We lost our foal today.

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roseview

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Sadly today my Welsh B mare lost her foal during foaling. All seemed to be going well to start with then too much time was passing with nothing happening. I called the vet who arrived in 10 minutes. Before he arrived a head was visible, not in the sack and no legs to be seen. Eventually the foal was born but was already dead.

We had so desperately wanted this foal which was to be our last for a while. The little mare has always wanted to steal foals from other mares and we had spent a lot of time, money and effort to actually get her in foal last year.

To see her desperately trying to get the foal to move etc was heart wrenching. We left them together for a while and when we went to remove the foal she was lying down with him up against her tummy as though asleep. That was what really finished me off.

She is out in the field at the moment and seems to have settled. As a maiden mare I guess she is not quite sure what it was all about.
 
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Rosehip

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Oh no! So sad. My heart goes out to you and your mare.
They do say that you should leave the foal with its mum for as long as 24/48 hours so that she can grieve.
Have you thought of offering her as a foster if she is a foal theif? It would mean that the last 11 months were for something at least.

Hugs for you and your girl xx
 
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haras

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Really sorry to hear this. Ditto the comment about fostering, as at least she would get to be a mummy?

big hugs to you and your mare x
 
GFH Stud

GFH Stud

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I am so sorry to read about what has happened. Last year our best mare (who had produced two previous healthy offspring)gave birth to a very pretty filly and all appeared to be going great. On the second day the foals gums started going a bit yellow and to cut a long story short the mothers colosterum had poisoned the foal - a very rare occurrence. We tried two transfusions and in the first hours after the transfusions she seemed to recover but then relapsed. It was awful to make the decision to put her to sleep but we were fighting a loosing battle. We left them together for the day as we had been told the mare has to accept the foal is dead. During the next few days she had a strange reaction in that she came up in lumps all over her neck and body but these eventually disappeared without any treatment and she recovered. At the time it felt so unfair to have managed to get a lovely foal on the ground and then loose it to something as rare as this, which is very difficult to test for.
A year on she has just produced a beautiful big black colt foal. We had to give him frozen colosterum from another mare and we will now always do this for any foal she has. It is only the colosterum that is the problem - her milk is fine. It is so good to have a healthy foal but your post certainly bought back the sad memories of last year. I wish you all the best for you and your mare, whatever you decide to do in terms of breeding from her in the future.
 
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Mega

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Roseview & Gfh stu. Unfortunately my mare's colt didn't make either this time, it was heart breaking for her & me, so my heart goes to you all.
We were advised to leave her with her foal until she left him (it took 3days) and to keep her off grass for a week to help her dry up. We did try to find a foster foal, but none came up. She is now completely recovered and back at stud.
Look after your mare she really needs to know her baby isn't going to wake and grief. She will be over it before you xx
 
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Mega

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If you Re thinking she might foster, there is someone on facebook, on fosterfoal page looking for a foster mare, mark evans 07740164038 not sure what size, where sorry but thought you might be interested xxx hugs xxx hope you are all bearing up
 
Mugsgame

Mugsgame

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Oh no, that is so sad. Ditto that she will be 'over it' before you though, sadly one of my mares list her foals earlier this year, she was also a maiden and didnt appear to have a clue what had happened, took foal away pretty soon after and she was fine with it - could well have been different if she had been an experienced mum. Also, like your poppet, her foal never moved either and I think that made a lot of difference to her initial mental state.

I hope you do get the foal you are wishing for in future seasons xx
 
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