Twins Update - Cam Trouble or Not?

[risingrainbow]

I got a phone call late last night telling me Surprise was in trouble (no pun intended) Her blanket was up over her head and they appeared to be struggling.

I put on coat, boots, hat, etc and headed out in the ice and snow running as fast as I could safely and not wind up on my your know what in the ice. I arrived to find them both fine but Surprise;s blanket was definitely pooched up on her back in an odd position. I checked them both over for injuries, adjusted Surprise's leg straps and came back into the house feeling a bit confused.

So I decided to watch them on the cam for a while to see if I could figure out what the problem might be. Trouble, who else could it be, but Trouble. The little varmit is chasing his sister around the stall mounting her. Don't know if she's in heat but he sure is! So guess I will be separating them soon.

As soon as I can get Dave to repair that outside wall and put up a partition, I'm going to move Trouble out and put Gypcy on the other side of the wall to introduce her to Surprise. I don't have enough stalls right now so will need to buddy Surprise up with Gypcy once they are acquainted. When I do that I will wean the two other fillies and put them into the one that will be created with the partition.

Surprise will probably do fine, but Trouble is a huge baby and won't like being by himself in a stall much. I will put him next to Suede so the two colts can get acquainted. But I expect Trouble will do so crying.

As soon as I get done with the series on Natural Horsemanship and Harvey Jacobs that I am doing on my blog, I'm going to do a series on the twins and their first traumatic three months. So you twins fans might want to keep watch.risingrainbow.blogspot.com/

[redmustangwoman1]

Aw MiKael! ROFL that Trouble now,lol...How about that! Well I knew the day would be comming tho but didn't think that soon for him doing that yet but Im still learning and I have learnt so much and I know someday I will have a farm and horses I know it...Ill check your blog out too.Give them a big big hug from Auntie Judy ok,lol.Ya gota get some earplugs too for yourself cause I bet Trouble will cry..HUGS

[cheri]

I apologize for the late hour that I called. I was on my way to bed at 1 am here and I said to myself I'll check in on those two. With the excitement of the foaling what better way to clear my head then to watch them snooze or munch hay for a few minutes.
I'm sorry that I alarmed you Mikael. It looked like they were having a hard time, until I got off the phone with you and Surprise heard you coming. I thought he just undid the strap and one of them got hooked in the loose strap. That's when she picked her head up and Trouble moved away and took a nip at her flank. He looked like he was felling pretty fresh, after you left the stall he aimed a few nips her way.

[risingrainbow]

No problem, Cheri, I was glad that you called. Doesn't matter to me about time. If they need help, they need help. The little monster terrorizing his sister like that.... I sent you a PM.

What a day. It's still really cold and icy. We're hauling warm water to all the horses and it makes for a long day. We have a least two more days before it starts to warm up. But there's been no new snow so I think tomorrow, I'm going to try and get the twins out in the snow to take some pictures. I have one field I think they'll be OK in. I sure hope it will work. I can't wait to see them in the snow. Echo and Rhapsody got out in it for a little bit on Thursday (before it got so frozen) and they were sure funny. They didn't know what to think of that white stuff. Funny.

[cheri]

LOL! Did you get any pics of Echo and Rhapsody? I'm glad it's going to warm up a little for you. Here, it's been rain, freeze, rain, etc. Only an inch of snow all winter. I have a bad feeling that we're going to up to our necks in snow come Feb or March, well my neck anyway.
Replied to your pm Mikael.

[risingrainbow]

The twins cam is down and I need to get with Heather about getting it back up. In the meantime, just thought I'd let you all know they are doing fine. We have another storm moving in and expecting more snow. I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of blogging because it sure looks like the weather isn't giong to co-operte so I can work with horses.

[risingrainbow]

The twins cam has been back up and down again. Hopefully it's fixed this time.

I've started telling the twins' story on my blog risingrainbow.blogspot.com/ I put the first installment up today and will be adding one daily for however long it takes to get the first week of their life up, then will take a break to write about another topic before I continue on into the second crisis. Will do one crisis at a time until I get their story told. So if you'd like to know the specifics of what it took to save them, you can find that on the blog.

In the meantime, Trouble has been getting studdier every day. While it's a pain to deal with, I'm glad to see it. He's finally acting like a normal colt. It's taken a long time for him to recover from being a dummy foal and his traumatic birth.

[redmustangwoman1]

Hi!!!! I can't wait to see them again once the cam gets up and running...I love reading your blog!!!! Give them tons of HUGS from me ok...He and Surprise are doing so sooooo good...WOOHOO!!!!

