Another Horse Day

Another busy day. Kennels first - not too many dogs. Then it was slow for a while. We had a couple of horses come in - one to ultrasound for heat. When you use artificial insemination (very, very common in horses) you need to know exactly when the mare is ready for sperm. Sometimes we A.I. mares here with semen shipped in from a stallion that lives, maybe, in another state. Other times we are the ones collecting the semen and shipping it out. It's all very complicated and not very many vets do this. Anyway...the stallion's owner has been called, the semen will arrive tomorrow and the mare will return tomorrow for A.I. The other mare, same owner, was supposed to have her hocks (on her legs)  injected (joints lubricated...) but Tom decided to let his son Scott do it tomorrow in Waseca.
Tom had another horse surgery to do instead. This time it was a newborn draft horse foal that was born with a strangulated umbilical hernia. This is where the intestines bulge through the abdominal wall. The foal was born about 3:00 a.m. and this surgery was the only thing that could save his life, before the intestines actually fall out! I got to see a little of the surgery but it was quite extensive. Here's this baby laying on a mattress with two doctors working on him, intestines all outside his body while the hole gets sewed up. On top of that the testicles were also up inside the abdominal wall. Tom was able to castrate him too but this was very unusual to find. Tom, who's been a veterinarian for about 40 years (!) has only done about 12 of this type of hernia surgery so it was kind of exciting. Also quite amazing to see this surgery and think that this baby can
actually survive this...

An example of a wall hernia. I don't know if our foal looked like this before surgery.

Right now the baby weighs about 150#, actually not too big for a draft horse. Here's a picture of an adult Percheron which is what our little baby hopefully will grow up to look like!



Tom asked me to help get the foal up when he woke up. I had the halter and head and Tom held the tail up. It's a common way to control foals. He was quite wobbly at first but gradually we were able to release him. An hour later I stopped in to check him and boy was he hungry! Remember he was born that morning and needed to be nursing. I stepped inside the stall and he started following me and nuzzling me all over.It was a very good sign that he was up and hungry!

Little Guy and Lori

As you can see, the halter is just a little too big! This baby is all legs which you can't see in this picture so I have to include another photo....

Little Guy swishing his tiny tail

New, newborn foals are not the cutest things. They're very ribby and need a few good meals to fill out some. But just imagine this baby is only 10 hours old! How did it fit inside Mommy with those long legs? Nature can just be incredible. Good luck baby!
Tomorrow is shaping up to be an extremely tough day. I have two surgeries - a neuter and a dental. But the dental dog has a crazy person for an owner and  that is what will make it challenging. One of our absolutely most difficult clients. The neuter hopefully will go well - a 7# chihuahua. I hope he'll let me get him out tomorrow morning - those small dogs are often fear aggressive...and quick! We'll see how it goes. We also have to take off his dewclaws. That actually is amputation of dewclaws and involves a tourniquet to slow the blood supply to the foot. We do quite a few but I feel sorry for the little guy. He's going to be in a lot of pain for a number of days...

Cubby waiting for his big day tomorrow!