We are in Campbell, Tx. 50+ miles NE of Dallas.
I am so so sorry that things turned out the way they did.
Thank you. It was a totally unnecessary loss!
OP, so sorry to hear that your foaling didn’t end up the way you had hoped and you lost the little one.
I would be more than angry at vets that at least wouldn’t return a call to tell you who you should/could contact for holiday assistance.
I know he has clients in Granbury, and that’s 80+ miles away from his office…so he may come out to see you. He tries to keep another vet on staff to trade out On-call duties, and they came out at 4am to deal with my gelding when he had west nile. We are almost 40 miles away from their office. Just a thought. I know it doesn’t help the loss of your foal, but maybe it would give you someone to trust in the future.
Well…now for the good news. Our other mare was at 372 days, with NO bag at night check…we all made it through another night of wicked, Texas storms (no tornado here, but BAD ones, close)…3.5 MORE inches of rain…and when I looked out the bathroom window…where I can see the foaling stall…there was a set of skinny legs that I could see under the mare’s belly!!! She had foaled, probably within the hour, a big, strong, healthy, SUCKING filly!! She is a beauty!! Guess “somebody” upstairs felt sorry for our previous loss!!
Congrats on a healthy foal!
I wonder if there were other issues with the foal you lost? You would think the vets would at least call you back, or have another vet you can at least talk to???
I’ve been in the horse business, professionally for 50 years and have NEVER lived anywhere that at least one local vet wasn’t covering his area for unavailable vets!! I know they deserve time off…but somebody should be covering the general area…only 50 miles from the Dallas…not “Timbucto, END OF THE EARTH, USA”, or in a remote part of the country. And yes…there are other possibilities with the foal…but other than dealing with wobbly legs…too long in the “oven”…she started out very active, trying to nurse and normal…I don’t blame the vets for her death…particularly…just that in this day when EVERYONE has a cell phone, someone could have called me back…even the next day would have been polite!!
I am so sorry for the loss of your filly. I think the vets’ behavior is unconscionable. My colt was born and was not nursing and the on call vet hustled out there at 3 in the morning to milk the mare and intubate the foal. Not only that, the head vet was in touch making sure everything was okay. I wish you had had the same experience. Thrilled for your new baby, though! Post some pics!
Thank you. We used to live in So. Pines, NC…it is a VERY different world when you cross the Mississippi!! We’re coming back EAST!!!
Sorry for the loss of your foal. As you point out, you are a local to dallas and thus within very short or even “long” 1-2 hour hauling distance to multiple 24/7/365 equine hospitals that could have provided care to your sick foal. Even on short notice, without a horse trailer to haul the mare, if that were even an issue, a critical neonate foal could have still been driven directly an equine hospital directly for triage to a local or even local-ish equine hospital.
I’m sorry for your loss. But please don’t sit at home with a critical foal, that you expected and bred, and just dial a bunch of ambulatory vets and wait for over 2 days for someone to answer. Then blame them for you foal’s death. Take some responsibility.
Out of 3 local vets in my area of Texas, only one does emergencies and you have to be an established client or even they will not help you in emergencies.
If you think you have time to get A&M, that’s the best bet I have found for emergency situations.