Bossanova
Well-Known Member
Good god what a night!
Last night, at about 11.15pm as far as we can work out, Lugs started labour. My sister and I were out until 11.45. She checked Lugs on the webcam when we got home and ran round to me to tell me she was down and she thought she could see blood.
She called vet, I went to see. There was blood everywhere, Lugs was down and I could see a nose and one front leg. Had a really good feel around but knew we were in trouble as I couldnt feel the other fore leg. She was obviously straining and mr foal was stuck fast. The foal was already dead.
After the longest 15 minutes everywhere, during which time I just kept trying to find the other leg, the vet arrived. She could get further in than I could and located the leg- it was bent at the knee and wedged fast. We had 3 options- try and push baby in and straighten leg (risky and requires huge strength) cut leg off at knee (risky as hard to cut cleanly without injuring mare) or get her in to horsepital and give her a GA. We had to go for GA as Lugs was stable enough to travel but obviously not going to make it without help.
I think we arrived at the surgery at 12.45. Luckily she stood up the whole way and walked in ok. We pre-medded her and anaesthetised her. The surgeon hoisted her up and had a really good feel, he managed to hook the leg round and we all pulled for all our might. After about 15 minutes of stern persuasion, baby came out at about 1.45am
It was huge, massively huge. Beautiful black colt
Now the real trouble began. It was obvious she was bleeding but she was so swollen that it was impossible to tell from where. She very, very slowly woke up from the GA in the padded room. After about an hour she was trying to get up. She was so weak from everything that it took her another hour of struggling before the vets decided their safety was no longer a factor so they went in and got saline and fluids into her while she was down. One of her back legs was paralysed through her weight/immobility so we had to manouvere her round and thank god she managed to get up. She had lost a lot of blood by now so she had huge amounts of starch drip and then glucose drips. She very, very slowly began to get a bit perkier.
At 5.15am we were able to move her from the recovery room into the stable and she was strong enough to stand. Theyre now just supporting her with fluids and hoping that the bleeding is now slow enough to not be too much of a problem.
We so nearly lost her, there was a point at about 3am that she was flat out, in a lot of pain and it looked like there was no hope of her getting up. We were exceptionally lucky we got the foal out without having to open her up.
So please everyone, Lugs needs some huge get well vibes right now. She's still a very sick girly. She's hopefully going to pass the after birth this morning and then it's a wait and see job. If she survives the next twelve hours then we'll look into seeing if there's any chance she could foster an orphan baby.
Last night, at about 11.15pm as far as we can work out, Lugs started labour. My sister and I were out until 11.45. She checked Lugs on the webcam when we got home and ran round to me to tell me she was down and she thought she could see blood.
She called vet, I went to see. There was blood everywhere, Lugs was down and I could see a nose and one front leg. Had a really good feel around but knew we were in trouble as I couldnt feel the other fore leg. She was obviously straining and mr foal was stuck fast. The foal was already dead.
After the longest 15 minutes everywhere, during which time I just kept trying to find the other leg, the vet arrived. She could get further in than I could and located the leg- it was bent at the knee and wedged fast. We had 3 options- try and push baby in and straighten leg (risky and requires huge strength) cut leg off at knee (risky as hard to cut cleanly without injuring mare) or get her in to horsepital and give her a GA. We had to go for GA as Lugs was stable enough to travel but obviously not going to make it without help.
I think we arrived at the surgery at 12.45. Luckily she stood up the whole way and walked in ok. We pre-medded her and anaesthetised her. The surgeon hoisted her up and had a really good feel, he managed to hook the leg round and we all pulled for all our might. After about 15 minutes of stern persuasion, baby came out at about 1.45am
It was huge, massively huge. Beautiful black colt
Now the real trouble began. It was obvious she was bleeding but she was so swollen that it was impossible to tell from where. She very, very slowly woke up from the GA in the padded room. After about an hour she was trying to get up. She was so weak from everything that it took her another hour of struggling before the vets decided their safety was no longer a factor so they went in and got saline and fluids into her while she was down. One of her back legs was paralysed through her weight/immobility so we had to manouvere her round and thank god she managed to get up. She had lost a lot of blood by now so she had huge amounts of starch drip and then glucose drips. She very, very slowly began to get a bit perkier.
At 5.15am we were able to move her from the recovery room into the stable and she was strong enough to stand. Theyre now just supporting her with fluids and hoping that the bleeding is now slow enough to not be too much of a problem.
We so nearly lost her, there was a point at about 3am that she was flat out, in a lot of pain and it looked like there was no hope of her getting up. We were exceptionally lucky we got the foal out without having to open her up.
So please everyone, Lugs needs some huge get well vibes right now. She's still a very sick girly. She's hopefully going to pass the after birth this morning and then it's a wait and see job. If she survives the next twelve hours then we'll look into seeing if there's any chance she could foster an orphan baby.
