Birth Journal:

3/4/00:

8:30 pm

No foal, not yet at least. It's getting harder and harder to wait and be patient. I'm hopeful each night, but not much. I'm more cynical these days.

She's relaxed right below her dock, quite noticeably, but that happened the other day. She had diarrhea from late night yesterday through this afternoon, but that might have been from the new grass hay. Her stall was an utter MESS and I had to strip and re-bed 90% of it this evening. Increased moisture can be a sign of impending birth a day or so before foaling, according to one of my books.

By now, I barely trust those books, as far as"signs" go. According to some signs, she should have foaled last week, from others she has another week to go.

All last night I had nightmares about her foaling. Ugh. Horrible things , all of them. In one, I missed it completely and all these people were intentionally messing things up for me. In another, she gave birth to a horrible black snake/lizard thing. Not a restful night/morning of sleep to say the least.

Otherwise, that's pretty much it.

3/5/00:

12:23 am

It happened! Finally! And oh my god it happened fast. I'm so glad I read and re-read those books like crazy. There's no time to actually think for very long.

Just a bit after 10 pm, I noticed Dot rolling and pawing. I allowed myself to feel a small degree of hope, but I was still quite cynical and went back into the office. By 10:30 when I checked again, she was down and there was a bulge from her vulva. I missed the water breaking, that's for sure. I RAN to get Judith (were were up watching movies in the office, fortunately), called Jeff and ran back, calling Letti, Jess, and Jill shortly thereafter. I barely had time to wash her vulva. No soap - no time. Just got the chunks off.

10:37 pm, March 4th, the foal arrived. Dot didn't give us much room, but there was enough for me and the foal that was shortly in my lap. I cleaned the nose with a very clean towel, stroking downward. It was almost instinctual. They rested for ... well, I'm not too sure. Probably only a few moments. Jess came over and identified the foal as a little girl. Yeah! It was amazing!

There was a foot first, then the other one right under it. The hooves were facing downward - the correct direction. The nose came a bit, slightly sideways, before Dot got up and lay down again. She pushed some more and the nose reappeared. She'd rolled a bit and the nose was facing up like it should this time. She pushed a bit more (an animal THAT large groaning like that is quite incredible ... almost frightful) and then the foal flew out. I uncovered the amnion from the face and shoulders (a little star! smaller than Dot's, but bigger than brother Ally's) and cleared the nostrils and started toweling and stroking. Dot was whinnying a good part of the time, in between pushing. The foal finally whinnied back and Dot relaxed. STRONG foal! I did what imprinting I could. Being there was the biggest part. Got the mouth, ears, face, most of the body, and the hooves covered.

Letti and Jason ROCK! They just brought me food from Jack In the Box. I sorely needed that, especially since I'm going to be out here for a while yet to keep an eye on the little one. "Denali" is the name. I'll probably lengthen it, but I'll figure that out later and I get to know her.

Anycase ... imprinting. Ally as well as his full brother, Darby, and other half siblings are pretty darn mellow, so I'm not too worried. I'll definitely work more after the little one sleeps and nurses again.

Right now, she's only nursed once, for just a little bit. Keeps trying, but she is trying the wrong body parts on mom.

We were able to get everything done that needed to get done. Washed the udder, tied up amnion sac, dipped the umbilical stump, supported foal during cord breakage, enema, watched the meconium pass, even weighed the placenta (13 lbs). I called the vet hospital and have a 9 am appointment for the IgG test and to check the mare and foal out. Dot even got a bran mash. I used it to help her settle down and eat something.

Right now (12:55 am) they both want to sleep, but little Denali needs to nurse some more and relieve Dot's udder pressure.

1:03 am

There! She finally nursed for a goodly length of time. No problems getting up and down now. Did a lot of falling and tumbling before. Fortunately, the stall was well bedded.

Now, they'll ideally both sleep and I can read up on the second session of imprinting. I've done some of it, like the forward and back stuff. Need to do more desensitization, I think.

Didn't get much time for that earlier, she was trying to get up pretty quickly and succeeded just as fast.

Denali did imprint on me, that much I know. She approached me and follows me without much fear.

When she whinnies, every horse in the barn responds. Quite adorable.

1:33 am

Wow, I am tired now. After starting to re-read the imprinting book, I realized I needed to do more - since I could do it now, it'd be easier than later. Denali was down, so I covered everything I hadn't gotten to earlier. It is a LOT easier now that she is dry. Have I mentioned how huge of a foal she is? I'm 5'8", so I'm not teeny, but this is a big baby. When she was slippery after birth, she was hard (read: impossible) to hold. She accepted everything just fine, with a few exceptions and it didn't take long to get over that.

I wonder if amniotic fluid and blood will wash out of my jeans? I stink too.

2:18 am

Already running circles around mom! Pooped normal and nursing a lot more. She's finally figured out where that udder is at. Temped at 100.6 F with the electronic thermometer (with flexible tip). I haltered her for the first time as well. No big deal for her. I treated the stump for the second time.

3:10 am

Looking good! Active, nursing, resting, running. I added fresh bedding on top of the birthed-upon stuff earlier. Now I'm wondering how I'm going to go about cleaning the stall. Mom, baby, me, and a wheelbarrow. Slowly and carefully shall be the plan.

It has been raining all night, so that makes it hard to get them out of the stall so I can clean. Even then, I'd have to get someone else to clean, or someone else to handle them. Well, I do hope it is sunny for a bit tomorrow, or at least cloudy without wind or rain. Denali is active enough to need the time in a wide open space - that is, the polo field. Not fenced in, but right next to the barn and plenty of fresh green grass. Relatively ungrazed as well - untouched by disease.

Anycase, I'm to home and sleep soon enough. I'll be back 7:30 / 8 am to check on them, plus there's the vet checkup at 9am. Ahh .... Sleep!!