We had an eventful morning finding Tiki in the field resting next to Mona, who was standing guard over her. She looked like a small brown log next to Mona's feet. My morning consisted of the dreaded "Mona had her baby last night..." call--even though we ALL looked her over extensively the night before and she didn't show a single sign of impending foaling. Her milk hadn't let down, couldn't express a drop, tailhead was tight, etc etc, so she was turned out in the field for the night. I ran out to the field repeating over and over to myself "Please let the foal be alive and Mona ok". I felt like I was running through water to get out to them and inspect them both. Mona had miraculously (for a friesian) fully passed her placenta. Tiki walked right up to us, fearless, and we quickly shuffled them into the barn. Tiki had extremely lax pasterns, so I had to really support her and help her walk as we navigated the field. She showed no signs of having nursed and seemed slow, so after calling the vet, close watch was kept on her and Mona. Her IGG levels were good, but she had a weak suckle reflex and no concept of nursing from mom.
After all of us taking turns for hours milking Mona out and trying to teach Tiki how to nurse from a bottle, we finally had success around 12+ hours after she likely had foaled. We had several friends helping (see Scott nursing Tiki at right and Kim trying to teach her to nurse from Mona above). While the first priority was getting Tiki to nurse her colostrum, the priority quickly shifted to Mona, who was showing the beginning signs of a post-foaling colic or possible uterine bleed. Her heart rate was elevated, she was in clear pain, and was biting at her sides, pawing the ground, and up and down. Her eyes were glazed over, and the vet was called out again to look her over and palpate her. She had a slight impaction right at the end of her intestinal track which the vet cleared. Hoping the problem was caused by Tiki's lack of nursing, we hand milked Mona out more, put warm compresses on her udders, gave her a couple doses of Banamine, and just kept vigil on her.
At around 5pm, one milestone was finally passed--Tiki NURSED ON HER OWN. We thought for sure we were going to have to bottle feed our "slow" filly for the first 48 hours until she caught on. We were already divvying up shifts for the night, since she was going to have to be fed hourly overnight. So, we relaxed, watched a movie, watched the horses on the the webcam from the living room at the same time, and let Mona and Tiki bond.
Mona was still not passing any manure, though she seemed a little less painful as the night went on. Kim, Anne-Marie and I went back into the stall to play with Tiki more and check on Mona. We all hung out for a long time, sitting on the beanbag, petting the horses, watching for further colic signs, checking vitals etc. Finally, around 10pm, we notice Mona seems restless and hanging by the corner of her stall where she tends to go. Anne-Marie and I pick up on it and feel like maybe Mona needs us to leave, so we packed up all the stuff around the stall, walked up to the house and stared at the camera. Less than 5 minutes goes by and her tail lifts :-) WE HAVE POO!
That was the last thing we were all worried about. We celebrate--glasses of wine, etc and all give a collective sigh of relief.
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