Horses!!!!!!!!

[heartsizedfarm]

Our mare Miki had a foal five years ago. My daughter decided to breed her, then moved into town to go to university, leaving me stuck on foal watch! Thanks Petra! Most anxious eleven months of my life. But maybe now I can be helpful to someone else. What specifically do you want to know?

 

[Bunnylady]

Hey! My mare is due to foal at the end of this month. It will be my first horse that has foaled, so I don't really know what to do. Any tips?

I have no experience with foaling mares, but I have been a member of the Marestare forum for several years. . You now have to be a member to read anything on it, but the whole idea of it was web cameras on about-to-foal mares and helping the owners keep an eye on them. If you are willing to spend some time there, you can learn a library's worth of information about pregnant mares, the foaling process, etc, etc.

 

[mindylee]

My advice is get a wireless camera in the stall and watch it From a lil tv in ur house. Also have a baby bucket ready! Thats rubber gloves iodine towels scissors oral lube vets # on hand and when ya see the foal coming warm water.
So much could go wrong so best to be prepared. I breed mini horses which have a higher birth disaster risk and I go through endless nights of limited sleep. I have no camera so every hr on the hr im out checking. If warm enough, I sleep in the barn.
I have birthed out 9 foals and lost 2.
1 I missed and born still born.
2nd got leg stuck and died hanging from mare while I was at work. I had to cut the foal into pieces to remove it from my mare to save her life. Not pretty nor fun.
However my mare survived and pulled through fine thankfully.
The rest was text book delivieries.
Im expecting my 10th foal in may. So again I will do my darnest to make sure all goes well for this delivery also.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Most of the time it's really uncomplicated and the mare does everything needful. Good to have a trusted vet handy who'll step in if it becomes problematic. The interesting thing about horse births is that they are really quick. Usually happens late at night when you've turned away from the monitor to get a cup of coffee!

 

[mindylee]

Most of the time it's really uncomplicated and the mare does everything needful. Good to have a trusted vet handy who'll step in if it becomes problematic. The interesting thing about horse births is that they are really quick. Usually happens late at night when you've turned away from the monitor to get a cup of coffee!

I agree about late! All my foals have been born between midnight through 6am.
And all looks fine 1 minute, mare standing quite and munching hay and next, legs are poking out and mare is on her side pushing!

 

[ederob]

Our mare Miki had a foal five years ago. My daughter decided to breed her, then moved into town to go to university, leaving me stuck on foal watch! Thanks Petra! Most anxious eleven months of my life. But maybe now I can be helpful to someone else. What specifically do you want to know?

I would like to know what to watch for, what to do if the foal gets stuck, what to do if the mare looks like she is dying, pretty much everything I can stuff in to my mind.

I have no experience with foaling mares, but I have been a member of the Marestare forum for several years. . You now have to be a member to read anything on it, but the whole idea of it was web cameras on about-to-foal mares and helping the owners keep an eye on them. If you are willing to spend some time there, you can learn a library's worth of information about pregnant mares, the foaling process, etc, etc.

I might look into that. It sounds really good

My advice is get a wireless camera in the stall and watch it From a lil tv in ur house. Also have a baby bucket ready! Thats rubber gloves iodine towels scissors oral lube vets # on hand and when ya see the foal coming warm water.
So much could go wrong so best to be prepared. I breed mini horses which have a higher birth disaster risk and I go through endless nights of limited sleep. I have no camera so every hr on the hr im out checking. If warm enough, I sleep in the barn.
I have birthed out 9 foals and lost 2.
1 I missed and born still born.
2nd got leg stuck and died hanging from mare while I was at work. I had to cut the foal into pieces to remove it from my mare to save her life. Not pretty nor fun.
However my mare survived and pulled through fine thankfully.
The rest was text book delivieries.
Im expecting my 10th foal in may. So again I will do my darnest to make sure all goes well for this delivery also.

I would really like to put a camera in her stall, I just might do that! If it is cool enough I am going to sleep in the barn and watch her, I am so scared something might go wrong. The mare that is foaling is my personal mare, I love her to death. So I really don't want something to go wrong. This will also be her first foal.

Most of the time it's really uncomplicated and the mare does everything needful. Good to have a trusted vet handy who'll step in if it becomes problematic. The interesting thing about horse births is that they are really quick. Usually happens late at night when you've turned away from the monitor to get a cup of coffee!

We found a vet near by that said if we needed anything she would help.

I agree about late! All my foals have been born between midnight through 6am.
And all looks fine 1 minute, mare standing quite and munching hay and next, legs are poking out and mare is on her side pushing!

I hope mine happens early, I will fall asleep!

 

[chickencrazy429]

Hey! My mare is due to foal at the end of this month. It will be my first horse that has foaled, so I don't really know what to do. Any tips?

So exciting!! I can't give you any tips though.

In all of the time that my family has owned horses we've never had a mare (much less bred (breeded?

) so I couldn't give you any, but I can say GOOD LUCK!!

 

[chickencrazy429]

And FINALLY my Dad's horse got shoes so now we can go riding again!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

There are lots of good books and videos out there to show you what a normal birth looks like. If the birth isn't progressing normally then you call that vet you've got on standby. The mare will give you pretty good signs when she's close. Brush her or massage her and you might even feel the foal moving by now. Inspect and touch her udder every day. When she's close to birthing her udder will feel hard and drip milk. That's when you put your vet on alert. They're usually happy to help because they don't want any losses either.

 

[TherryChicken]

My mare, the one that had to be euthanized cause of cancer. When we adopted her she was pregnant at age 22. She had a hard time and her and her colt almost died. Friends of ours checked on them before going to work, 4 am. He helped her and saved them both. She gained weight and muscle, but not enough to do it all on her own. However it was amazing to have a little one around. Felt bad for momma as she would try so hard to keep up but couldn't. Drove her nuts