Kim's Post Foal Watch Diary 2007!
Continuing with intermittent news of Aurum's foals and their mums!
Those of you who have followed our foal watch series will be aware of the surgery that Moses underwent a few weeks ago.
| As he underwent a ‘repair job’ rather than being opened up he did not need to be stabled once home. Of course he did not need to be racing around with his mates either but needed some exercise to help reduce the swelling in his scrotum. Hence he and Rose took up residence for the next month or so in the day yards. The weather varied during this time from quite hot to cold and miserable. The yards do not have great shelter for a baby so on the hot days they had to come inside and on the cold days Moses had to be rugged. He is at a difficult size as he is now too big for foal rugs but horse rugs are a little too big in the neck. We can cover most sizes however (thanks to Hewey) and Moses was decked out in a nice blue and gold 4’ mini rug as the weather required. |
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Benny (L) and Jolson modelling the latest foal 'Fashions in the Field'We were just about at the point of returning Rose and Moses to the paddock when we made an unfortunate discovery. Both Moses and Rose were fine but sadly we made a discovery that no breeder wants. In the yard was a wet patch with a small pile of membranes beside it. Closer inspection revealed a tiny foal encased within. Rose had slipped her 2008 foal at 112 days. It was to be our only one for the season by Flash Flood.
From the ‘freshness’ this had happened very recently, probably only minutes earlier. Had we not found the foetus, we would simply have become suspicious next spring as Rose of course did not seem to even notice the loss and showed no outward signs.
Despite the fact that it was a very disappointing find, it is very interesting to see a foetus at this stage. If you are game to look at the photos you can see that the ‘important bits’ are disproportionately large at this stage. The head and barrel are quite large and the legs extremely tiny, even though you can clearly see the tiny hooves. The eye sockets are clearly formed but the ears just look like a tiny tag of skin. Of course I had to check and it was a filly. Being 112 days, it was at about 1/3 of total gestation and yet it is still very tiny so you can see why you don’t need to feed the calories for two early in the pregnancy. We already knew from Hewey that an enormous amount of skeletal growth occurs near the end of the pregnancy but this also brought it home.
So Rose and Moses went back to their friends in the paddock and we now know who will be weaned last of that group!
We have been busy getting the tail enders (sorry) back in foal and having the usual debate over the length of next year's foaling season versus leaving a mare empty for the year. The problem is that you still have to feed them and care for them so they may as well be in foal! However we are now at the point where anyone not pregnant in the next weeks will stay empty, but only just. Minuet was negative at her 14 day scan last week, so went back for another frozen cycle and was inseminated on Thursday. We picked her up and dropped off Netti for her turn on Friday.
| Netti was inseminated on Sunday morning and we should have been bringing her home in the afternoon. However she was a bit colicy through the afternoon and although she was only mildly uncomfortable was clearly not quite right. Des (the vet) felt that it might be wise to take a ‘precautionary’ trip to Werribee (our major University veterinary hospital) as he was concerned that there may be a displacement. So we loaded Newton and Netti onto the float and I headed off leaving Richard to return home to feed the masses! |
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DP Whanita (Netti)We arrived at Werribee at about 8pm to find a yearling who had been unwell since Thursday being examined. I was concerned about Netti becoming painful in the float and squashing Newton so unloaded and waited in a stable. Netti was only mildly uncomfortable still but obviously had ‘episodes’ where she wanted to roll. Both for her sake and that of Newton, I endeavored to stop this. My original intention was not to stay at Werribee too long but as the vets were busy I could not really leave.
It was some time before they were free to assess Netti and they then spent a long time doing so as her clinical picture did not really add up. Her vital signs were basically normal as were her PCV and lactate (blood tests) yet she was clearly uncomfortable. Rectally she did not feel quite normal but also not very abnormal, although there was some gas build up in the gut. At one point she was being ultrasounded abdominally and trans-rectally at the same time and then later was have a catheter put in while a peritoneal tap was being done! All this time Newton was just standing patiently with me. The only time he got a bit upset was when sandwiched between ultra sound machines and blocked from mum by vets. This whole examination process took easily 1 1/2 hours and Newton was practically dead on his feet but he just kept standing there leaning on me. The surgeon then arrived and some of the process was repeated. He was a lot taller than either of the two examining vets and was able to feel a mass further in. This was probably an impaction of some sort or possibly an abcess, or haematoma or even a tumour.
By now it was clear that the only option was surgery and the rest of the team was called in and the theatre prepared.
| I went back to the stable to keep Newton and Netti safe in the meantime. Shortly after midnight Netti was heading off to theatre and I thought that I would head for home. However Newton was not too happy about this idea so I decided to stay with him until he settled. He is very used to human company, as are all of our foals, so despite the fact that mum had gone seemed to be taking a great deal of comfort from my presence. Each time that I thought that he had settled enough to sneak out he woke up and caused me to stay. By about 2:30am Netti was through the surgery and into recovery. It is best that they take their time in recovery so that as they are waking and standing they are more in control of their faculties. Hence it was now my job to make sure that if she called out, Newton did not answer and stir her up. This was made more difficult by the fact that the yearling that was going to theatre next, was calling out. So Newton got lots more cuddles to keep him occupied and at 3:30am Netti was returned to the box. Newton's first mission was of course the milk bar! Poor Netti, straight out of theatre and back to reality! During the night Newton had had a few small drinks of water and a few nibbles of feed but being only 1 month old he is mainly living on milk at this stage, so he was pretty desperate, and there is also a huge comfort factor involved. So shortly after 3:30am I was able to head for home, picking up ‘dinner’ on the way. |
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NewtonNetti progressed well and by Wednesday was onto full feed and off medication other than a small amount of bute. Thursday she was able to come home and will now be stabled and yarded for the next 3 months. Poor Newton will not have another foal to play with but we need to make sure that Netti is well healed before there is any running around. It will be very interesting to see if she was able to conceive through all of this. Stay tuned!
To finish, here's a couple of pictures of 'Auntie' Gloria (Tidal Wave) with her clan! Gloria is always the paddock boss but is very benevolent about it and almost never needs to 'raise her voice' so to speak. In her paddock whenever alarm is raised all the foals immediately run to her rather than to their own mothers!
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From left to right: Gloria, Floyd (on top), Hayley and Bodie. |
