[Sanctuary] Foaling 101 - The Blessings of New Life

[Kavala]

Timestamp: 20th of Spring, 511 AV
Location: Sanctuary
Reason: Foaling Lessons
Status: Open To Sanctuary Staff

Foal watch had officially begun.

Kavala tried to keep all the breedings of her broodmares close together. Last year that had been impossible to do because she'd purchased them pregnant and had no control over when they'd been bred. This year, however, she'd waited until the last mare had foaled out at Sanctuary, and then had rebred all the other mares on that mare's foal heat. That way, at least the original crop she'd started with were all heavy with foal at the same time and about to foal all within a few days of each other.

And so it was she'd brought all the very pregnant ones out into the arena and were keeping them close. The other mares, heavy as well, were kept in the closest pasture. But Kavala felt Glow would foal any day so it was time to move her into a foaling stall rather than leave her in the arena. It was also time to gather the supplies they'd need and teach her staff what was required to successfully birth the mare.

So, gathering the troops, she held a mini class outside two stalls that were side by side. "First things first. Before we even talk about the mare and foal to come, we need to talk about whats required to foal out a mare. We want a large stall. Mares pace, get stressed, and then want to be able to stretch out. Thats why the stalls here have been designed so that the partitions between them can be removed to open them up to a double stall. To create a birthing stall, that's what we need to do." Kavala said, then Aweston demonstrated. It was a simple metal slot that long planks fit down into dividing out stalls. It was an easy set up for the groom to take a large crowbar and pry apart the first and second top section of boards. He slid the 4x6 out of the metal slot, and then began working on the next one. Soon enough a pile of wood sat outside the stall and where two stalls began only one large one remained.

"Now, bedding. We put in a thick layer of straw rather than wood shavings. Shavings are good for regular horses, but when a mother is birthing, we don't want her to push, get sawdust on her foal then when resting have part of the foal slip back in and carry dirt and debris up into her. Straw doesn't tend to do that. Before the sack breaks, you'll see how the foal tends to surge out, slip back in a bit, then surge out again before she finally manages to push it all the way out and break the sack. That's when the mare can get contaminated and its really hard to wash any sort of debris out of her birthing canal after shes foaled." Kavala said softly, explaining.

Then, together, the group started spreading straw in the giant stall.

Once that was done, Kavala wheeled out a tall table full of medical supplies that could sit just outside of the stall in preparation for the birth. She then ran down the list, giving out the supplies.

• Bottle and nipple – Sometimes the mare wont nurse and you have to milk her and bottle feed.
• Cotton – 2 rolls
• Small Bottle no lid – to fill with iodine and dip the umbilical in
• Foal Blanket – 1
• Foal Data Book – for recording the birth – time, date, ease, circumstances
• Iodine - For sterilizing the umbilical
• Obstetrical Chains – In case foal need to be pulled
• Pails – one for scrub and one for placenta
• Painease - medication for the mare if she rejects the foal due to her own pain
• Stethoscope – 1
• Soap and Washcloth – For washing mare and her udders
• Tail Wrap – multiple
• Towels – A large bundle
• Twine – To tie off umbilical if it breaks early.

They prepared two stalls thusly, sacrificing four to make two and placed the tray in between them. Then Kavala asked Riki to go bring in Glow and Jinibi who would be the first two, in her opinion, that foaled out. Once both mares were settled in stalls, Kavala would go over each of their conditions and start her 'class' off on what to watch for.

