Another Video of Sangria's Filly

Since I worked yesterday, Diane agreed to handle the Berean work today leaving me free to run Rosalie and Roxanne out to Middle Grove. We didn't have rain predicted but when I arrived at Middle Grove a nice soft rain had started to fall. Instead of hiking back to the horses with the camera, Rosalie and Roxanne were just taken into the summer pasture and let loose to find their own way back to the herd. Rosalie has grown up there and is very comfortable, she promptly dropped her head and started grazing. Roxanne was not sure this was a good idea, grazing without the herd to watch over her but she decided not to leave Rosalie and find them on her own.

The rain followed me all the way home. Rhoda was here when I arrived and offered to go shopping with me. We drove to Pekin and visited two stores, Big R where we bought cat food, bedding for the trailer and 2 very large bones for Darcy and Emma. When we went to load the car the heavens had opened and the downpour coming down drenched us within seconds. The bedding was torn and spilled on the back seat of the Prius. Oh how I miss our old Matrix, now I'm going to have to sweep it out. Next was Aldi, Rhoda picked up 4 dozen eggs for me and I picked up another 4 dozen eggs. At 38 cents a dozen we will find lots of recipes this weekend to use them up.  We drove through streams and actual lakes of water flooding the roads of Pekin. The closer we got to Hanna City the less standing water but we were still thrilled to find our rain gauge holding 8 tenths of an inch. 

The sun came out within an hour. Rhoda decided to ride Sangria for a bit better video of her filly. That filly didn't just have a video made she got all kinds of instructions.

 Check out how high all four hooves are off the ground in the picture above and below Rhoda is giving her some in-hand halter training.

 We want the foal to accept us putting our arms around her anytime and any where, below Rhoda is picking up her hooves. 

 Broke to RIDE? Well maybe for tiny dogs but certainly not for humans.  This is so amazing for a foal, to accept a dog on her back at 4 weeks old. 

 We worked on trailer loading. This filly had never been loaded before today and didn't do as well as the foals that get shipped back and forth to Middle Grove and the vet.

 She did way better backing out than going forward.

We put her in and out 3 times then decided she had worked hard enough. Hopefully I can do this again. Check out the video below to see how we start the foal with leading. 

Both Rhoda and I were pretty thrilled with her training today. As soon as Rhoda left for home I left for Sam's Club to pick up dog food and a rotisserie chicken for our supper. After supper Mark helped move a round bale in the back pasture then started scraping the driveways. I finished cleaning out the trailer, putting a hay bag in it and getting it ready for the trip tomorrow morning. Karin and I will be leaving at 6:30 am to drive to U of I to pick up Marika and her colt.

Sangria's Filly by Valiant

Thinking I would need to be traveling to U of I tomorrow to pick up Marika I decided not to take the day off today at Berean. Carol, Cindy and I just worked until 11:00 and were able to easily type in all the Bible requests. Bruce Witzig arrived to work on the light fixture. We have amazing talented people helping here, we need something done and someone knows exactly what to do.

 Becky and Russ Kingman were in town and stopped at the office for a very short visit.

Becky is actually a very talented horse trainer and has the desire to get back into training. Once it is in the blood this desire never seems to leave. They are heading back to their temporary home in Nebraska soon. When I got back from the office Anna had the girls out swimming at Diane's pond. Braelyn caught a big fat tadpole that had just about turned into a frog.

To see the rest of these pictures click HERE. Karin sent a text through that she would be over in 10 minutes to help get some updated pictures and a video of Sangria's filly by Valiant. This filly has the color, lift and presence to be someone's top of the model show horse. She will truly excel in dressage and we really do hope she goes to a show home. Her sister was appraised for $25,000.00 at 2 years of age and to think we are only asking $5000.00 for this one. Why if we hang on to her for a couple years we could quintuple our price. 

IF interested better get her quick before we change our mind. Rhoda would LOVE to keep this one, she is fancy fancy fancy. 

The video below is short but shows her extreme lift and to think she wasn't even showing off today!

Mark drove to church tonight with a full car. Mom, Diane and Ruth walked down to join us. Greg Rumbold had the service. It was really really good to be there worshipping our Lord and Savior with precious brothers and sisters.
Dr. Echeverria called with an update on Marika and her colt. Marika's numbers were all good today, they were taking her off the IV's. She is looking and doing well. The colt looks good, acts good, is full of energy but his liver enzymes were a bit skewed. They were considering a liver biopsy but thankfully decided to wait and recheck tomorrow. Hopefully this is just a temporary setback but because of that they would like to keep Marika and her colt until Friday. I'm praying the numbers will go back to normal quickly. Our bill there just keeps rising.

