First foal for us both. Should I attempt to let her foal at home or send to my vet to foal out?
My vet has a foaling stall, is very knowledgeable but sometimes seems a little too laid back and maybe not on top of things as much as Id like. For that reason I wonder if she may be just fine at home.
WWYD?
Send her out but to a different vet.
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First foal for us both. Should I attempt to let her foal at home or send to my vet to foal out?
My vet has a foaling stall, is very knowledgeable but sometimes seems a little too laid back and maybe not on top of things as much as Id like. For that reason I wonder if she may be just fine at home.
WWYD?[/QUOTE]
I have foaled all of my mares (maidens included) at home, don’t trust anyone else to care for them the way I would. Had one distocia, big filly last year required my DHs help to deliver the foal (vet complimented us, filly did great, mare did have pretty big vaginal hematoma but that was it) had one almost distocia, foal was sideways mare was down and straining had to get mare up and walk her for foal to turn correctly, laid down and spit that big foal out (maiden mares with both of these).
But it means that your life is spent at the barn pretty much. Not too much of a problem except last year when mare played with me for 3 weeks before foaling, all the others were classic presenting in their lead up to foaling. It is grey hair making but oh so rewarding to see the little ones when they make their appearance finally. I love it. A good camera or the sewn in foal predictor is wonderful, I just keep my eyes peeled and have help watching so I can get rest, especially last Feb with that maiden! She was a terrible tease.
Our first mare we foaled out on our own. I did a ton of reading, watched instructive videos, etc. and had everything down pat. It more than prepared me to foal out our own mare. The mare ended up having a HUGE foal that we ended up having to pull with the assistance of our vet on the phone. Everything went well and I don’t regret foaling the mare out at home. It is more than likely that you will watch your mare more closely than the vet will. 
Just make sure you educate yourself, you can handle stressful situations well and you don’t forget what you’ve learned, in case you do need to assist your mare.
I foaled out my maiden mare - and was maiden myself! - last year. I had my vet on speed dial, as well as a few of my friends from here who are more experienced breeders - and I did call allikat during the foaling!
I read, read, read and watched a billion videos as well. Had my kit together and handy. Prepped DH to be an assistant as well. I did milk test so eliminated sleeping in the barn. My mare foaled at a respectable 10 pm on a Sunday night and it was textbook.
For me, my decision was based primarily on the fact that my mare prefers to be out, and I was able to accommodate her foaling outside at my farm. Anywhere else, she would have had to been in a stall, which she will do, but she would rather be out.
I feel like leaving her with the vet would stress me more than having her at home.
Ill look into the milk test.
I have “giddyup flix” Any video suggestions?
I started reading Blessed are the Broodmares. Didn’t finish. That was less than optimistic.
It depends on how comfortable you are with the whole foaling process AND how capable you are to fix things should they go wrong.
The vet is probably “laid back” because the vast majority of foalings go just fine without human intervention. Maidens or otherwise, usually mares do just “spit them right out”.
But when it goes bad it often goes REALLY bad and you need to decide if you think you can handle it.
I’ve been lucky – my mares have only had 2 dystocias, but both were serious and resulted in losing the foals.
In one case, the foal presented breech. That is NOT a situation that one person can handle. Even the vet struggled and the foal died shortly after birth.
In the other case, the mare was mine, but out on lease (in CA). The leasee had never foaled a mare out and so decided to send the mare to the vet’s, who specialized in repro, was young, strong, etc.
Well, luckily that mare was very predictable and the lady hauled her to the vet 2-3 days before she went into labor. THAT foal presented both legs back. HORRID positioning. Despite working for over an hour, this young, strong vet AND her young strong male assistant were only able to get 1 leg forward.
They lost the foal and thank goodness the mare was at the vet’s because otherwise we would have lost her as well.
In both these cases if I had had to handle the situation alone here, it would have been ugly.
However I have to say, that none of my maidens have ever had an issue and most of the time all I have to do is stand and watch till the foal is born.
Just depends on how close is your vet? Can you trouble shoot the labor early enough to get them out PDQ? Are you prepared to spend hours watching the mare when it seems nothing is happening? Because you WILL spend hours doing that :winkgrin:…especially w/maidens.
And when things go wrong, you need to be right on top of them AS THEY HAPPEN, so it can be very inconvenient if you have a family, kids, a job, etc.
I had to call in sick afew times (now I’m retired) when I thought a mare was going to pop…sometimes they did foal…other times they did not.
And don’t stop reading about dystocias just because they make you uncomfortable. That is not going to be helpful to your mare at all…
I don’t want to sound like Ms. Doom & Gloom, because statistically mares don’t have big issues giving birth. But there is a risk, and it’s only fair to the mare to be prepared to help her if needed.
If you don’t feel capable, DO send her to the vet.
I sent my mare to a “birthing” facility. Originally, when I bred her, we lived in Arizona and my trainer was set up to foal out, but we moved to Ohio and while my new trainer was more than accommodating in taking down the wall so my mare could have a double stall, etc., I did not feel comfortable foaling her out so far away from my support group in AZ by myself for her first foal. So my trainer and vet recommended a place that breeds Quarter Horses, and she went there. They were fantastic, they put a foal alert on her, I visited her every day and did the milk test which was 100% accurate and they texted me when the alarm went off. I missed the actual birth part because she spit him out in record time, but got to see first steps, etc. They only call the vet for emergencies and to do the iGg tests, etc. So it was a really nice compromise. My mare was there for a month and came home a week after the baby was born. I read Blessed are the Broodmares, talked to my breeder friends, used this forum ad nauseam and the staff at the facility were really great too. I think they thought I was a little crazy and overbearing, but they put up with me! I got a bill at the end, it was a little expensive but not terrible, and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I bred her again.
I send my mares out. I work…I do not have time to watch them like a hawk and be sleeped deprived while they cross their legs and wait until I’m not looking. And I have NO desire to deal with the situation when things go south (my luck…it would go south). I’m perfectly happy to pay for someone with far more experience than me to take care of things. Call/text me when all is good and I’ll drive out to see the new foal.
But that is me. I’m perfectly fine with delegating management to those more capable. Other people want to be more involved and hands on…and DIY. Not me. Either approach is perfectly acceptable…you just have to decide what you want.
I think it depends on your comfort level. I made the decision to have my mare foal out at “home” because we are very close to an experienced vet, I was watching her like a hawk, and an experienced local breeder was on hand to assist.
Definitely do the milk test. It was pretty danged accurate in my case in terms of foaling within 24 hours once pH was within range and calcium levels went up. I only spent one night at the barn until around 12 watching her, she ended up foaling around 8:30 the following morning.
I will say though…we were lucky my mare didn’t have any problems foaling. The baby was born with contracted fronts, which could have gotten hooked up somewhere. However, birth ending up presenting as pretty textbook.
I’ve had foals at home but my last one was a maiden TB mare and a WB stallion and after reading Blessed are the Broodmares I was so freaked out regarding red bag deliveries, etc., I sent her to a facility that did many of the TB’s locally.
Everything went well, but they were joking at the size of the feet when they appeared.
Since then, that mare has popped them out with amazing speed, and that is when you blink and there it is, a bouncing baby.
There is just such a short window when things start to go wrong that there just has to be a competent person on hand.
Overall, I did not regret the expense when I think of the devastation if anything went wrong.
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