[Lakara]

Lakara approached the meeting place outside a couple of the Sanctuary's stalls, brimming with anticipation. She had seen foals before of course - she had raised her own Windrunner Xypher from one - but she had never seen an actual foaling. Soon, she would, and she would be helping out with it too, a bonus. She stood with the rest of the group facing Kavala as she began to speak. The Konti nodded as Kavala started to speak about equipment. She hadn't noticed that the partitions in the stalls could be removed, although she should have done given the amount of times she'd been in one. She watched as Aweston showed the group how the partitions were removed, leaving one roomy stall for a pregnant mare to roam in. She continued to listen along with the others as bedding was next explained. Wood shavings, she knew was the regular bedding as it was currently out in Xyphers stall. She made mental notes to never use it for a foaling mare as Kavala ran through what it could do to the mother. Once the talk was done, she grabbed a pitchfork and helped the others spread straw into the roomy stall. She gave it a sweeping glance to make sure that there was a nice, even covering before heading to stand back outside. Lakara gawped a tiny bit at the amount of equipment on the table Kavala presented to them. She didn't realise you needed quite so much for a single birth. She made yet another mental note to ask Kavala to borrow the list so that she could copy it into her journal for future reference. She took what supplies she was handed, and then set to work helping to set up the next stalls.

[Riki Stormheart]

Riki had been looking forward to this day for a while now. In Endrykas he had practiced a bit of foaling but not enough for him to work on it alone alone or call himself skilled at it. Kavala had announced a class in foaling for all who were interested. Riki of course jumped on the chance to help with the foaling. He would have been proud to help bring new life to the animals that his race lived to closely with. Of course, most of the horses at the Sanctuary were not Striders, he still felt a sense of electricity running through him as he heard Kavala speak of the foaling. Her words on the bedding were interesting and he made a mental note of what she said. "Straw, not sawdust or dirt." He wanted to process everthing he could although, there was a lot to learn. Over time he was sure it would get easier to learn. New things were always a little harder to get into. Once he got the swing of it he knew it would flow a bit better. Next he walked through the halls of the stalls looking over the horses. Kavala had wanted two mares for foaling to start out the season. "Glow and Jinibi." Riki quietly murmured their names to himself as he walked past stalls of many different horses. The first one his eyes fell on was Jinibi. She was a beautiful palamino Sungold. He approached her stall slowy with a smile. "Hello, Jinibi. Are you ready?" Riki was sure Jinibi did not know what she was "ready" for but he felt his own anxiety calm down when he talked to the animals. Sadie was not with him for the foaling. He trusted her completely but he did not want anything to spook her, making her run out and bother the horses. Jinibi stepped back a bit and shook her head. "Don't worry Jinibi. I won't hurt you. I have my own horse as well. Her name is Spring. She is a beautiful Strider." His green eyes looked at Jinibi softly. He hated to see the beautiful creature back away from him. Slowly she moved forward and Riki guided Jinibi out of her stall and then made his way to Glow. "Hello pretty girl. Time to head to the arena." He already missed Sadie but she would be fine playing with Savan in the gardens. She was a smart dog and he trusted her not to scamper away while she was playing. With both Jinibi and Glow following, Riki made his way back to the arena. With a wave he greeted Kavala, Lakara, and the other people gathered around the arena. "Okay, I got the mares. Jinibi was a little hesitant but I think it is just because I am a bit new here."

[Mizuriel]

OOCSorry, I failed to post for a bit, but I’m playing catch up now . Mizuriel did his best to remember what he was being told, but still felt as if it would be necessary to write it all down later. Unlike cleaning the stallions’ sheaths, this was a much more pleasant duty, but nevertheless a very responsible one. He followed what Aweston was doing with his eyes, trying to soak in the easiest way to make two stalls into one. Once Kavala suggested it was time to cover the floor in straw, they did so. Slowly but surely, the new, bigger stall was being filled with straw. The straw was spread out evenly across the floor, with everyone doing well. The cooperation between the people around him couldn’t stop reminding him of the classes he was enrolled in at the Zeltiva university. There were numerous differences, of course. Even while what Kavala was preparing them for was indeed a life and death situation, both the pace and the atmosphere were much more relaxed than what he was used to. He had seen a mare foaling before, but only once and from afar. So it was a given that he wanted to learn as much as he could, in the fastest possible manner. Samantha was loitering around his feet the entire time, trying to help, but what she was actually doing was crowding the space needlessly. Not wanting to lessen her good mood, he gestured her to “fix” the bedding in random areas. With Sam off to tend to the already well made bedding, he could move around more freely and finish his corner as well. Once they were done, Riki was sent to get the mares. Glow and Jinbi were soon standing in front of them. At least he thought that was what Kavala said they’re names were. He could not help but laugh as Samantha stopped before one of them, tilting her head left and right, almost as if she was inspecting them. She soon seemed like she lost interest in the mares, as she came to Mizuriel, hugging his leg. He was unsure what just happened, but he still crouched down to hug her. As soon as he did, the girl’s smile brightened up again, and she looked at the horses again, probably waiting for something to happen; just like everybody else.

