Red Bag Implications

[spollard828]

Hi all,
So my night was spent with my little mare having her foal, she had a red bag delivery, but thankfully I was there to pull him out and was up and drinking within an hour and a half. We called the vet and she gave him some long lasting antibiotics.
Has anybody had any implications to either mother or baby due to a red bag? How likely are any, and what can be done to avoid these?
Any advice would be great, thanks in advance!
xxx

 

[cruiseline]

The biggest problem with a red bag delivery is during the process of delivery, you have to get the foal out as soon as possible as it is being deprived of oxygen. The longer it takes to deliver the foal, the more possibility of having a so called ' dummy foal' or worse. Now that he is out and suckling, there should be no problems.

Congratulations on your foal, pics please

 

[eventrider23]

There is nothing that you can do yourself to prevent a red bag from happening again...it is just one of those things and is simply the placenta coming first and not after the foal. As long as baby is all healthy and vet happy then all should be well. Congrats on getting baby through it so quickly!

 

[Murphy88]

As cruiseline says, the major worry is that oxygen deprivation will cause the foal to become dummy. The fact that it is up and sucked it obviously a good sign, however foals can go dummy up to 24-48 hours old, so I would be monitoring the foal for any signs - losing interest in sucking, appearing to wander aimlessly round, sleeping more and losing affinity for the mare. The last red bag I was involved in, the foal appeared normal initially before becoming progressively more dummy from about 12 hours old - the mare had been hospitalised prior to delivery, so the foal was already in the NICU and receiving supportive care, we had expected it to become dummy so catheter and feeding tube were already placed etc, and by 3 days old it was up and learning to feed from a bowl.

If your foal does show signs of becoming dummy then supportive care is the most important thing - so mattress and blankets if he is unable to stand, tube feeding or nutrition via IV fluids, antibiotics and lots of TLC. The majority of dummies I have looked after have survived, if you can support them through the dummy phase then they go on to be normal horses, so it is not the end of the world, although it is expensive and time consuming!

 

[Laafet]

We've had three mares red bag this year when in the last three seasons we've just had one. All the foals were fine, I caught them early and cut the bag and got the foals out ASAP. It is just one of those things. I hope your foal is ok.

 

[spollard828]

He is still up and sucking nicely, although he thought it would be a brilliant to colic last night, despite seeing him pass the moconium... So another late night vet call, although he all seems fine again now! We have turned him out for an hour today to try and get everything moving. There appears to be a trace of milk poo on his tail so I'm hoping we are over the worst of this now!

 

[Laafet]

Did you use an enema, we give all our foals enemas, sometimes the boys and dummies in particular need a second one.

 

[spollard828]

we didn't, the vet was there when he passed his moconium initially, I believe he actually went twice while the vet was there on the friday night. So it was the softer poo that actually got stuck. But he seems very well in himself now.