losing a foal

Cazza525

Cazza525

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Hello, I am sorry to have to post this, but would appreciate some feedback. I unfortunately lost a foal, it was stillborn at 329 days 2 days ago. The mare was a maiden mare, straightforward gestation. She showed no signs of foaling and had been checked an hour before. I arrived to find them. It's so heartbreaking as this was my first foal and could do with sharing my experience with people. The mare is totally fine and was back to normal within 24hrs. People are telling me to try again, but i am reluctant to as it is devastating. Any feedback would help. Thankyou
 
No help at all but I am so sorry to hear your news, after all that wait. Poor you. And poor mare.
 
so so sorry to hear that, it is really devastating i know. i had this the first time i tried to breed, but the mare had a wonderful filly the next time.
spend some time with your mare, and try to decide whether you are prepared to go through it all again - only you can know this really. i
f not, why not consider going out and buying a weanling, there are always cracking foals up for sale and at least then you have the choice, and remove the risk.
really hope she's fine and you're okay.
 
Oh how sad for you both. Having bred my first foal this year, and it being a catalogue of distasters I will never do it again. As said, if you really want a foal, maybe buy one??

Really sorry to hear your story
 
I am very sorry to hear this, maybe it would be easier on you to buy a weanling like others have said you will beable to choose one you want and will have less stress and you will still have a foal not the same as one you have bred i know!
 
Thnaks, I have already thought of buying one as it may be less stressfull. I just keep feeling that there could have been something more that i could have done.........I guess I feel responsible.
 
it is totally natural to feel guilty when something awful happens, it is a normal part of the grieving process, for some reason, but you have to let it go, you had just checked her and she was fine then.
mares have some way of telling if there is something wrong with the in utero foal apparently, so there would have been a good reason why the foal was stillborn - this is what my vet told me.
i think in your position i would go and look at weanlings, sketch out your ideal foal and distract yourself from your upset by going out and finding him/her.
 
really sorry to hear your sad news, I hope you are both ok, it takes time to get over the loss, at least your mare is ok and if you are willing then she could have another.

I bred one foal 18 years ago, but didnt want to put my then older mare through pregnancy again, so decided to buy a weanling foal two years ago. She's now three, the experience has not been any less stressfull at times, but has been just as rewarding as breeding.

I had the chance to choose a breed and filly I really liked and chose an andalusian, I even went to spain to buy as well. it was a great experience and really exciting as at least you get to see and choose what you really want.

There is no real rush in deciding, take time to get over your loss first and best of luck with your choice either buying or breeding again.
 
sorry to here your loss have you ever thought about letting her out to be a foster mum im shore there be plenty of foals out there that can benifit from her also be less risk of her losing a foal again
 
I did phone the foaling bank but there was nothing down here at that time, the nearest was 500 miles away which was too far to travel her. I was advised a little gentle exercise will dry milk up and as she lives out mainly anyhow, i have just taken her for a little walk down the road and back each day.
 
I am beginning to feel a little better. I have just had awful feeling that it is rare, but the more ppl i speak too, the more common it actually is, especially in maiden mares. I think the old saying goes, 'only fools breed 'em..........! Think I'll give a weanling a home instead!
 
Cazza I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my much loved mare and foal due to foaling complications and was also devastated. You need to take time out. I wouldn't even buy anything just yet just spend some time with your mare so you can both chill out. The time will come when you are ready to make a decision on how you want to go forward. Don't rush into anything. Time will make things easier to tolerate and give you a leveler head. All the best.
 
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Cazza I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my much loved mare and foal due to foaling complications and was also devastated. You need to take time out. I wouldn't even buy anything just yet just spend some time with your mare so you can both chill out. The time will come when you are ready to make a decision on how you want to go forward. Don't rush into anything. Time will make things easier to tolerate and give you a leveler head. All the best.

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Thats awful Gingerbear, how traumatic for you. I'm in a horrible position just now as my much loved mare took foaling laminitis and she has severe rotation in one foot. We are only keeping her going for the sake of her foal. The thought of loosing her doesn't bare thinking about but it's going to happen sometime soon. Never ever breeding again, my nerves, or bank balance couldn't handle it.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss Cazza, i know exactly how you are feeling as i went through the same thing with my mare in 2006, and to be honest with you it still upsets me when i think about it.

My mare was also a maiden mare, her pregnancy was straight forward but the foal was born dead. We had a PM done on the foal which said the cause of death was early separation of the placenta due to a infection in the last few days of pregnancy. It was so heart wrenching as my mare had tried to revive the foal- she would have been such a good mum.

As well as this, she also had endometritis as a result of the infection and when the foal was delivered she had nicked the ovarian artery on her way out given my mare two big blood clots on her ovary's. We were very lucky that the artery wasn't completely ruptured as we would have lost my mare as well.
My vet advised me not to breed from her again but to be honest i have completely gone off the idea. I couldn't go through all that again.

It is so sad to look forward to something for so long only for it to go horribly wrong. I hope your mare is doing ok. x
 
I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Breeding really can be heart breaking at times, I have lost a foal and a 2yo this summer and there are days when I feel i cant go on. But you do get over it and move forward, and you have your lovely mare still and there will have been a good reason why she lost the foal.
 
Again, thankyou for your kind words. I have been having a good old think and am not going to do anything rash. I would dearly like to get her back in work I think and try and gain something positive out of this horrible experience. I did not have a PM done on the foal for I personally didn't want one done at the time. I am going to just put it down to sheer bad luck and thank my lucky stars that Poppet(thats the mares name) is ok.
 
Sorry to hear you lost your foal.
We have had 2 still births over the years and it is heartbreaking, one had got tangled up in its unusually short umbilical cord and had cut off its own blood supply - he was only a couple of weeks off being full term. We knew something was wrong as I was out in the garden and the mare screamed at me from in the field and then lay down and started pushing, luckily she knew it was dead and never even touched him - she just walked away.
The second was an older mare and she must have had a mild infection at the beginning of her pregnancy and the placenta had got infected and as a result had thickened in places so was never going to take the foal to full term - we knew something was wrong when the mare ran milk 2 months before she was due - there was again nothing we could do. She had it out in the field about 3 weeks early and wouldn't let us or anything near the dead foal for 3 days - which was awful to see but vital in letting her grieve.
So don't worry you are not the only one - it does happen and there is nothing you can do to stop nature! I think I read some where only 65% of conceptions in horses live to weaning!
Breeding horses is a huge gamble, very expensive and alot of hard work and even then not guaranteed - definitely cheaper and safer to buy a weanling than breed!!!
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So sorry to hear your dreadful news.
I know all about the guilt you are feeling.....my warmblood mare lost twins 2 years in a row, first time purchased in foal and hadn't been scanned, second time scanned as a single. I don't think I will ever fully stop grieving, the sight of those poor dead babies was heart breaking.
We made the decision we wouldn't breed again.

I hope you are able to come to terms with it very soon and accept it as nature's way and nothing that you could have done to change it. x x x
 
Hi there, we are down near Plymouth in Devon. It is now the fourth day since she gave birth and her milk is slowing down. She is also only 12.0 hh which i know is not an impossibility, it could prove difficult! I would have leapt at the chance a couple of days ago, but now feel that time is getting on a bit. Have you tried the foaling bank?
 
Like some of the above, I have also lost foals and mares in the past, all unrelated reasons,but you still blame yourself and vow never to do it again, then you go outside to the ones left with their foals and their trust in you and you know you could never sell them all, so you just carry on, put it in a little box at the back of your mind and hope you have learned something from it.
I find the horses can deal with it a damn sight better than we can, it would be nice to take something from their approach to life
 
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