[Kavala]

Kavala smiled, thanking Riki. Kavala took Glow and put her in one stall, then retrieving Jinibi from Riki, she put her in the other. Both mares were tied off to the iron rings in the stalls, not allowed to roam free so that the class could do their exam.

"Alright. It's obvious both mares are pregnant. What might be less obvious is that in contrast to the other mares in the herd, these mares have 'dropped'. Look at their stomachs. See how their bellys appear sluffed? The other mares are carrying their foals high, but these foals have turned in the belly and are pointed down and out, ready to be born. If you can't tell this is happening by just looking, the mare will give other clues as well." Kavala said, talking about Glow first and gathering the group in her stall. The mare was not stressed out by being the center of attention. Instead, she seemed to like it.

"When a mare is getting ready to foal, her body will prepare for it. Check around her tail. See how it attaches to her body? The muscles around this area which are normally hard packed and strong suddenly go loose. They seem to loose all muscle control. Feel them... I can bring over another of the mares for contrast if you can't see it, but begin feeling her muscles. She's loose, flaccid, even her tail droops slightly. If shes' all relaxed in the rump in preparation for the foal to come, then shes close. The second thing you look for is her to 'bag up' in her udder. Most mares won't bag until a day or two, even twenty four hours, before the foal is ready to come." Kavala leaned over and began feeling around the mare's nipples and at her udder. It was swollen and as Kavala probed, the mare began leaking milk.

"She might leak or stream milk just before labor too. Glow is bagged up and ready. She'll most likely foal tonight or tomorrow sometime. We'll need to check her hourly tonight and tomorrow and look for the signs she's going into labor." Kavala said, then moved outside to pick up her record book.

"Record keeping is essential. We want to know exactly how many days its been since the mare was covered by the stallion. The dates of each stallion cover should be recorded as well as the foaling date, length of gestation, sex of the foal, and any complications that may have occurred. Signs of nearing parturition and any peculiarities should also be noted because mares tend to show the same signs over and over. Some won't bag up until the foal is on the ground. Some will bag up ten days before. Each mare is different. When we keep files on them, we get to know them and don't have to reply on memory from year to year. The mare's average length of gestation is 340 days, but it can actually be anywhere from 320 to 365 days. Several factors can play a part in altering the length of gestation: time of year, condition of the mare, sex of foal, etc. Mares in poor condition may run longer. Mares in really good shape or that have foaled before maybe sooner. First time mother are all over the board in terms of dates. Also the time of year the mare conceived will dictate the length to some extent. Mares bred earlier in the year tend to carry longer while the long daylight hours and warm climatic conditions of late spring foals shorten the pregnancy. Some people even claim colts gestate longer, upwards of two to seven days." Kavala said, knowing she was giving them a lot of information.

"Since my broodmare band is new, I don't have a lot of information on all these girls. Usually we just have one year or less. Five years down the line, we'll know Glow through and through." Kavala said, then lead them to Jinibi's stall. She'd let them go over Jinibi themselves and give her their impressions on how the mare looked.

"Okay, let me know what you think of Jinibi?" Kavala said. She knew the mare's back end was completely relaxed and ready, telling her foaling would come any day, but the mare hadn't bagged up and while her foal had dropped, it wasn't carried as low in her womb as Glow's was.

