NEWBIE ALERT!!!!
I'm a couple of days late posting this, but since it was the beginning of a very hectic and not always happy streak, I haven't even turned my computer on since then.
My lovely Miss Pammy had a baby boy in the wee hours of Callum Keith Rennie's birthday and his name is Newbie.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, either. Pammy has had 3 other foals and the pattern is always the same. Wax on teats, labour that night, Pammy demands I stay near her head at all times until the serious pushing starts and then she points her butt at me and goes down.
Well, this time she did the wax thing, but when the alarm went off (two hours after I went to bed) and I went to check on her, she presented her backside to me right away. There was only one little foot coming and when I reached in to feel, there was only a nose behind it. Now you need two feet first, then the nose. Anything else just won't work.
So I knocked on the boss's window and got him up. (Pammy lives at my work.) He did the same thing I did and went off to call the vet. I got Pammy up and made her walk around until the first vet arrived. She's new to foaling and I'm not fond of her work with horses in general, so I was pretty worried by this point. Pammy had been in heavy labour for over an hour and that's heading into dangerous territory. Horses tend to get it all over in under half and hour.
Vet said to let Pammy lay down, (I didn't agree, but she's got the degree.) and she reached in as far as she could with visibly shaking hands and found what I found. One leg and a nose. She said she couldn't even get in far enough to feel anything else.
Another set of headlights came flying down the driveway and Vet said, "The cavalry's here." By which she meant the vet we're used to having for foalings. I breathed a little then, but not much because Pammy had gone into cold sweats and Newbie's tongue was changing colour by then and they are not good signs.
The first thing Boss Vet said was, "Get the mare up!" in his Urgent Voice and I had to really coax Pammy onto her feet.
He reached in and said, "Let her walk if she wants." Which she did and he found Newbie's other leg tucked way inside with the knee bent, straightened it out and had him on the ground about ten seconds after Pammy was allowed back down.
He had to tip Newbie upside down and bash his ribcage a bit to get him breathing, and Pammy was so still that I had to put my hand up to her nostrils to see if she was breathing.
My poor girl was exhausted but Newbie was up and about pretty fast, trying to suck on the fence and me and anything other than his Mum. Pammy was having a hard time keeping up with him, so I locked them in a box and went off to bed for an hour, setting my alarm to get up and check them.
The afterbirth hadn't come away, but Newbie had found the milk bar, so I gave Pammy a shot of oxytocin and got another two hours of sleep before it was time to get up for work.
Another shot of oxy and two more hours and the vet had to physically remove the afterbirth. Which meant 3 more shots of oxy. Oxytocin induces uterine contractions. You can imagine, my poor darling was in pain for most of the day, but it was needed to stop her from getting a life threatening infection.
Poor Newbie was all blocked up and needed an enema to get his bowels working, too. But by the end of the day, all of us were exhausted, but healthy. I managed to get some crappy pics with my phone.
Somewhere in the middle of all this drama, another mare popped out a baby boy, giving us two in one day. Thankfully I only had to watch that birth, it all went perfectly. I'm still trying to think of a Callumy name for that one.
Anyway, without further ado(because I've had way too much ado over the last few days.) Heeeere's Newbie!
And Pammy having a well earned rest.
Newbie telling Mum to get up so he can have a drink.
My lovely Miss Pammy had a baby boy in the wee hours of Callum Keith Rennie's birthday and his name is Newbie.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, either. Pammy has had 3 other foals and the pattern is always the same. Wax on teats, labour that night, Pammy demands I stay near her head at all times until the serious pushing starts and then she points her butt at me and goes down.
Well, this time she did the wax thing, but when the alarm went off (two hours after I went to bed) and I went to check on her, she presented her backside to me right away. There was only one little foot coming and when I reached in to feel, there was only a nose behind it. Now you need two feet first, then the nose. Anything else just won't work.
So I knocked on the boss's window and got him up. (Pammy lives at my work.) He did the same thing I did and went off to call the vet. I got Pammy up and made her walk around until the first vet arrived. She's new to foaling and I'm not fond of her work with horses in general, so I was pretty worried by this point. Pammy had been in heavy labour for over an hour and that's heading into dangerous territory. Horses tend to get it all over in under half and hour.
Vet said to let Pammy lay down, (I didn't agree, but she's got the degree.) and she reached in as far as she could with visibly shaking hands and found what I found. One leg and a nose. She said she couldn't even get in far enough to feel anything else.
Another set of headlights came flying down the driveway and Vet said, "The cavalry's here." By which she meant the vet we're used to having for foalings. I breathed a little then, but not much because Pammy had gone into cold sweats and Newbie's tongue was changing colour by then and they are not good signs.
The first thing Boss Vet said was, "Get the mare up!" in his Urgent Voice and I had to really coax Pammy onto her feet.
He reached in and said, "Let her walk if she wants." Which she did and he found Newbie's other leg tucked way inside with the knee bent, straightened it out and had him on the ground about ten seconds after Pammy was allowed back down.
He had to tip Newbie upside down and bash his ribcage a bit to get him breathing, and Pammy was so still that I had to put my hand up to her nostrils to see if she was breathing.
My poor girl was exhausted but Newbie was up and about pretty fast, trying to suck on the fence and me and anything other than his Mum. Pammy was having a hard time keeping up with him, so I locked them in a box and went off to bed for an hour, setting my alarm to get up and check them.
The afterbirth hadn't come away, but Newbie had found the milk bar, so I gave Pammy a shot of oxytocin and got another two hours of sleep before it was time to get up for work.
Another shot of oxy and two more hours and the vet had to physically remove the afterbirth. Which meant 3 more shots of oxy. Oxytocin induces uterine contractions. You can imagine, my poor darling was in pain for most of the day, but it was needed to stop her from getting a life threatening infection.
Poor Newbie was all blocked up and needed an enema to get his bowels working, too. But by the end of the day, all of us were exhausted, but healthy. I managed to get some crappy pics with my phone.
Somewhere in the middle of all this drama, another mare popped out a baby boy, giving us two in one day. Thankfully I only had to watch that birth, it all went perfectly. I'm still trying to think of a Callumy name for that one.
Anyway, without further ado(because I've had way too much ado over the last few days.) Heeeere's Newbie!
And Pammy having a well earned rest.
Newbie telling Mum to get up so he can have a drink.