Wasn't Meant to Be

 At 3:27 am the colt took his last breath. I left him in the stall until 6:00 am. Tatiana would walk over and check on him but then go back to eating hay so I thought at least all was well with her.  She was given her 45 ccs of Gentamiacin, 15 ccs of  Banimine and 1.55 ccs of Oxy then I went back into the house to call Diane to let them know. While we were walking Mike drove the yanmar over to start digging the grave. 

We stopped in to see mom and I told her that 2 of the eagle eggs had hatched. We found the Big Bear Eagle Cam on youtube and turned that on. Below is Jackie feeding one of the chicks.

We all needed to quit early and I needed to give Tatiana another shot of Oxy to keep those contractions going as she still had not delivered the placenta. She seemed to be ok at that time, standing quietly by the hay and eating. Mike had decided to dig the hole extra deep. His thought was to put the colt in first but leave room just in case Tatiana died too.

She was doing so well I thought we may not need it but those thoughts turned out to be wrong. I left for the Berean office then. We had a lot of Bible requests today, lots of letters. Below are a few picture of our morning. Sharon brought her home made cinnamon rolls and her chex mix for our treat today.

After processing the studies the crew got to work wrapping Bibles. We had 43 go out today.

Skip worked on entering all of the Bible requests while Kathy read the letters and Marvin looked up prisons and jails to find out why some of our studies had been returned. Today we got one returned marked Deceased. The inmate doing the lesson had finished all 50 Basics and was on 49 and 50 of the Intermediates.

Marvin was able to make numbers for the rack of the new advanced studies.

Below Kathy is getting more envelopes. She answers a lot of the letters.

Below is a short video.

I dropped off the mail and Bibles at the Hanna City post office then rushed home to check on Tatiana and give her another Oxy shot. I was shocked to find her colicking.

Her heart rate and respirations were much to high. It was obvious she was in terrible distress. I sent a text to Dr. Hoerr. He responded he would be here this afternoon but Tatiana was in terrible pain. She was rolling in the stall and rolled up against the wall and was stuck. I needed to figure out how to roll her away. The rain which had been pouring all morning stopped so Tatiana was led outside to the field. She was in terrible distress but at least when she collapsed the ground was soft. The poor mare, it is hard to imagine how much pain she was in. She died at 2:30 pm. Mike came and buried her in the same grave as her colt.

The rain started up again as Mike was burying her. We got over an inch of rain.

About that time the vet clinic called to report Dr. Hoerr was on the way. Jewel needed to be brought in stall along with Oliver. We wanted Jewel sonagrammed and wanted Oliver checked to make sure both testicles had dropped. Oliver is really maturing beautifully. He has such presence and is very photogenic. 

Once the horses were in out of the rain Hope was taken for a walk in the indoor. 

Mark and Mackenson were putting up the plastic sheeting over the construction site.

Sarah and Nolan were at the barn with their 3 girls and when I stopped in Sarah was hard at work cleaning. We have guests coming in on Thursday and she really helped me out by all the work she got done. Dr. Hoerr arrived, sonagrammed Jewel first. She is in transition and won't be ready to cover for at around 2 months. Next was Oliver. Oliver stood reasonably well while Dr. Hoerr was groping under those back legs, kicking up a few times but not out. We were pleased when Dr. Hoerr reported them both down. Of course Oliver is not yet 2 years old and won't be used as a breeding stallion for a year. 
Taunya had dropped off Hope this morning so while waiting for Dr. Hoerr she was taken for a walk in the indoor as it was still raining. By this time Joan and Mackenson arrived with Mackenson's dog. Today he was going to be tutored or in his case neutered.

Below Dr. Hoerr is meeting Mackenson and his dog.

Below is the video of that procedure.

It was still raining by the time everything was done and past suppertime. I had used the golf cart so grabbed a towel, wiped that off and drove it to the house in the rain to start supper. I will need to clean up the apartment and the barn but that can wait until tomorrow. Today was emotionally and physically exhausting. I know that we did the best we could for Tatiana and her colt. We really had no option but to have the c section done and was hopeful but it just wasn't meant to be. 