[Mizuriel]

OOCSorry, I failed to post for a bit, but I’m playing catch up now. Also, I will trade places with Lakara in any group threads both of us are involved with. I think this is the best way to skip waiting periods, but if anyone disagrees, I will temporarily remove my post(s). When Kavala started explaining how to differ pregnant mares from the ones with empty wombs, Mizuriel his right temple lobe wondering if he would be able to remember everything in due time. He shrugged slowly, realizing that he could always ask Lakara to borrow him her notes. For the time being, it was easy enough to understand; the ones with bigger stomachs were carrying a foal, but what the man didn’t know however, was dropping of the mare’s belly. Making a mental note out of it, he wondered just how good it would feel to actually be able to say “I know all that”. Constant relaxation of muscles that were tense at all other times was accompanied by the complete loss of muscle control. It wasn’t an easy task to bear children he knew it to be true with people, so he doubted the mares would have it any easier. When Kavala mentioned flaccid muscles and slightly dropped tails, he wondered if he would even be able to tell a dropped tail apart from an elevated one; well sure he would, but would it take him an entire day of examining horse rears? That was the real question that bothered him at the moment. When Kavala suggested there is another (easier) way to tell if the foal will come soon, he felt as if a stone fell from his heart, but with his luck it was bound to get to his kidneys. So if a mare leaks milk when probed in the udder, it meant she was soon to be a mother. As soon as the Konti mentioned the time irregularities that tended to happen with the mares ‘bagging up’, he repeated it to himself in a silent voice, just to be sure. When the man had heard about how soon the foaling was bound to happen, he could feel tingling of excitement in his blood. The mare was going to give birth, and if Kavala is alright with it he will be able to help the process. He knew that the records were important even before she mentioned it, they used to keep track of them back at the University. Some were for the billing, and some for patient history. Patient history wasn’t really a spread out practice, and was generally administered only among the wealthier and more influential tiers of society. While Mizuriel never had the chance to work with anyone like that, he was often doing the records for other, more skilled doctors. When the woman finished, he knew what they needed to do next. It was time to actually put all that theory into practice, and while it did sound simple enough it still made him nervous about possible mistakes. Taking small steps towards Jinibi, he reached out his hand, trying to feel out the mare’s back side. Once his hand had reached its goal, he tried to block out any insecurities he might have had up until that point. After all, human patients hated insecure doctors who looked like they didn’t know what they were supposed to do; he suspected animals were the same even if they could not speak about it. The muscles were completely relaxed, so after gazing at the tail which seemed to drop down a bit, he was certain it was soon, but just how soon? Kneeling down, he looked at the udder, poking it just to make sure what he already knew… it did not swell up. The mares belly seemed to be dropped down, but he could not be sure, he did not have much experience with horses. Finally, after looking at all signs he could think of, he asked in a subtle tone: “A week perhaps?” he shrugged as he spoke, wishing he knew more about animals.

[Riki Stormheart]

With a small nod Riki joined the rest of the waiting breeders, or hopeful breeders. Kavala spoke quite extensively about the workings of pregnant mares. It was a lot to take in for his first time out but he tried to absorb it all as well as he could. He knew tiny bits of she was talking about from following around the older breeders and healers in Endrykas. It was clear to see that Kavala knew much more about the birthing of horses. As she talked Riki tried to compare the signs of pregnancy in horses to the signs with dogs. They were much different, although that much was to be expected. He knew it would be a hands on job, even if it meant feeling around the backside of a horse. He had already had to do the more uncomfortable parts of the horse breeding on the males. If he could bear through that he knew that, he could get through the birthing. He had helped Flower give birth and at least that was something to go on. When Kavala asked about the state of Jinibi Riki walked over to her side, much like Mizuriel had done. The first thing he checked was her hindquarters. He walked slowly to her side and ran his hand over her back. "Hello Jinibi. I am going to just check on your behind for a moment. Don't get scared okay?" He rubbed her back gently before moving onto her lower end. "Riki, it is not as bad as the preparation for stallion breeding. Keep that in mind." He lightly placed his hand on her behind feeling that is was loose. He had not spent a great amount of time around Spring, his own horse's backend but he was sure the muscles were quite loose. "Her muscles in her back end seem relaxed. That means the foaling should come soon." He seemed to be speaking both to himself and Kavala as he addressed the state of the mare. Next Riki moved to Jinibi's midsection, moving his hand across her side. "Thank you for being calm Jinibi. I promise I am almost done." He looked down at her belly and let his fingers graze across her pelt. "She has not seemed to have bagged up yet but her foal has dropped. From what you have told us, we should prepare for the foaling soon." Riki hoped he had done everything right. He was a bit nervous but this was his first lesson.