[Carol the Night Owl]

Just read your blog about the twins' birth - what a stressful time that was for you. I remember reading about the twins last year, but I didn't keep up with their story as much as a lot of people did.
I'm so glad to know that they're doing well.

[bndranch]

I think it is just amazing to see that your mare carried twins full term and a maiden mare at that! I was just curious as to if you had had the mare ultra-sounded or palpated after you had her bred? I ask this because a good friend of mine bred her mare and had her mare ultra-sounded at the right time, she was confirmed in foal WITHOUT twins. In her 7th month of prenancy she aborted twin fillies. Turns out the vet only checked in one horn of the uterus instead of both. Needless to say the vet compensated her for her loss. Unfortunately the mare did not expel the placenta fully and was confirmed with lamnitis a short while later. Needless to say they then lost the mare about a year later. I am scared to death of having a mare with twins. My mare was absolutely huge this year but we ultra-sounded her 3 times better only be one in there LOL.
Thank you for all your posts. I read them religously every day!
Take care,
Brittany

[rayna]

Is your cam up on the twins? it tells me that there is an unspecified error. Just wondering if its mine. Nerver had a cam tell me that befor. But from the pics that I have looked at they are sooo cute.

Thank you,
Rayna

[bndranch]

I keep trying too but I can never get their cam up either but there are a couple farms like that so I just thought it was my computer. I too get that error.

[risingrainbow]

Sorry, I haven't been paying attention to the camera. It was down but I have it up now. If you're still having problems, please let me know.

I had an accident on Tuesday and the pain meds have me a little out of it. I've been doing all I can just to keep the blog on the twins going along as scheduled, I forgot to do my daily checks on the cam. It's a good thing I had most of the blog written already. I just had to proof it and post it, or it would probably be a little goofy sounding. risingrainbow.blogspot.com/ I'm posting part number 5 on the twins this afternoon.

Brittany, I did not ultrasound this mare. I thought the mare was open BUT I probably would not have ultrasounded her to check for twins.
I do, like you, know people who have done the ultrasound and still had twins. The case here, the follicles were in the same horn but evidently right on top of each other.

I used to ultrasound my mares all the time. I have had maybe 4 sets of twins pinched off over the years and have never retained a pregnancy that had a twin pinched off. The last time I had a mare that settled twins, they were too close to pinch of. The mare did not absord one by 25 or 30th day, I forget which is the critical date. So we gave her drugs to cause her to abort. The vet gave the shot and left and shortly after his departure my mare had a severe reaction. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she convulsed for over two hours. I couldn't get the vet back out and I nearly lost my mare.

In addition to the reaction, she didn't shed all of the matter from her uterus and we had severe complications there., which thankfully did not result in founder. but I did have a very sick unbreedable mare.

After that I did a lot of research on twins trying to figure out what was best for my mares instead of just assuming that the vet is always right. I talked to many long time breeders, studies the statistics etc and decided the risks on the one side didn't really outweight the risks on the other. The odds are over 1 in a million that twins even make it to the 9 month mark.

I have not ultrasounded my mares since this incident. As for what I'm going to do now. I don't know, for sure, maybe quit breeding. It breaks my heart to see any of my horses life in jeopardy and it seems like I'm danged if I do and I'm danged if I don't. I'm at a loss as to what I should do. I can tell you even when Vee was in labor and I knew we were in trouble, while it was territying it was not a terrirying as watching Aana with her eyes rolled back in her head and her body twitching out of control and the pleeding look she had on her face for me to help her and I was absolutely powerless to do anything but stay with her until it was over.

[bndranch]

I totally understand what you are saying. I hope you didn't take it as I was being intrusive or rude, I was just curious as all. My main reasoning for the ultra-sounding so many times of my mare this year was the fact she had placentitis with her previous foal and we wanted to make sure we weren't dealing with that again.
You and your mare are absolutely amazing in my book to have pulled it off!
Thank you and I'm heading to read your blog as I do every day!!!
Brittany

[risingrainbow]

Don/t worry, I didn't take it that you were being critical or rude or anything like that. But it was a hard question to answer because I know there are those people out there who will condem me for my decision.

But I believe we all have to live our lives doing what we believe is the right thing to do, not by what other people think is right.

I answered the question because I believe it's easier to make these decisions when we have as much information as possible from as many perspectives as possible. I never knew before I experienced it with Aana that a mare could have that kind of reaction to those drugs. What I found out since then is that mares have that kind of reaction more often than they have twins. So at least now, I can make an informed decision.

I'm glad that you like my blog. I didn't realize how much emotion I still had tied up in the events of last year until I started writing about them. So I guess writing the blog is a cheap form of therapy!