Two nights ago the Star Mare Hanneke (http://friesianlover.com/hanneke.html)
foaled prematurely. We discovered the dead filly around 10 a.m. yesterday
morning.

Hanneke was frantic. The filly had never stood up, the cord was never
broken. Crows had already picked out her baby's eyes. She may have been
stillborn or she may have just been too weak from being premature. It was
quite chilly for this time of year here, also.

The placenta was nowhere in sight, so Gloria assumed it had been eaten by
dogs, crows, buzzards or coyotes, but later in the day Hanneka started
passing it. Which meant it had been retained for at least 12 hours and
possibly as long as 18 hours. Well, anything over 2 hours is very dangerous
for the mare, so we started her on oxytocin while waiting for a vet to
arrive.

Just before dark she finally did pass the placenta but her temperature was
above normal. The vet did a uterine flush and gave her an antibiotic shot
and banamine IM. We are watching her closely for signs of distress. The next
three days or so are critical.

I  feel very bad for Hanneke because her last baby, Patrick (born on my
birthday [5/21] last year and named after me) only lived 4 weeks. Some of
you will recall seeing my post last June about Patrick's death.

There won't be a memorial web page for this filly, but you can still see
Patrick's page: http://equususa.com/Friesian-colt.html