Silas day 15, Pt II

OK folks, your latest update ...

The vet has just been. We ringed his umbilical stump so no more pee is going to be coming out of there in a hurry! He had his hock and stifle drained of fluid and some fluid taken for examination and I have made a rather abortive attempt at bandaging the hock. He had a big intravenous shot of oxytetracyline for his contracted tendons and John will be back tomorrow and Wednesday to give him some more. Last up, I gave him his 'happy jab' (anti inflammatories). His temperature is sitting at 39.1 now. He drank 1 litre milk afterwards and ate some foal feed. Oh and he did a big semi-soft poo so the double dose of laxative we gave him for lunch must've actually had an effect. We'll up his laxatives from now on and see how we go. The milk concentration must be ok as he is still relatively hungry for each feed but not starving. We MAY weaken the mixture even more but need to wait until he is more active just in case the sedentary nature of his current existence is having the greatest influence on his bowel movements.

John looked at Minty but Minty did not want to be caught (BAD Minty) so he will examine him more closely tomorrow. He said it was probably a hernia and the bigger the tear often the better so we may well not have to have him put to sleep after all - finger's, toes, eyes, ears, hooves and paws crossed here!!

Silas day 15, Pt I

Temp 39.8, constipation evident, will not stand to feed, waiting for vet.

A new baby and Silas Day 14

Good news - Rosie foaled this morning, at the most respectable hour of 8.15am! I stepped out of the house, picked up a gumboot, hurled it at the pesky chook trying to break into my horse feed and the foaling alarm went off. For a brief moment my brain tried to correlate the two incidents until sense kicked in and I realised that Rosie must be setting it off. I popped my head around the side of the house and, sure enough, there she was having her baby. Delivery was pretty quick and baby was up and feeding within about 15 minutes - astonishing! This evening she appears to be a little constipated (never had a constipated foal before and this season I get two!), so she has had about 60ml of soapy water and some moderate success but I am not as happy as I would like so will be keeping a very close eye on her. She's a dear little foal, lovely markings and colour. Very pleased to have her here, safe and sound.

Silas continues to worry us. The tendons on his forelegs have begun to contract and he is now starting to knuckle over. Ugh! But, his temperature has been good today - under 39 since last night. This is something of a breakthrough however, his hock is still the size of a football and his stifle swollen to about twice its size too. He had an 'old man' day today too. I just don't know. He is getting massive amounts of pharmaceutical and physical assistance yet he continues to develop more problems. It's doing my head in to be honest. I thought we may have had a breakthrough with the constipation yesterday after changing the milk but he seems to be bunged up again. I'm at a loss. We've tried to cut his feeds back to three hourly but he's just not drinking enough so, we're going back to two hourly feeds. We're all shattered.