Magic
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2002
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- 4,462
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My first three mares of the year due to foal were all maiden mares, and I was scrambling to get ready for their foalings. Our camera system got fried by a lightning strike so we had to buy a new system and hubby got the first camera up and working and my first mare due was in that stall. Though the mare's vulva was getting puffy, her bag was nowhere near looking ready, and her teats were still tucked way up with her bag still very small. She was at 313 days gestation. Well near midnight that night, my Anatolian Shepherd woke me up from a sound sleep, she was barking right outside my bedroom window. I got up and looked outside, and she was looking at me. I opened the window and asked her, as is my custom to do "What are you barking at, Tanna?" and though usually she usually politely looks at me while I am talking to her and then goes back to barking at whatever it is when I am done, this time she turned and ran for the barn. Odd. So, since I was awake I figured I'd turn on the monitor in my bedroom and see what my mare (Wildfire) was up to. OMG, there was a FOAL sprawled in front of her!!!!! I threw on my clothes and grabbed my foaling kit on the way out the door, and when I got to the barn, I saw a soaking-wet foal with placenta still attached via the umbilical cord. Wildfire was standing over her. The low temperature that night was 15 degrees, so I had to work fast. First thing was to turn the Kalglo heater on high, detach the plancenta from the appaloosa filly (oh yeah, I checked the sex quickly too, lol), dip the umbilical cord, and start drying her with towels. Then I opened a bale of straw and covered the rubber matted floor with it. Then to finish drying the filly, all the time praising Wildfire as such a wonderful mommy, and gushing over the little wonder shivering in front of me. A friend had recently had an unexpected foal and it froze to death before they got to it, so I felt VERY grateful to have been alerted to this birth!! I bundled the baby up in blankets, helped her nurse-- which was tough for her to latch onto since the teats were WAY up there, but at least Wildfire had plenty of milk and the filly was consistently in the right spot-- watched for the first poops, and then chilled to the bone, I finally went to the house several around dawn, to lie in bed and watch with awe my little miracle on the monitor. Tanna, my Livestock Guardian Dog, is a hero, and the official GodMother of this little near-leopard filly. Out of Magic Mist Wildfire and by CCMF Spotted Illusion, may I present, Magic Mist Macushla.
