungs had been compromised during delivery.

It was heartbreaking. He was a beautiful, big colt. This is the first foal I've ever lost- I guess the odds were against me.

Summer and I milked off the colustrum from kaydee- incase I have MORE bad luck with foals this year. Summer looked at me and said, "How many more foals do you have coming?" She's beginning to believe me when I said something's not right with my babies this year! Is it the crazy wether? Something in the feed? Or were these two coincidences? I guess we'll find out when the next mare foals.

So Annie and gretchen are due next- in about 10 days. They both seem normal for their due date- keep your fingers crossed.

Getting stronger

Well little un-named is getting stronger. We had a minor setback Saturday when we noticed him straining to, um, shall we say, "use the bathroom." After making several phone calls back and forth with my vet, we determined it was serious enough that he needed to be seen at the clinic in Springville. So we loaded the Mare & foal up (not too easy as he's gained in size and weight in the past 10 days) and took off for the 45 minute drive. I was scared he might lay down and the mare would step on him, or that the strain of the trip would be too much for his legs.

But we arrived safely, until we walked him into the clinic and both the mare and foal slipped on the wet concrete. seriously, I know it's been there a while and the ridges that were once there have smoothed out, but you'd think they do something about that- rubber mats maybe??? Anyway, it was a good thing we took him in- he was starting to show signs of colic- the vet gave him an enema (we had already done that at home with no success), and also gave him some mineral oil through a tube in his nose into his stomach., as well as a shot of banamine- a pain med. While we were there, and since I did not want to make another trip back in a week, we went ahead and had an xray done of the colt's knees.

We were crossing our fingers that they would be mineralized already. (The cartilage hardened) Yah! They were! so the crookedness we're dealing with is strictly weak ligaments due to the premature birth and the fact he's growing so fast.

Two loooong nights, but...

It's foaling season- mine began last Thursday with a bit of a surprise. I was expecting Shikira to foal soon- but not THAT soon! We arrived at the Center- where I was keeping her so I could keep an eye on her during the day- to find a half frozen foal still attached to the placenta. It was a terribly cold morning and the colt had probably been born around 5 AM. We got there at 6:45 AM- but he was so cold his temperature didn't register on a thermometer for nearly 4 hours. I yelled for Tom to grab some towels- he came and started rubbing him while I ran to the office to phone a vet. I thought he was mostly dead at this point. It's so hard to find a good vet out here- the ones I used to use won't travel clear down here- but I was inspired that morning. The night before I had found a little ad in the local newspaper for a new vet in the area and I had ripped it out of the paper and put it in my pocket. I called and she was on her way. Meanwhile, I grabbed sciccors to cut the cord- Tom carried the limp baby into the office where we could put heaters around him and finish drying him off.

When the vet arrived her first comment was he was premature and didn't know if we'd beable to save him.

I ran back outside to milk the mare-the colostrum is critical in the first few hours to ensure survival. The vet put a tube in the colt's nose and into his stomach- we put about 250 CC of colustrum in him and then while I held his head, she put an IV into him and Tom warmed up an IV bag and he got 200 CC of warm glucose fluid.

The colt was not responding favorably at this time (2 hours later) the vet gave him some pen G and we kept rubbing him. Tom went through 2 rolls of paper towel drying him off! Finally, he started to shiver- which meant he was actually coming around and he started to open his eyes and lift his head.

We had one day of sunshine before a huge cold front that night. So at this point, the vet, Tom, and I put him on a blanket and carried out to his Mom. Tom then ran home to fashion a stall in the barn for them. I kept monitoring the colt- milking the mare, etc. A dear friend, Liza, willingly came to help- she stopped at the house to get some lamb nipples from Tom and bring them to me so we could try feeding him.

He started really perking up. With our help he finally stood up and we gave him the bottle. When Tom returned he had even taken a few steps. But we weren't out of the woods yet.- The vet said they do just good enough to build up hope and then tank the next day- the next 24 hours were critical and we had to be vigilant.

We trailered them home and as the cold night approached, we took turns all night milking Shikira and feeding the colt. After the second feeding with the bottle (and it wasn't working too great) Tom found an article of a better way to feed the colt. I just used my fingers and put them in the bottom of the pan and he wold suck on them and draw up the milk. Finally he would just suck up the milk without my fingers.

It was VERY cold and we would basically feed him, he would then lay down and we would cover him up with a baby blanket we had. All night, every hour and a half we'd have to wake him up and feed him. By friday he would stand on his own, but was still too weak to nurse on his own. While I was up during the night- I gort some of my fleece and made a little foal blanket for him to wear. Tom thought it was much better for him to have something that wasn't pink ;-) on him.

The vet came the next day and was shocked that he had made it! While it snowed and hailed outside, we did our best to keep him warm. Finally ( and I'm not sure why we didn't do this sooner) but a comment the vet made stuck (that preemies have a hard time regulating their body temp) and we Tom fashioned a couple of heat lamps over the stall for him to lay under.

The second night was much the same, but by 5 AM he surprised us all by nursing on his own! He didn't want any milk in the pan- so we knew he had gotten enough.

He still has a few problems from being a preemie- inverted eye lids on one eye- which we have to watch closely and keep medicated.

Several dear friends stopped by to see how he was doing (and some brought us dinner the night before-thanks Jim & Liza) and one special friend who LOVES horses wanted to touch his velvet soft coat- so we let Jamie give him a pat.