Fae’s issues seemed to settle down and she appeared happy and
comfortable as her belly grew by the week. We couldn’t believe she was still in foal and hoped every day the foal would be born without birth defects. We anxiously awaited her April tenth due date.
A Birthday Surprise Fae carried twelve days past her due date. On April 23rd at 12:10 a.m., she laid down to deliver her much-awaited foal. I called my friends, Denise and Erika, who were on standby to help out with the delivery. Everything was progressing normally and Fae presented us with a lovely dark bay filly around 12:30 a.m. Denise and Erika were rubbing the foal and I was checking Fae to make sure she was fine. At that point, we were all happy and relieved that the delivery was text-book perfect—or so we thought. I got up to get more towels and as I reached the stall door Erika and
Denise yelled for me to quickly come back—Fae was delivering another foal! A second amniotic sack was being presented, then all of a sudden the entire placenta came out and we were faced with a “Red Bag” (where the foal was still in the placenta). I quickly began tearing the placenta and we found front legs. Denise grabbed the foal’s legs and pulled as fast as she could. The foal, a second filly, was practically airborne. When we examined her, she wasn’t moving and we thought she was dead. We quickly began to rub her and surprisingly she took a breath and opened her eyes. She was alive! Due to her very small size, a mere 40 pounds, we immediately feared
that this tiny foal was not going to survive. Denise and Erika looked at me and said, “Now what?” For one fleeting minute, I said, “I don’t know,” as I was in total shock and disbelief. Thankfully, my brain began to function again and I knew what to do. We got Fae to stand up and we started pulling colostrum and feeding the twins from a bottle, starting with the small filly. Gratefully both fillies drank eagerly from the bottle. We proceeded like we always do with a newborn foal; the only difference was that we now had two! We helped the larger foal up (later named Bianca) and she latched on
quickly to Fae and started to nurse. However, the second little filly (which we named Bijou, a.k.a. Barbie) was not tall enough to nurse and was very crooked in her hind legs. Erika attended to Bianca and Denise took over with little Barbie. She slung a towel around her belly and over her back creating a handle of sorts to aid her while she walked around the stall, gaining strength with every step. Barbie was a little trooper and went along with the flow. She didn’t want to lie down—she just kept walking on! As we continued with the process and the foals settled, we knew the
next few weeks would be critical, especially for our pint-size filly. I slept in the stall that next night and pulled milk from Fae to feed little Barbie throughout the evening. I phoned a feed store early Monday morning and picked up Buckeye Mare’s Milk Replacer for Barbie, which she not only willingly accepted, but after finishing the first bottle, she asked for another. We purchased a few blankets (actually dog blankets because she was so little) because she could not maintain her body temperature. Amazingly, for her first day on earth, Barbie was doing everything a normal foal does. By day two, Fae really needed to go outside, so we put blankets on both foals and turned them out in a small paddock. Bianca followed Mom like a
OPPOSITE, top: Hanoverian mare Faelyn nursing Bianca LHF and Bijou LHF (aka “Barbie”). Inset: Mary Jane Hansen holding Bijou LHF. Below: Mary Jane with Faelyn. RIGHT, top to bottom: 1) Owner Darlene Ganong bottle feeds Bijou LHF. 2) Bianca LHF and Bijou LHF lie down together. 3) Husband Carl Ganong bottle feeds Barbie. 4) Great Dane Toby, who loves all the foals, had a special bond with Barbie (since he was bigger than her).
Warmbloods Today 39
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