One is Never Too Old to Learn!!!

We have had two new additions to our herd.  Grace our Paint black and white tobiano mare had a beautiful palomino and white colt. We named him Twister’s Little Buckaroo. So lucky Royal Lady (Nicky) had a beautiful Palomino Filly, we named her Twister’s Royal Star.  Both sets are doing great.

 In hopes that Brad’s niece Lacy reads this.  March 26, 2012 we were invited to attend Lacey’s wedding (Congrats Lacy), we were unable to attend because Nicky was 15 days overdue.  Brad and I both regret not being able to attend, but it was a very good thing we didn’t.

 Shayne woke Brad and me up at 11:30 with the news that Nicky was down and having her baby.  So we crept out to investigate.  I wanted to be present for the birthing for two reasons.  The first being she was 15 days passed her due date and there could be trouble.  The second reason is that I feel imprinting the foal is very important.

 Unfortunately the first reason came into play here.  Nicky was flat on her side pushing very hard, but all that was out was the head and one leg.  I have been through the birthing process many times with our mares, so I knew there was a problem.  I told Shayne to go get me some towels.  I didn’t know how bad it was going to get, so I wanted towels to dry the baby off if we needed to do that.

 I went in with Nicky she jumped up.  I was hoping she would stay lying, but she didn’t.  So I asked Brad to get her halter.  I knew we’d need some way to hold the mare.  When Brad came back with the halter, Shayne was back with the towels.  With Shayne’s help I placed the halter on the mare.

I really wanted her lying down so I told Shayne to hold her.  I went to her rear to look at the situation.  The foals head was completely out as well as one leg.  I knew this wasn’t good.  After telling Shayne to hold her and talk soothingly to her, I attempted to push the foal back in.  The foals head and leg were still inside the sack.  The sack was still intact. 

 After some pushing, I succeeded in getting the head and leg back in.  I then pushed my hand and arm inside the mare to find the missing leg.  It was folded back under the foal; I knew it need to be unfolded. I pull the leg forward and made sure the foals head was placed between both front legs.

 After doing this I went to Nicky’s head, Brad and Shayne went to her rear to catch the foal.  I knew there was no way to get her to lie down, so she’d have it standing.  Brad and Shayne did a great job catching the little filly

 Have you ever heard the Proverb, “You’re never too old to learn.”? Brad and I found out we were not too old to learn.  Shayne investigated to find out if it was a colt or filly, he said, “It’s a filly but her teets are really swelled up.”  I didn’t think anything of the swelling I figured it was from have a difficult birth.

 The next day her teets had double in size.  She looked like she had an udder just like her mom.  My first thought was, “OH no she has a hernia.”  Upon closer investigation I found that it was indeed an utter, she was full of Milk.  I became worried; I have had many fillies and have never seen this.  So I have a motto, when in doubt surf the net for answers.

I could find nothing about a foal less than a day old having her own Milk bag.  Brad and I talked it over and we decided to wait and see if it dried up.  After completing chores the next morning Brad informed me that the filly’s utter was dripping milk.  This really concerned me.

 So I got on the phone and called one of my favorite vets, who lives and practices in Michigan.  I explained to him what was happening.  To my astonishment he informed me that he didn’t know what it was.  He said he had never seen or heard of it.  He suggested that I call a University and talk to one of the reproduction vets.

I thanked him and then called Oklahoma State University.  I got an answering machine, so I left a message.  I then pulled up Yellow pages for our area and started calling vets.  I talked to four, none knew what was happening.  They were all astonished.  A few even told me it couldn’t be Milk it had to be an abscess.  I told them no its Milk coming from the sack not puss.  I have never seen milk come from an abscess.  After telling the symptoms so many times, I went back to the yellow pages and looked up an equine embryo center.  They didn’t know what was going on but the secretary gave me the name and number of a lady that specializes in the reproduction of cow’s goats and horses.

I called; this lady knew what it was.  She said it’s very rare, but she had seen it before.  She explained that clover carries a fungus that can cause the formation of extra estrogen hormones.  These hormones can cause a mare that isn’t bred to form milk.

 If the mare is bred these hormones are passed to the unborn filly.  This causes the filly to be born producing milk.  She explained the filly needed to be watched, if the bag didn’t start drying up she would need a shot of 3cc’s of penicillin a day for ten days.  She said the bag should start going down after the baby is 3 days old.  She explained if it didn’t the filly could get mastitis, or it could damage her ability to produce milk later.

 Today Brad checked her bag and delightfully reports that her bag is half the size it was.  So she is on her way to being Milk free.  I thought this might really interest my readers.  I went on line and did a little research on clover.

I found that clovers especially red clover and sub-terranian clover contain phyto-oestrogens which are a fungus on the clover that interfere with hormones and reproduction. These can turn mares into nymphomaniacs and geldings into stallions! They also increase the number of services to conceive.  So if you have a Studdy gelding he may not be proud cut, it might be clover. If you have a mare that will not conceive she may not be a maiden mare it may be clover.

So see one is never too old to learn something new!!!  Have a great day!!