Encouraging Words

Last night was kind of discouraging but today so far all the reports on Marika and her colt have been good. No fever in either one, the ultrasound was done on Marika's uterus and there is no free floating fluid, she did not need to be flushed. They ran the ultrasound machine over every inch of the colt's body and found nothing for us to worry about. According to the vet he didn't like that and was quite the kicker. It took a few to hold him still but they got the job done. Of course that is what a normal colt would do so I LIKE that report.
Two of mom's puppies left Monday afternoon. The 2 black and white male puppies are now in their new home.

Her morning was much easier with only 2 puppies to take in and out. This morning Molly and the 2 remaining puppies came running into her bedroom early to be let outside. We think mom is doing an amazing job with potty training these puppies at such a young age. Speaking of puppies, Jessica had her puppy outside this morning. This tiny Pug puppy is 8 weeks old. She is less than half the size of Molly's puppies. Jessica said she is adjusting well. She was very playful

Mom, Ruth and I went to the Berean office this morning and were joined by a big group of volunteers. The morning went amazingly well. To read about it click HERE. We really really need people to help grade the hundreds of studies that come back each week.
When I got home the first job that needed doing was to tease the mares still needing to be covered.  Indy needed teasing but since she was with Sangria and Jewel in the pond pasture and they were not in sight, I just took Patty out and teased. She said no. Nikki's owner is picking her up on Saturday and Patty will be moved over there as soon as she leaves which will help with the teasing. The picture below was actually taken yesterday afternoon. Karin hit a dead animal with her car and she needed to put the bottom back together. Below she is working on the car while her dog Studly watches.

If it seems like this blog is going to the dogs that just might be true today. No one was around to ride or work horses and I was too lazy to get any out for pictures. This evening after supper, one of Rhonda's grand daughters came to the door to explain that we may have a problem, when I looked out  running down the lane were Sangria, Indy and Jewel along with Sangria's filly and Indy's filly. They were called and all came running down our drive to me. Silly mares had discovered the gate to the hay field was open at the trail head in the woods and enjoyed the afternoon grazing. When they got thirsty they came running. They were glad to be let back in and the nursing mothers rushed right over to the waterer. The golf cart was taken over to shut that back gate. Mark spent the evening mowing and as soon as he was finished took his golf cart over to the lake for a swim to cool off and clean all the grass clippings off. He gets covered with grass clippings because the walk behind mower is missing the guard.

Updates Good and Bad

The update on Marika this morning was good, the placenta was expelled during the night. The update this evening was not so good. The colt is starting to fight an infection and Marika had a fever and also is fighting an infection. Both of them were given more antibiotics in stronger doses. The cost on the 2 is now over $7000.00. We were hoping to have them home on Thursday but they would need to improve pretty quickly for that to happen. Each day the costs rise.
Does it sound like I'm worried? I am but worry does absolutely nothing to help so I'm trying to just pray about it then get to work.
Today was the much needed day to grocery shop. The cupboards were bare, the fridge was bare but after stopping at 2 stores they are bare no longer.
As soon as the groceries were put away I had to take the truck and trailer to Dr. Hoerr's clinic in Morton, IL to pick up Jenis. Her bill hadn't been entered yet on the computer so I have no idea what we spent on her staying at the clinic for 5 days and getting treated all 5 days. That almost makes me shudder when I allow myself to think of Marika's bill AND Jenis' bill. That's what I get for telling someone "we have 10 on the ground and no vet bills." Well now we have 11 on the ground and enough vet bills that if we averaged it out each of these foals cost a lot.
One of the student's texted the picture below of Marika and her colt taken this afternoon proving they are alive.

This afternoon the mares were teased and all said no. Karin needed a little help zip tying the bottom of her car together. She hit a dead animal and the bottom was falling out. Zip ties are amazing.

Company in Peoria

We were very blessed today with 2 visiting elders. What I want to remember is the bride price Jesus paid for me.
Not a lot of horse news, the report this evening on Marika was that she still hadn't passed the placenta but all of the blood work, white cell counts were good and the placenta is moving toward the exit. The colt is bouncing off the walls. Those were the exact words the veterinarian used. If all goes well they can probably come home on Thursday but with the huge incision Marika will need to be on stall rest for a month or more.  I teased Kathy's mare Patty and she said no, teased Nikki she said yes but won't be covered until tomorrow morning, teased Indy who said no, hosed off a few mares, brought Eliza in for her extra feeding and before putting her back took her and her colt to the outdoor arena for a few pictures of her colt for his owner.

