Graphic description w/ photos of a healthy birth

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Miniv

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MeeToo is an eighteen year old mare. She was the first miniature Maryann and I bought and has produced some incredible babies for us.

Meetoo was given a couple of years off from baby making by Maryann. Last year, she obviously was unhappy because she she wanted a foal. Broodmares are like that and not complete without a baby.

This is a chronicle of this year's foal, Miniv Pocos Senorita. A filly born around midnight on the 23rd of May. I did miss the first couple of minutes--when she went down and first started pushing but I can take it from there.

When a horse goes down to foal, their legs go straight out, they groan and start heaving their muscles to push out the baby who is already in the birth canal. In a normal delivery, The amniotic sac breaks and fluid gushes out, then the feet come first, one after another and finally the head.

MeetooFillyMay232008059.jpg


In the above image, you can see that Maryann has a foot in her hand. She has already broken the amniotic sac (which encloses the foal while it is in the usterus). Both legs are out and the head. Once the head is out, the foaling is relatively easy for the mare.

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Once the feet are out, Maryann tends to pull out and down on them to help the mares along. In nature, this is done normally and by the tremendous pushing the mare can do with her muscles. Most of the foal is out of the mare in this photo. Maryann coincides her pulling with the mare's contractions.

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Senorita is nearly totally born in this photo. Maryann is helping her hind legs out of the vulva.

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You can see all the fluid and blood on the ground.and the sheet--which we use to give the foal a "cleanish place" to lie as it's being born.

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We immediately towel off the new baby to help it dry...they can't regulate their temperature whatsoever when they are newborn. It's amazing more don't die of exposure--big horses or minis.

As soon as the foal starts to try to get up or the mother stands, the umbilical cord breaks. When it does, we douse the navel stump with mild iodine to help it dry out and prevent infection from entering the open conduit of the umbilical stump.

MeetooFillyMay232008066.jpg


We continue the drying process which is also the beginning of imprinting the baby--helping it know that humans are okay and we're going to ask it to do things and it is okay.

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After the foal is just a few minutes old, it will try to stand. Usually this is a pretty frustrating process...those legs have been curled up for 11 months!

About this time, the dam (mother) will start licking some of the amniotic fluid off the foal. This is her way of beginning the imprinting process and also is a safety factor for the foal. In the wild, amniotic fluid, which is VERY pungent, will attract predators.

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Around this time, we give the foal a shot to give it a necessary mineral which is missing from our soil so most of the hay and grain we feed doesn't have it. The mineral, selenium, helps strengthen the legs among other things. We also give the mother pain killer for contractions occuring in her body and some worming medicine which will make her manure worm free---the babies usually at least sample the manure and it wouldn't be good to introduce worms or worm eggs into the foal. They can't be wormed for several months.

The foal, after successfully standing heads for the body where it instinctively knows it will get nutrition. We usually intervene here and milk some colostrum out of the mare and feed it to the foal. That way, we know it has two ounces of the pint it HAS to have. It also warms the foal and gives it strength.

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Foals are one of the few of Nature's creatures who are born with NO defenses against anything--both predatorial and inside their bodies. They have NO antibodies whatsoever when they are first born and the colostrum provides antibodies the mother has for about the first 24 hours of life to the baby--enough to protect them and help them develop antibodies of their own.

By now the mare is standing. Hanging from her is the umbilical cord and the "afterbirth" containing the sack the foal was in as well as the placenta.

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(This is visible in the photo above (of an earlier mare--missed this one on MeeToo). It takes a while for this to fully come out of the mare. Generally, the mare will expel it with after birth contractions...but it can take a half hour or more.

When it falls, we look at the placenta to be sure all of it has come out and then throw it away.

MeetooFillyMay232008085.jpg


I laid Senorita's out. It is inside out---you can see the two horns and the one on the right was where the foal lived during its life inside its dam. The white is the amniotic sac that protected the foal while it was in utero. The red are blood vessels which are connected (sort of) to the umbillicus to provide nutrition for the foal while it was incubating in its mother.

Once the afterbirth is out of the mare and we've vaccinated, wormed, fed Mom and the baby--we step out of the stall and allow the mare and foal get to know each other.

MeetooFillyMay232008084.jpg


We are waiting for the foal to find the nipples on its mother--a ponderous, tenuous process--they have to go through contortions to find the teats. After it has eaten, then we wait for it to pass its first meconium--usually a build up of waste in the foal's body during the time it is in utero. Sometimes we need to help it along with an enema.

With some luck, we get to go to bed--after around three hours or so and wake up to something like this (actually she's two days old in this photo).

TerraColtMay352008028.jpg


Thanks for following along.
 
Thanks for sharing. That is an awesome pictorial and I hope to have it happening here any day now!
 
Wow that was awesome!! Never seen a birth live...tried on Marestare but somehow keep missing them.

Thanks for sharing! It's such a special moment.
 
This post will be very helpful to many people. You did a great job of explaining the steps and what's in the photos!
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THanks for posting it!

ETA: correct spelling
 
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thanks for sharing the photos and information.It is always great to have folks help others on here learn.
 
Great pictures and description with them. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for this great info, appreciate it, waiting on one of mine to foal, hubby usually here to help but hes at work now, Hope she holds off till he gets home,Thanks for refreshing my memory.
 
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We did the same thing with one of our mares last year and placed it on our website. We got alot of comments from folks that had never seen a birth step by step.
 
Just wanted to say that the response to Larry's Blog on My Space has been wonderful! A lot of folks who didn't know anything about horses or MINIATURE horses have been commenting. Plus, his views (with no comments) have been in the hundreds! So, the interest is there. Thought you'd all like to know........
 

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