Not Out of the Woods

 Last night I was too tired to stay up to 10:00 pm so gave Tatiana her banimine at 9:00 pm then went to bed. The colt was nursing well. I woke up and checked on them at 1:00 am and he was still standing and nursing well. At 3:00 am he was down and since I didn't know if he was able to stand on his own I drove up to the barn and helped him up. He went right over and nursed and I went back to bed. At 4:30 am he was still up but at 5:30 am he was down. I decided to wait and watch on the monitor and was thrilled to see him jump up on his own at 6:05 am and run over to nurse. I went up to give Tatiana the antibiotic and 15 ccs of banimine. She gets 45 ccs of Gentamicin Sulfate once a day and the banimine twice a day 12 hours apart. I left for the walk. The walkers stopped in to see the colt and he was doing so well. He was laying down but jumped up to nurse.

After breakfast Mark and I went over to the barn with the plastic sheeting and covered the lumber in the gym area then measured and cut for the upstairs. When we finished with that we moved a bale in for Evan. 

At 9:30 am I went in to clean stalls and was shocked to see the colt in distress. He was rolling in agony. I called the vet clinic and was told to give him 1.5 ccs of banimine. I took his temperature but that was actually a little low so no fever. I also gave him an enema. 

He did not get better and Tatiana started getting worse. By the time Dr. Hoerr arrived both were needing his care. The last time I know the colt nursed was at 8:30 am. I milked Tatiana and was able to get about 2 ounces of milk into the colt by bottle.  Dr. Hoerr put an IV then drew 2 vials of blood to add to the special  oxygenated bags. 

Mike arrived then and helped hold the colt while both bags were given.

After that was done Dr. Hoerr turned his attention to Tatiana. 

There was manure in her large intestines' and that is a good sign that they are working. Next he decided to try to remove the retained placenta. That stunk terribly and unfortunately came out in chunks. It had already started rotting and that was what had caused the fever. After getting as much out as he could he told us there is still attached placenta and gave Tatiana 3 ccs of oxy to get her contractions going. Then it was time to treat the belly. He went in at the incision site and passed a canula through to the belly cavity and gave her the special glycerin fluid he had prepared. He explained it all in the video below.

He left lots of drugs, plenty of needles, a syringe full of flush for the colt's IV. I need to give her oxy every 2-3 hours to keep those contractions coming. He also gave Tatiana some sedation so she could rest. She laid down and the colt climbed right on top of her neck.

Neither Tatiana nor her colt are out of the woods. 

Today was a hard day but I am thankful for the help and for a willing knowledgeable Veterinarian.

Emergency C Section

 Tatiana was for sure going to have this foal today.

After checking her udder I took some vet wrap out (thanks Sarah) and wrapped her tail to get her ready for the pending delivery.

Both mares were turned out early as I knew they would need to be brought back inside before we left for church. I had her on the foaling camera and she was standing quietly when we left for church. Tim Roecker had the morning message on Romans 8 and it was really good to listen to. Right after the service I checked the monitor and saw Tatiana on the floor of the stall straining with all her might and worst was no hooves sticking out. Ruth was sitting behind us so I turned to her and told her I need Fedi. I caught up with Mark on the way out of the sanctuary and told him we need to leave right away and would be taking Fedi with us. On the way home it was obvious something was wrong. I called Karin, she drove over then called us back to say bringing Fedi was the right thing to do, there are no legs. We dropped Fedi off at his house to change, drove to our house to change then I headed out with the towels. Fedi arrived then.

He was able to get one leg in position but something was really wrong with the second leg. I called Hoerr Vet emergency number. Dr. Pallen answered but I told her we would also need Dr. Hoerr. I sent him a text and he responded with OK. Dr. Pallen lives close and made it here first.

She agreed with Fedi, there was something wrapped around the second leg. Dr. Hoerr arrived a few minutes later.

He made the diagnoses that the uterus had flipped and was twisted around the foal. He sedated Tatiana, then we brought in a board. Fedi, Karin and Dr. Pallen pulled while Dr. Hoerr hung on to the leg and I rested my weight on the board. 

The board was supposed to keep the foal in place while the uterus moved.

It didn't work. There was one other thing to try and that was to cut her open on her side, reach in and try to flip the uterus by hand.

Unfortunately that too didn't work. That meant he needed to get the foal out by C section and it had to be done quickly. I have a video of that which will be posted below the rest of this story.

The foal wasn't breathing so Dr. Pallen had to give him nose to mouth resuscitation. That worked!

Emma arrived with more medicine to keep Tatiana asleep so Dr. Hoerr could finish sewing her back up.

