Is the foal due?

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lyndseyfielding

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Hi

I bought my mare 8 weeks ago, my daughter had her on trial for 4 weeks prior to her coming home, all seemed ok. We brought her home and I commented on various occasions she looks to be putting weight on her tummy. After studying her tummy closely, it moved, a lot. I took her to the vets for a scan 4 weeks ago who couldnt scan her because the foal is too big. He did a external examination and said she has a very large foal nearly ready.. he cant set a date when she is due. For a couple of days after we came from the vets she showed all the signs of getting closer to foaling, waxing, small amount of milk leaking, clear discharge from her vulva, she has also had a couple of spots of clear discharge with a tiny bit of blood. She is laying down on a night and is breathing very heavily, sweating etc.. but during the day she is absolutly fine, she has started today walking and slightly dragging her back hoofs along the floor. He back end as dropped about 1 week ago, but there is no wax... I havent specifically seen the foals movements but am i correct in assuming the bigger it is the less it will move.. any advice would be much appreciated... lyn
 
He says he doesnt have a clue, I think if nothing else occurrs within the next couple of days, a vets visit may be necessary. Thanks.. Have you heard of this before? Does it sound like she has lost the foal?
 
I've had them do this where you think ooh any day now and then udder shrinks back down and they go back to normal - then they pop when you are least expecting it!! I would just keep a VERY close eye on her as not all mares show text book foaling signs! I had a mare foal this year who wasn't supposed to be in foal, we had a vague idea of a due date but as she was cycling continuously it was a rough idea - the scan didn't enlighten us much either!, but we had to just keep getting up and checking every half an hour for 9 weeks - she bags up and will even wax up sometimes then it will disappear, and a month later you can be still watching her stuffing her face!! When she did pop she showed no signs at all and her udder was pretty small and only filled when she foaled, where as 2yrs ago when she last had a foal it was a text book foaling - so you can never tell 100%!!!

If the foal has died they usually abort it very quickly - within a few hours, if it has died which is unlikely, and she hadn't for some reason aborted it then the mare would get very ill very quickly, within 12hrs I would expect serious fever and sweating, not eating, laminitis and colic symptoms, they are not like cows which can hold onto a dead calf for months!
Foal movement can vary hugely, most of the time they are asleep and it is only occasionally they have a mad 5 minutes, and I would have thought as space gets less and less their movement is pretty restricted, also depends on how fat the mare is as to wether you can see it as well as you could when everything gets stretched!:D
So plenty of sleepless nights I'm afraid - you can guarantee she'll foal in the day when you nip in for a cup of tea!!:D - keep us posted and good luck!!:)
 
Thats a bit more promising.. I just cannot beleive that this guy sold the horse obvously knowing it had been with a stallion to a young girl who he knew was wanting to work with it during the summer... poor emily has loaned her other pony to two of her friends to ride and now she is left just watching... It will be a very nice occurancy and will love it dearly..
 
Hi there, Have you tried / or are you able to milk just a drop or two of milk from her?

In the run up to the birth it starts clear and salty and then it goes cloudy and bland, then when foaling is very close it looks like milk and is sweet. And yes, I did taste my mares milk. ;) There is a way of testing the liquid using distilled water and pool testing strips. The PH level and calcium levels can tell you how close she might be. (I used a specially made for horses milk testing kit 3 times and my foals IgG score was 17.5 -I mention this because some people will unhappy about me testing milk, but clearly my Teenage mare did a grand job filling her foal with colostrum).

Waxing up (looks like soft candle wax on end of teats) is often a good indicator, but can be knocked off, so you miss it. But if she is waxing up it should mean that her milk is well on the way.

I wouldnt worry about the lack of movement the foal might have rotated into diving position ready for foaling.

Have you got purple spray ready etc?
 
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yes i have the spray ready, she did wax up a I thinkabt three weeks ago,but it disappeared. This was after her internal examination from the vets, I wasnt sure if the examination may have given her false signals. She is fine this morning, but bigger then ever, she is grazing in the field and has joined with the other ponys, previously she had seperated herself. My husband came back this morning at 7:00 a.m and said he thinks she is going to have it today, but we have been saying this for 4 or 5 weeks now.. and aparently she is a moody mare this morning. :rolleyes:
 
She has Cloudy liquid but it isnt dripping a lot just a tiny pinprick and if you squeese it it comes out.. I presume this means she is not quite ready yet.. I really cant see hoe much longer she can go on for. She is huge and this morning her tummy is a triangle shape.

Lyn :rolleyes:
 
Still no foal, the foal has been moving a lot tonight.. Diamond is very restless, twitchy and will not let me take a look at her behind or her teets... i presume this is usual? you help would be appreciated..
 
lyndseyfielding said:
Still no foal, the foal has been moving a lot tonight.. Diamond is very restless, twitchy and will not let me take a look at her behind or her teets... i presume this is usual? you help would be appreciated..
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Yes, it is normal, sounds like she is close to foaling now. keep an eye on her, check her as often as you can if you aren't staying with her. They become very restless before foaling, box walking, pawing the ground, looking at there flanks, getting up and down, some sweat a lot, others dont sweat at all, they also pass lots of droppings. Good luck.
 
Yipeeeee

He is here, a beautiful silver colt.. she started pacing on Monday (30th August 2011) at around 2:00p.m then I left for a coffee at 4:30, went back up at 5:30 and there he was.. A perfect colt.. he is drinking fine, on his feet, very storng and confident.. Diamond is a beautiful mum, not too protective but making sure he is Ok... Thank you to everyone for there help so far.. Diamand has passed all her placenta normally..I am not sure how to attach a photo so any reqeusts email me on westendelectrical@googlemail.com and I will send some over..

Kind Regards

Lyn xx
 
Well done glad everything is well and enjoy your suprise baby. Hopefully someone will tell you how to post pics so we can all see.
 
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