Cori’s new son

Well, after waiting 338 days, Cori has given birth to her new son at 11:15 pm Friday night. He is a very pretty boy and very squirmy and vocal. He is a big foal, but fine – not huge like Hiltje’s boy Tsjemme was. This one is more like Cori’s first baby, Samson. He was able to stand within 2 hours.

The delivery went without a hitch, except that the umbilical cord did not break on its own. This was because the placenta was birthed totally with the foal. We found this to be odd, and later found out that it was an indicator of premature separation of the placenta from the mare – a bad thing. Meconium seemed to pass just fine. He stood in about 1.5 hours and things looked ok. I waited for him to nurse before feeling overly confident.

At 3 hours he still had not nursed, and was not showing interest in his mother (although she was doing everything she could to help him). It was 2am and I went to the foaling shed to try to encourage him. He did not seem to be “connecting the dots” – wandering into the stall corners and not exhibiting a sucking reflex. I knew this baby needed to eat as soon as possible, so I called the emergency vet to get advice. The vet heard my story and said “I am leaving now”.

The trip for the vet is nearly an hour, over Fancy Gap mountain. He showed up at 4am, with the foal 5 hours old. I had milk waiting for him (I milked using my new Udderly EZ milker – to be described in a future post). Dr. Cassell inserted a tube while I tried to hold the foal stationary. It took a few tries – this little guy is very strong and very active. Dr. Cassell and I once again tried to encourage him to nurse, but he did not seem to understand that his momma was the source of food. Dr. Cassell concluded that this was a case of neonatal maladjustment syndrome – known by the unfortunate lay person’s name of “dummy foal” (this is a terrible name because the foal is not “dumb”; he seems quite intelligent. But he does have some neurological problems with balance and suckling). Dr. Cassell said the fact that the entire placenta has been birthed so quickly indicated that the placenta had detached too quickly from the mare, thus depriving the foal of oxygen. Luckily, our foal’s symptoms were minor. Some foals with this can have seizures, infection, or be born dead. Our little guy’s inability to nurse is a small problem by comparison. We agreed that Dr. Cassell would return at 9am and we’d figure out what to do then.

By 9am Saturday, the foal was much stronger and moving much better. He was trying hard to nurse – but not nursing his mom. Rather, he seemed fixated on the hay rack in the corner, licking at it and bumping it in the same way a baby will bump the udder when trying to nurse. He still did not suck, but Dad tried some Karo syrup on his finger and the foal did lick at it – an improvement. Dr Cassell got there at 9am and tubed the foal again. He also checked vitals and did some blood work. Things looked pretty good.

“Well”, he said, “the baby needs to be taught to suck and get reorientated to his mom. This will take a little time and no one knows how long. You can leave him here and tube feed him every two hours, or take him to Va Tech hospital and let them work with him. They are equipped to do this.” Dad and I agreed – take him to Tech and see how he is after a few days. So for the second time in 36 hours, we hooked up the trailer and headed north over the mountain. This time with Cori and her 10 hour old foal in the back.

Our story will continue in the next post…