This message is from: Martha Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello all! I've been reading through the messages for the past week or so and I'm so glad I found this outlet.
We have a 3 1/2 year old mare, Hedda and she gave birth to a filly on April 13. Unfortunately, we didn't have "beginners luck". Hedda foaled about an hour before we checked in on her. No waxing signs. The good news is that the delivery seemed to go fine. The bad news is that the foal never really picked up, she was really sleepy and we had to help her stand all but one time. I knew something wasn't quite right and called the vet. By the time she got there, the baby still had not nursed. We tube fed her and she gave some glucose, then left. She told us to call if the baby didn't pick up in a couple of hours. Well, I only waited for 30 minutes and said "You must refer us to the Univ of Wisconsin Vet School now!" At the Vet School she was diagnosed with sepsis (bacteria infection) and given a 30 percent chance of surviving. Luckily her lungs and stomach did not appear infected. We decided to go for it and treat her. After a couple of days, the UW vet told us the sepsis was under control but that the filly also had White Muscle Disease and pneumonia, but that both of these conditions were treatable. White Muscle Disease is a weakening of muscles caused by a Vit E deficiency in the mare. So this was something she contracted in-utero. Now, we are fairly new to horses (I grew up on a dairy farm) so we obeyed our vet's instructions on prenatal care. No where along the line did she recommend any type of vitamin supplements. At one point of the pregnancy they told us to take Hedda off of grain because she was overweight (she did get into some steer feed, whole kernel corn, and was under the weather for a few days. She pulled through just fine though). Not to ramble on much more, the mare and filly will be coming home tomorrow. Hurrah! The only concern the UW vet has is that Hedda seems to be aggressive and playful around her baby. They have been in separate, but adjoining stalls at the hospital. Now that the foal is stronger they are working on the relationship between mom and baby. Does anyone have any advice on how to foster a loving relationship here? When the filly was born, Hedda seemed to be really motherly toward her and she has always been extremely calm. We're also seriously considering changing regular vets. Do you think this is warranted? Sorry for going on and on. We've learned the hard (and expensive) way on this one and want any other "newbies" out there to be able to learn from our mistake. By the way, we just settled on a name for the little one - Heldig, pronounced hehl-di, means lucky in Norwegian. Sincerely, Martha and Guy in southern Wisconsin.