He is six weeks old today and just seems to be extra fancy. His owner has named him Caesar KB. Jesse Stickling came out to ride with a friend, then Emily brought company over to ride. Since we are short riding horses they decided to go swimming first then take Missy, Cookie and Ella to Farmdale for the rest of the day.
This evening I took the golf cart over to watch the volley ball games. Those games are fun to watch but it's more the visiting with the audience that we like to go for.

The delivery stall was stripped of straw tonight and honestly it made me sad to do so. Usually when I'm removing straw we have a new baby to care for, handle, iodine, and admire.

Bad Colostrum

The update last night on Marika's colt was discouraging. His IGA test came back at 175. This is very low, we like to see this number at 800-1000. This means the colostrum he was given while waiting for Marika to wake up must have been bad. The colostrum (first milk) for a foal is the most important thing he needs before ingesting real milk. As long as the foal is getting colostrum the gut is open and allowing transfers of all the antibodies that are critically important for immune protections of a newborn foal.  BUT IF the foal has been given milk BEFORE colostrum none of these life saving antibodies are absorbed, you see once milk has hit the stomach the gut closes.
Marika's colt needed two bags of plasma in order to get the all important antibodies and immune protection. Each one of these bags cost $500.00. UGH...that adds a quick $1000.00 to our bill that was already estimated to be $6000.00. I really hate waste, so not only do we have to pay for the colostrum that was given even though it was bad we also have to pay for them to give the bad colostrum then pay for the plasma since the colostrum was bad and pay them to give the plasma...kind of seems like a racket.
Too bad the seller of the colostrum can't pay some of this bill. It wasn't the fault of U of I, they buy it from a supplier. Too bad it wasn't tested first.
I am very thankful for the staff at U of I. They are calling with regular updates and I know we will have a healthy foal and a LIVE mare once we get them home. The best updates are when they send pictures like the one below of Marika nursing her colt:

Most of the updates that have been coming in are GOOD updates. All of the vets and students are amazed at Marika. The main vet working with them said, "this colt is lucky to have a dam like Marika." She is an amazing tolerant sweet mother.
Yesterday was a hard day trying to get the work done around here on very little sleep. Even before laying down Evan needed to be given a new round bale but after that I was able to catch a few hour long naps but was woken up each time with phone calls. The temperature was 90 but with the humidity feeling like 98 degrees. Evan and a bunch of mares were looking sweaty and uncomfortable so each was taken out and hosed off. Nikki was teased and covered by Evan. Mike came over to help with Eliza's cover by Valiant. When I finally hit the bed and closed my eyes I was out as quickly as a turned off light bulb and didn't wake at all until 5:30 this morning.

Emergency C Section

At 12:40 am Marika's water broke and she promptly laid down having contractions. Karin arrived and we all made ourselves comfortable with buckets to sit on, the video camera rolling to record the birth but nothing came out. Her water had broken in a gush that seemed to go on and on giving that part of the stall a good soaking. At 1:00 am I had to go in to see if the foal was not presented correctly except I couldn't feel ANY foal. Reaching as far as possible, feeling both sides of the birth canal to make sure I was in the correct uterine horn and was shocked to find an empty uterus. Below Amy and Karin are desperately searching the internet on their phones googling breach birth.

Dr. Hoerr's emergency number was called at 1:05 am. I explained we KNOW she is pregnant, the foal is big and pushing but the uterus is empty. I'm sure he didn't believe me. He arrived right about 2:00 am, reached in and was shocked enough to say, "I can feel the foal on the left hand side but the uterus is empty!"

 He tried different positions, tried to get as far down as possible but each time came up with the same answer or an even worse answer. 

 Around 2:30 am he says', "I can get down to the foal but it is separated by the uterine wall and at the base I'm holding on to a fist full of arteries. By this time we are scared we are losing Marika and pretty much had given up on the foal believing it must be deformed.  Dr. Hoerr had a frank talk with us telling us the ONLY way to save the mare, IF the mare can be saved is to drive her to U of I NOW for an emergency C section. At this point he is pretty sure the uterus has ruptured and the foal is now in the abdominal cavity. Can you imagine a foal in with all those intestines and the mare's uterus ruptured and bleeding? Amy Koch grabbed a couple water bottles, her phone charger and jumped in the truck just as Karin and I loaded Marika. The 2 and a half hour trip was a nightmare believing we were going to find a dead mare in the back of the trailer when we arrived. The U of I crew were waiting at the door and took us right in. We were surprised to find Marika up and quiet. She was lead onto the scale and weighed in at 1375 pounds then taken into the exam room where she was examined by Dr. Shippley the U of I vet. He did the same exam Dr. Hoerr did, reaching his arms in as far as humanly possible then gave us the exact same diagnoses the foal is NOT in the uterus, Marika must have surgery and it must be done quickly to save her. 

