Foaling Season 2008 on the Baby Boomer's Arabian Horse Breeding Farm Part 6

Part 1 starts here

When I got back to the computer I found that the Arabian mare had again laid back down. Again the filly was trying to get her mom back up. It seemed clear from her attempts that the filly knew that milk should come from mom at least that was a good sign.

Why she wasn't taking advantage of latching on when she was right there was beyond me. I didn't have a clue what was going on unless this filly just wasn't hungry. Been there done that before with another foal who wouldn't nurse for hours then just got up and started nursing. I decided to just give this filly some time. I let her try to get the mare up. I let her work for it. I would let her think about it while I watched.

Somewhere between a half hour and another forty-five minutes passed and the mare still hadn't gotten to her feet. I roused Dave out of his chair and we headed back to the barn. Lucy jumped up as soon as she heard us coming so we decided to stand outside and watch for just a moment to see what the filly would do.

Next thing you know she walked right over to the mare and put her head right down where it belonged. The next thing you know we could hear sucking sounds. Not trusting this ordeal was actually going to come to an end, we stood there watching making sure she nursed like she should. After a few minutes, we went back into the house to watch for pooping and peeing.

Secretly I was relieved that Dave hadn't been instrumental in getting this brat filly to nurse. I never would have heard the end of it. But a part of me had to wish that we had been able to get her to accept our help. This independent filly had managed to do it on her terms. I wasn't so sure that was a good thing. However, I am convinced Dave with a big head wouldn't be good either.

I didn't get to bed until the birds were beginning to chirp. By then I had seen the filly poop and pee without any effort. I was pretty sure we were out of the woods. All vital functions were accounted for......or so I thought.

By morning (well morning to me, I got up around 9 am) there was a post on the Mare Stare thread saying that the filly was straining to poop. I've never been one to use an enema if I don't have to. If a foal poops ok on their own, I skip the enema. But it was clear that an enema was in order so I headed back to the barn.

From the beginning of my "career' foaling out mares, I'd always been told a Fleet enema was the right thing to use for a constipated mare. That is until Jack Gillette became my vet. He doesn't like them. He much prefers a glycerine enema. Why that is, I didn't really know. But I had several Fleet brand enemas in my horse cupboard so that's what I used.

The difference I've noticed between the Fleet enema and the gylcerine one that Jack prefers is that the gylcerine type doesn't come straight back out at you like the water based ones tend to do. It was almost immediately that water from the enema was squirting everywhere soon followed by some rock hard balls of what looked like green poop.

Normally once you get into green poop, the meconium has all been passed. That's what I thought happened at the time. However, it was soon clear that this filly was still straining and not making any progress.

Having been through this before I proceeded as I had been instructed by my former vet. That meant one more Fleet enema which turned out to be totally ineffective. Not only that, I later learned it really irritated her bowel, instead of making things better, I had actually made them worse.

I ended up calling out the vet. I explained to him what I'd done and I got "that look" that told me I'd done something wrong. But he didn't scold me, just told me again that he hates Fleet enemas because of problems like these. Then he administered a glycerine enema. That produced more of the yellow matter that follows out the meconium. Actually you don't even consider the meconium has passed until you get through all of that straw colored poop.

Then to see what we were dealing with he palpated the filly checking for an obstruction. That's when he found how irritated her bowel was from the Fleet enema. Other than the irritation he found no other problem. If there was any kind of blockage it was in the upper bowel. We were going to have to wait and watch to see if we were out of the woods.

To be continued.............

Poop Patrol Antics

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY