MountainMeadows
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2004
- Messages
- 1,140
- Reaction score
- 1
Again, I thank God for the Breeder Alert that GG Cleopatra had on last night. Cleo is 25 years old, she has produced 3 National GRAND Champion Open Single Pleasure Driving horses (from 3 different stallions) over her lifetime and this foal was to be her last. Cleo was bred to Lorraine Strawn's "moving machine" - High Country Hi Tech for her last baby.
We have been so excited and worried - Cleo has always been a great mom, easy foaler, and due to her age her due dates have been getting longer & longer. I had been checking her daily, but had seen little to no development, had taken her pager OFF, and actually fter checking her milk a couple of days ago told Lorraine that it looked like Cleo was going to go another couple of weeks - well, glad I checked her milk again yesterday afternoon because she gave me a palm full of white milk! :new_shocked:
Well, we all know that this can mean "I am going to foal soon" or " perhaps in a few days" - needlesstosay, the pager went ON.
Glad it did, because at 11:15 Cleo was down & pushing - I shot down to the barn, and waited a minute to see how things were progressing -- NOT GOOD - Cleo was laboring hard, and sweating -- NOT her usual. No feet, no bubble - so in I go - only to find an "obstruction". Now any of you who have done this know what a pit you get in your stomache when this happens - but your mare's life and her foal's life are on the line so you do what you have to do -- go in and search for a leg, foot, head etc. Fortunately found a leg, then another, made sure that I had a head and 2 front feet -- but still the baby was upsidedown - not good - it is really hard to turn a foal, and it is very hard to deliver a baby in this position. I was alone - Guy works nights and wouldn't be home for a couple of hours - I was on my own with this one
Thankfully, Cleo is an experienced mare, and she worked really hard and we did get this baby out -- a sorrel filly with a blaze. Touch and go for this baby - didn't want to breath, and then once breathing didn't want to keep breathing - 3 hours of CPR and constant viligance to make sure she didn't fade - Cleo was in a lot of pain and cramping badly, 3 cc's and then 3 more cc's of Banamine finally took hold and gave her some relief. So for the next several hours I was monitoring the filly to make sure she didn't "expire" on me again - got about 45 cc's of colostrum into her while Cleo was still down to give her a little kickstart and by the time Cleo was able to stay on her feet for a few minutes the baby was finally up and looking for breakfast. Cleo is still quite sore, but it looks as tho all will be OK -- again thank God for the pager - I am sure that I would have lost them both if I had not had it on her. The moral here - NEVER expect things to bo OK just because your mare has not had a problem before - Cleo has had 13 foals with no problems!
Thankfully, this one worked out well, the filly is a keeper - she is Cleo's last baby which makes me kind of sad, but Cleo has more than earned her retirement - even at age 25 she doesn't show her age - doesn't have a grey hair on her face and can pretty much "out-trot" anything on our place.
So, now we need to name this little girl: mom is GG Cleopatra and dad is High Country Hi Tech -- any suggestions?
Stac
We have been so excited and worried - Cleo has always been a great mom, easy foaler, and due to her age her due dates have been getting longer & longer. I had been checking her daily, but had seen little to no development, had taken her pager OFF, and actually fter checking her milk a couple of days ago told Lorraine that it looked like Cleo was going to go another couple of weeks - well, glad I checked her milk again yesterday afternoon because she gave me a palm full of white milk! :new_shocked:
Well, we all know that this can mean "I am going to foal soon" or " perhaps in a few days" - needlesstosay, the pager went ON.
Glad it did, because at 11:15 Cleo was down & pushing - I shot down to the barn, and waited a minute to see how things were progressing -- NOT GOOD - Cleo was laboring hard, and sweating -- NOT her usual. No feet, no bubble - so in I go - only to find an "obstruction". Now any of you who have done this know what a pit you get in your stomache when this happens - but your mare's life and her foal's life are on the line so you do what you have to do -- go in and search for a leg, foot, head etc. Fortunately found a leg, then another, made sure that I had a head and 2 front feet -- but still the baby was upsidedown - not good - it is really hard to turn a foal, and it is very hard to deliver a baby in this position. I was alone - Guy works nights and wouldn't be home for a couple of hours - I was on my own with this one
Thankfully, Cleo is an experienced mare, and she worked really hard and we did get this baby out -- a sorrel filly with a blaze. Touch and go for this baby - didn't want to breath, and then once breathing didn't want to keep breathing - 3 hours of CPR and constant viligance to make sure she didn't fade - Cleo was in a lot of pain and cramping badly, 3 cc's and then 3 more cc's of Banamine finally took hold and gave her some relief. So for the next several hours I was monitoring the filly to make sure she didn't "expire" on me again - got about 45 cc's of colostrum into her while Cleo was still down to give her a little kickstart and by the time Cleo was able to stay on her feet for a few minutes the baby was finally up and looking for breakfast. Cleo is still quite sore, but it looks as tho all will be OK -- again thank God for the pager - I am sure that I would have lost them both if I had not had it on her. The moral here - NEVER expect things to bo OK just because your mare has not had a problem before - Cleo has had 13 foals with no problems!
Thankfully, this one worked out well, the filly is a keeper - she is Cleo's last baby which makes me kind of sad, but Cleo has more than earned her retirement - even at age 25 she doesn't show her age - doesn't have a grey hair on her face and can pretty much "out-trot" anything on our place.
So, now we need to name this little girl: mom is GG Cleopatra and dad is High Country Hi Tech -- any suggestions?
Stac