Dr. Pallen checked the colt's heartbeat then gave him antibiotics.

She had blood running down from helping.

The foal was put in the other stall so when Tatiana awoke she wouldn't knock him down. Dr. Hoerr's face wasn't much better.

Tatiana woke up but wasn't in a hurry to stand. At least she wasn't have those awful contractions anymore.

Meanwhile in the other stall the colt was able to stand.

We put the sack back on his back and brought him in to meet his mom.

She would have NOTHING to do with him and pinned her ears when he came close. She also tried to bite him. This was going to take a while. It took two of us to try to get the colt to nurse. One to keep her from threatening the colt and one to keep the colt next to the mare. Dr. Pallen milked Tatiana and gave the colt 120 ccs by a feeding tube. Dr. Hoerr needed to leave by then.  Dr. Pallen stayed for quite a while but by this time it was past 4:30 pm and I told her I would get help. Rhoda came over to help. When she came I left to get a few more supplies but when I got back to the stall the colt was very close to nursing and soon had latched on. She was still not happy with him so I couldn't leave but after he nursed, those mama hormones kicked in and all of a sudden she accepted him. By 5:00 pm I was able to head to the barn for some leftover supper. Below is the video:

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Mark sent a text that there was left over food from dinner at the barn so I took the golf cart there. We had a baby shower for Noel at 2:00 pm which I missed but those that stayed for supper reported it was a nice shower with around 45 people.   Below are just a few pictures of some of the kids.

I need to go back up to the barn around 10:00 pm to give Tatiana more banamine then she will be on strong antibiotics twice a day.

The sun was set and the moon was out when I started for home.

Still An Artist

 I was really glad to wake up this morning as I was in the middle of a nightmare. I was dreaming we were on a cruise and I couldn't remember our cabin number and was wandering the ship searching. It was not quite 5:00 am but Mark was up earlier and started the coffee. As soon as it was light enough to see I went out to move the mares and clean the stalls. Tatiana has not progressed and seems to be in no hurry to have this foal. We had just finished breakfast when Karin called to see if I could come early. Mom was just finishing up breakfast when I arrived. Today was painting day. I think Karin said Tara gave the planter to mom and Karin was going to stop at the gardening center to pick up potting soil and seeds so mom needed to get the painting done. 

Mom picked out what stencils she wanted to use and also the paint colors. 

Below is the finished project. Mom really is still an artist, even mixing the paints to get different colors.

Not bad for a left handed person that had to learn to paint with her right hand.  Spark and Rhonda came over for a visit so ran to the barn to help Mark move the couch out. He is putting down some of the rubber tiles. We have guests coming to use the barn this coming week so we don't want to worry about them getting splinters. That didn't take long and I was back at mom's within 5 minutes. After Karin got back I went back to the barn to work on the pitching machine to see if I could figure out what is wrong with it. Yesterday I  ordered a new pitching machine as I couldn't get ours to work anymore. It was a used machine when we bought it. It was still shoot the balls out but the feeder isn't working. The new one is supposed to arrive by Wednesday and the guests move in on Thursday. sure hope it comes in time.

Mark ordered a roll of 10 feet wide 100 feet long of visqueen to put up where the construction is happening in the barn and a magnetic door kit.

The sheeting will probably make it in time but the door kit won't arrive until March 5th -7th. If it comes on the 5th or early on the 6th hopefully we will get it installed before the guests arrive. 

Later I went grocery shopping first to Aldi then to Kroger to pick up food for tomorrow's meal. I only needed lasagna noodles from Kroger so am glad Bartonville has a Kroger near Aldi. The meat sauce was prepared this evening and put in the fridge.

Tomorrow I will just need to put it together. Tomorrow will be busy as we have a baby shower for Noel's expected baby girl at 2:00 pm at the barn then supper at 4:30 pm then Mark and I will go to the fellowship hall for hymn sing which starts at 6:00 pm. I needed something easy to make for supper and crock pot lasagna is about the easiest I could think of.  I also made a blueberry dessert. This has 4 layers, a bottom crust, a blueberry cream cheese mixture with whipped cream, then a can of blueberry pie filling and the last layer is more sweetened whipped cream.

The mares were brought into the barn about 6:00 pm tonight. I am watching on the foaling monitor but she seems content to just stand at the hay and eat so it looks like another easy night.