[Kavala]

Kavala was proud of them both. She was about to correct Mizuriel though, when Riki spoke up. Riki had a sharp sense of not just getting the detail but understanding the whole picture. "Correct. She's not bagged up so we don't have that clue, but then again remember I told you both some don't until the foal is laying on the ground beside the mares. The fact that the foal dropped means simply that it will be soon. Tonight or tomorrow, I suspect. A week would be too long Mizuriel, but it was a good guess." She said and then double checked to make sure both mares were comfortable and set in stalls. "She's flaccid in the rear end which means shes ready, and shes pacing the arena which means shes rested. I think we are going to have our hands full tonight on foal watch and probably have two brand new babies tomorrow."

Kavala continued. "So, we have our foal kit ready... with more than enough supplies to handle two mares. We have the mares side by side for ease of watching. We'll need to check them throughout the night every fifteen minutes. We'll do watches of three hours so everyone doesn't miss too much sleep. And ... just think. This is the first two of the herd of more than thirty we have pregnant. We're lucky to get just two together instead of five or six. Who wants what watch and who knows what the signs are that others need to be waken up? Do I need to refresh your memories or can you recite the signs of immediate foaling to me?" Kavala asked.

Then, like any good teacher, just to be sure, she did.

• Pacing the stall.
• Getting up and laying down.
• Profuse sweating
• Biting at sides
• Visible contractions
• Out-of-Normal sounds like moaning and snorting.
• Stomping of hooves.

Kavala smiled. "Now, who wants what watch?" She asked pleasantly.

[Mizuriel]

OOCI’m sorry for the wait. Mizuriel felt really bad about being wrong. Even if he was new to the whole animal husbandry concept, he was still a doctor of some sort and doctors hardly ever had right to make mistakes. Kavala went on, talking about the details of his mistake. He wasn’t really in a talkative mood so he just nodded when she pointed out the obvious to him. When two of them were required to repeat what Kavala had just shown them, Mizuriel would remain in silence; figuring it was better to hear it all again. After all, he was already wrong once so being extra careful couldn’t do much harm. Then the Konti spoke of dividing the watches so all would be well rested when foaling came to take place. Still, there was a question of who would take what watch and he felt obliged to be the first. “I would like to go first!” he spoke a bit too loud, hiding excitement wasn’t his strong side.

[Lakara]

Lakara had been carefully observing both mares while the Kavala instructed them on the various signs to look for. She could see that both mares were 'dropped' and while she didn't step closer, she was silently submitting every word that left Kavala's mouth to memory. She knew some of the very basic things already - her own horse had been bred by her family back in Mura. When it was Riki's turn to inspect Jinibi, Kara stepped quietly behind him. She could see that the mare's tail was drooped a little, which she took to mean the muscles had indeed relaxed. Her guess for the foaling date would have been a day or two, and while she was a little out she wasn't too far off Kavala's guess which was no doubt spot on. As Kavala ran through the foaling signs again, she opened the journal that she was holding and scribbled down a list. She hoped that she wouldn't need to check it, but at least the information was there. If need be, they could also use it to record the details from the births. She smiled at the obvious excitement from Mizuriel before speaking. "I don't mind which watch I get. If Riki would like to take the second, that's fine with me." ooc : I hope it's okay for me to jump back in here. This was one thread I really wanted to do. If it's too far along I can just delete this for you guys. Plus, excuse the rubbish post.