 Marika was shaved, scrubbed then sedated laid down on the table, given socks, scrubbed again and again. 

 Above they are preparing her for surgery and below they are moving her into the operating room. 

 Amy and I were blessed to be able to watch the entire surgery on the monitor in the student lounge. We were able to see when they found the foal. 

 Below is the foal's rump, they are hauling him out. We are expecting a dead or deformed foal and were not quite sure what we were looking at until we saw the neck and front legs. 

 We ran down to the room and were so surprised and thankful to find a strong, big, healthy, PERFECT colt! The vet's were busy suctioning his lungs out and checking him over. 

 He was given an oxygen tube and shaved for a IV all the while fighting to get up. It took 3 people to hold him down for the insertion of the IV. This colt was more than ready to be born. Below is a picture of his slippers, all newborn foals are born with these soft sponge like material so the mare's uterus won't be damaged. Check out the feather this colt was born with. He is going to be one hairy colt.

 About this time we were told the uterus had not ruptured and the foal was still inside the uterus. The colt was stuck in the lower part of the uterus with both sets of legs folded over which doesn't explain why I plus ALL the vets that examined Marika could not feel the colt inside the uterus. The uterus was pretty badly bruised but we haven't heard a good explanation yet other than there would have been NO WAY Marika would have been able to deliver him. If they hadn't have been brought in to the hospital they both would have died. The colt was taken to the stall where he figured out quickly how to stand and was hungry searching for the milk.

 He was tubed and a liter of colostrum was given to him. 

It wasn't long after that Marika was out of surgery and waking up. Amy and I left for home around 8:30 am by this time we have been up for 28 hours and we are exhausted but amazed that we have a living mare and a strong beautiful colt. A U of I vet called with an update while we were driving that Marika and the colt were now both in the same stall and bonded. We stopped for some breakfast and coffee then had to push to get home to meet Kathy who was bringing her mare Patty to be bred to Valiant. I'm going to grab a nap then go out to work later. So so thankful but so very tired. 

Later today one of the vet students sent the picture below with the text: Pic of him nursing, we where changing her belly band for a tighter fitting one but we had to wait for him to finish nursing, he kept pushing us out of the way 

Marika should be fine and able to come home in 5 days if all continues to go well. She is still on IV fluids and has not yet passed the placenta which the vet said was pretty normal for a c section. She is getting oxytosin every 6 hours to help her uterus contract. Praying that this happens soon. 

Waiting

Amy and I are sitting in the house in front of the monitor watching Marika. Earlier I was sure she was going to deliver tonight. She was restless, sweating, pacing, laying down and groaning. Amy was sent a text that Marika was in labor so she jumped in her car and drove here only to find Marika had settled down and was eating her hay. Bummer.
We had a LONG busy day Friday, technically it is after midnight but still feels like Friday since I haven't been to bed yet. Anna dropped off the girls early so right after breakfast we took the golf cart over to the playground where we found some second cousins to play with. Tara's girls walked over to play.

 Tara has Jane the same age as Braelyn and Kate the same age as Taegan. 

All the girls were pretty thrilled when mom let the puppies out.

Of course these puppies are so cute I took a lot of pictures. To see the rest of the pictures click HERE.
Rhoda arrived with Addyson, Jack and Jace about the time Rhonda brought the 4 wheeler over with Ezra. Rhonda and Tara offered to watch ALL the children while we went over to tease and cover Nikki with Evan. We teased Prissy and she was already out.  Right after that Dave came to pick up his Appaloosa mare. As soon as she was loaded, Rhoda, Sarah, David, and I plus all 7 grand children went to Wild Life Prairie Park. Sarah had a pass for 10 people and Kensly was under 2 so got in free.
We had a good time looking at all the animals and hiking the trails.

 To see all the pictures from today it would probably be best just to click here instead of me trying to post any on this blog. When we got back we had a late lunch then Rhoda gave Addyson and Braelyn a riding lesson while Sarah and Anna took the rest of the kids over to Diane's for swimming. And now that this is done it is time to go back to watching Marika on the monitor. This foal is not in any hurry to get here.