I wanted to share with you the birthing of our latest filly, Saffron who came into the world without a hitch. Tiny, elegant and beautiful, Saffron was eager to stand, and get down to business of getting Chelsea (dam) to allow her foal to nurse.
Unfortunately, her dam being a maiden mare and this her first foal was running in circles trying to get away from the foal who was eagerly trying to latch onto her.
We (my husband, Mike and I) got down to business helping our Chelsea to ease the tightness and soreness of her udder. Mike held Chelsea while I milked her. We transferred the much needed Colostrum for the foal into a syringe and gave it to little Saffron over and over again while we watched Chelsea finally relax and let us milk her.
By now it was past the two hour window when we all want our foals eagerly latching onto their dams and we worked for the next hour or so getting mom to stand still for nursing her baby. It wasn't until five hours later that we finally could relax as we watched Saffron latch onto mom's udder and Chelsea standing to let her do so. We watched throughout the first day of our newest filly's life to make sure she was nursing well, and that her mama was accepting her.
As usual right after birth we always treat the umbilicus with Betadine, and we did so with Saffron too. However, bacteria must have found it's way into her umbilicus opening and by week two (last Friday evening) my husband noticed Saffron favoring her rear left leg. Saffron had been quite active, even throwing a wee buck or two, and we watched to see if it worsened over the next several hours. We also wondered if the mare by chance had possibly injured her foal somehow over night.
I gave Saffron 3 cc of Banamine to ease the swelling and pain on Saturday evening as we noticed that her hock was now twice the size. We contacted our vet and discussed the situation with her, and she said that we should continue to watch her over the next 24 hours and to give her Penicillin and that she would be out first thing on Monday morning and to contact her if she worsened overnight.
I put in a call to Diane Wolcott and let her know that our sweet baby was suffering with swelling and pain. Diane agreed with me that it could either be a bruising due to falling, or mama getting in her way, or more importantly signs of Joint Ill, or Sepsis which shows signs in foals' joints. We watched over our littlest foal taking turns to make sure all was going accordingly.
Our vet, arrived early Monday morning and gave little Saffron a thorough vet exam. She had developed a temp of 102.5 by now and the swelling definitely had continued to grow to twice the size of her other hock. Our vet checked each joint on all legs and made sure that the leg was not broken or had any tendon damage. She drew blood on Saffron, and began treating her for Sepsis immediately.
Saffron got two shots, one in her neck (short acting antibiotic) and the other (long acting antibiotic) in her rump. We gave her another dose of Banamine and will follow the directives of our vet's medical advice and continue to monitor and treat Saffron with antibiotics, Banamine and if need be Pedialyte.
This being our first experience of having a foal with Sepsis (been involved in breeding for 27 yrs), our vet stated that Saffron was very well hydrated and that we caught the Sepsis early. Ashely (vet) turned to me and said that we were lucky to have caught it early and the blood tests would let us know how her body was functioning under stress. The blood work came back with no worries...whew! Now, we have to continue to monitor our sweet baby's vital signs and condition and if she worsens, she will be headed to the clinic to be put under 24 hour care. Ashley stated to us that she knows we can handle this round the clock care and she is comfortable with allowing Saffron to remain here at our farm with her dam, Chelsea. No need to stress out the baby if we can help it...and mama too.
As I write this, Mike is out caring for her now. She is bee bopping about on her three legs and seems to be a bit better today!
I wanted to share with you this situation as it is our first time to have a foal develop Sepsis and most of it was due to the foal not being able to latch on quickly and get the much needed Colostrum in her system to fight the infection.
I hope this experience we are sharing with you helps you if you ever come across a brand new foal who starts out strong and then develops signs of Sepsis (swelling joints, listless, not moving around, not nursing, Diarrhea and fever) and begins to rapidly go down hill. Sepsis is a very serious problem in foals. They can be fine one moment and become critical within a few hours.
We are fortunate to have video cameras that stream 24/7 in our home so we can watch Saffron while in the house.
If you have any questions, please ask Diane as she quickly informed me on the signs of this illness when I contacted her and as aways was given the best advice to help little Saffron. We acted quickly and got this under control in no time and today she seems better after her medications have kicked in.
I will keep you all posted on Saffron's well being. Thanks for taking the time to read this message. It is so important to act quickly and to never hesitate to ask questions in this forum and/or to your vet. Debbie
