Miniature Horse Foaling Problems
Painted Sun Miniature Horses can not be held responsible for any advice given on here. You need to always talk to your equine veterinarian and follow their plan of care.
Red Bag Babies
Red Bag babies is something every breeder needs to be prepared for. Here are some sites with pictures and tips for dealing with Red Bag babies:
http://www.southernheartranch.com/redbag.html This site has 3 pages about Red Bag babies with great pictures of births.
http://rosaroca.net/redbag.htm This site gives tips on how to break open the sacs and how to pull
Hip Locked Babies
Here are various accounts of hip locked foals:
When a foal delivers up to its shoulders, & wont go any farther, there is a chance that its hips are locked on the mares pelvis. No amount of pulling will get the foal out, it will only damage your mare & possibly kill the foal. You usually have little time to get them out, the cord is usually compressed. Often at this point, you can push the foal back in try to push the foal back in just a bit and then twist. It is an amazing process. Sometimes the twist is all it takes and they pop out like a cork from a bottle!
When you twist, turn the foal upwards so it is facing the mare's tail. It isn't easy, and you have to twist the whole foal at the chest, turning it 180 degrees so it is facing upwards towards the sky. It will unlock the foal & it should deliver. Many hip locks may result in nerve damage to your mare, which can be mild or can be to the extreme of her walking with her hips splayed out, or to the very severe with her not being able to get up at all. Most of the time she will get better in time.
Not sure if our's was "hip-locked" but we twisted and then "see-sawed" as we pulled. And the baby popped out!
In the book called The Complete Book of Foaling, the author advises sliding your arm alongside the foal, sliding the foal back slightly and cupping the foal's hipbone in my hand so it would slide past the point of restrainment.
I twisted the foal one way then the other and was able to free it and pull it out. Lost the foal as it was an abortion and the mare had some temporary nerve damage, but all is well now and the mare has had several more foals since with no problem.
Last year we had a hip lock. My heart sinks when a mare rolls on her back, you know she is in trouble with a dystocia. When I realized the foal was in a hip lock I pushed the foal back in slightly, turned the foal approx. thirty degrees and pulled close toward the mares tummy, and worked with the mares contraction only pulling when she pushed. The mare had no nerve damage and her hips were fine, praise God. The foal, which was a little filly, was up and eating within 20 minutes.
Sitting Dog Position:
In this scenario, the foal is in the 'sitting dog' position. The foaling starts out normally with the foal presenting until it gets just past the elbows and no further. You will usually think that it is hip lock, but further inspection will reveal that one or both foals' back feet are wedged up against the mares' pelvis. The foal is far enough out that you can't push it back in and the feet are wedged so tight that it's very difficult to push them back. One foal my vet saved and the other we didn't.
