pint-size By Darlene Ganong E
ach year the breeding season is filled with the excitement of welcoming new arrivals and the accompanying stress and concern that each one will “land” safely. At my Log Hollow Farm in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania, I have
been breeding and foaling for over 25 years. I’ve learned that just when you think you’ve seen everything, Mother Nature will throw you a curve ball. In 2012, that curve ball was twins!
Breeding Fae Early in 2011 I made the decision to breed my maiden Hanoverian mare Faelyn (Fabuleux x Finalee/ Westpoint) to the young Oldenburg stallion Banderas (Balou du Rouet) standing at Dreamscape Farm. Both parents have superb jumping technique, and I hoped that the resulting foal would be a very good hunter or jumper. Certainly the foal would have an exceptional pedigree. Fae was inseminated once in May and confirmed
in foal on day 14. We followed up with additional ultrasounds on days 26, 35 and 50, and everything appeared great. I took the normal precautions of checking for twins. I’ve heard that ultrasounds are not 100% accurate, but never once did I suspect that Fae might be carrying more than one foal. Suddenly in August, Fae became very sore in her front
feet. She had no pronounced pulses or heat and we thought perhaps it was due to the dry summer and hard
38 March/April 2013
ground. As the days passed, Fae’s soreness worsened and she began to uncharacteristically lay down each day. After a few weeks, she became so sore that she would not leave her stall and didn’t get up to drink. I phoned my vet and asked him to come and examine her and give her fluids. We spoke at length about possible causes of Fae’s soreness, identifying her pregnancy as the only change in her health. My vet recommended running four five-liter bags of
LCR (Lactated Ringers) with 100 ml of DMSO along with intravenous Bute, knowing full well that neither of these agents should be administered to a pregnant mare. However, the recovery of my mare was the priority and I was willing to take the risk that she could lose the pregnancy. I knew I could always breed her back the next year. After the first I.V. bag started running, an abscess popped on her front left foot. After the second bag, she popped another abscess on her front right foot. By the time the last bag was almost finished, she popped another on her hind right!
Wow...three abscesses. No wonder she was so sore! Although we were relieved that we found the cause of her discomfort, we were faced with ongoing abscesses for several more months. I became worried because she was getting heavier with the pregnancy and I knew how stressed she would be carrying the extra weight. I spoke to a vet in Kentucky and he advised me to soak her feet in CleanTrax as a last resort. This now takes us to January, and after the CleanTrax treatment, the abscesses were gone.
Miracle
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100