That Twinkie's foal suffers from a severe spinal deformation. We are enroute now to the vet's to have him evaluated and probably put down. We are heartbroken. These things happen when breeding horses, but the loss is never easy. The cam will be off for the rest of tonight and will return with Twister tomorrow.
Twinkie's colt is gone. Posted by Franny on May 1, 2005, 7:14 pm
The problem was too severe for him to have had any quality of life, so we made the only humane decision we could. I held him in my arms as the vet did what he had to do, and he died feeling loved. Brian is burying him in our pasture as I write this. His deformity was the reason Twinkie had such a difficult time foaling. Although he was tiny, his back was bent almost into an "s" shape. While his upper half was turned one way his lower half was turned the other. Twinkie is going to be fine. While the foaling was a little rough, she came through it well and cleaned within just a few minutes. She'll need a couple of days to stop pining for her colt, but we expect that she will recover okay.
I'm calling it a night. I'm emotionally wrung out and am exhausted. Twister is fine for tonight, and I don't expect her to foal for at least a couple of days. The cam will return tomorrow morning.
Update Jordan & Shoshone: We have had another weekend of watching mares. Most of the time we are anxious for the babies to be born but with Jordan we are just the opposite. She is now at day 311 and every day that she carries this baby gives it a much better chance. She is still testing a slow five on her milk strips and her bag is large. I am really hoping that she is one of those mares that drags things out and we will have a few more days before she foals. We still have her on cams 7, 8 9 & 10. If you should see her starting to foal and we are not with her, please give us a call at 870-862-4424.
I have not seen any changes in Shoshone other than the fact that she is getting bigger and is trying to rub the feeder off the stall wall. She still has no sign of a bag.
It won’t be long before it is time to start bringing in the other mares that are due the end of this month. We are checking each of them morning and evening and will bring one in as soon as she starts to show any signs that she is changing.
I hope that you have all had a nice weekend. I’ll update you tomorrow evening or sooner if I see things happening with the mares.