Page 168 - Speedhorse, February 2019

“One of the more important causes can be bacterial or viral infections affecting the placenta, which is called placentitis, but often we simply don’t know the cause and we may not ever figure it out. Something has triggered all of the placenta to release at once too quickly.”
was born with a red bag delivery. People might bring the foal here for us to monitor to make sure everything is normal and going correctly, or the foal is already showing some of the classic clinical signs of dummy foal syndrome,” says Schroeder.
VIGILANCE IS CRUCIAL
“We may not know what caused the problem, whether it was exposure, lack of appropriate vaccinations, or previous history, but we try to educate people about what to
do if they see a red bag delivery. It’s not a sit and wait situation. If you see this dark red bag starting to show at the vulva, it’s time to act, now,” Schroeder explains. “Not much of it has to be out for you to be able to make a small cut in it because after you get that cut started, you can tear it.
“Once you do that, Mother Nature can pretty much take over, but if I was the person opening up that placenta, I would probably go ahead and actively help pull that foal on out, rather than just stand there and wait.” he says.
A red bag delivery is a huge problem when it happens, but fortunately it doesn’t happen very often. “It usually results in a dead foal unless someone is right there to deal with it. All too often, people find the newborn foal dead, still encased in that red bag because he was unable to get through. In a red bag situation, the foal is at an extreme disadvantage.”
On big breeding farms, there are gener-
ally people watching mares around the clock
in the foaling barns. “The typical schedule is to check the mares every 15 minutes or even more frequently, and some barns have cameras/ videos, or foaling alert systems to signal the
beginning of stage two labor. If it’s a valuable mare or a high-risk case, they may pay someone to sit there and watch that mare, or take shifts,” says Schroeder.
“They try to give every mare every possibility of a positive outcome. A red bag emergency may not be as frequent as some of the other major prob- lems, but can be a serious issue,” he says. A red bag foaling is a very random event, but the more mares a person is foaling out, the more likelihood that it might, at some time, be encountered.
“Once you see it, you never forget it. This is a traumatic emergency, and the farm personnel are the only ones who will be able to save the foal. They are probably the only people who would be able to do something in time, unless the veterinarian is already there on the farm, and hopefully in that foaling barn. On a big horse farm, the vet may be clear over on the other side of the farm, so the farm employees may still be the ones that have to try to save the foal,” he says.
There is usually a foaling kit in each barn, containing things that might be needed for many kinds of emergencies and the scissors could be useful for a red bag emergency. If you are in the stall with the mare when it happens and there isn’t time to run to the foaling kit
a person could carefully use a pocketknife or anything sharp to get a hole through the pla- centa to get fingers into and to pull it apart.
“All my technicians here at the hospital
are trained to act fast. If they see this happen, they need to open up that red bag and call us afterward. Anyone watching a mare should be prepared for this possibility. It happens quickly, and if a person has to think about it or call a veterinarian, it is usually too late,” he says.
POST-FOALING
After a red bag delivery, you don’t have to do much for the mare. “She has already shed the placenta and cleaned out. There should
be no reason that she can’t carry more foals, unless there is something vastly wrong with the placenta and its attachments,” says Schroeder.
Thus, it pays to check that placenta. “This is something many owners forget about and I stress the importance of allowing the placenta to be tested and/or have a histopathology run, looking at it under a microscope. If there are large areas that are grossly abnormal, this is almost always a clue about the health of the uterus. If there are large scarred areas, maybe the uterus is not as healthy as it should be for carrying a foal. The placenta can provide a lot of information,” he says.
Since it should be checked quickly before it starts to deteriorate, it is important to get the placenta to a pathologist as soon as possible. “You can’t leave it lying out in the hot sun for several hours, drying out. Collect it and keep
it clean in a plastic trash bag to send immedi- ately. If the mare foaled at night, you can put it in the refrigerator until it can be sent the next morning,” says Schroeder.
“In areas of the country where there are many breeding farms, the labs are prepared to deal with these things during foaling season and are open seven days a week. Most veteri- narians who are doing reproductive work or new foal exams would be in tune with what to do and where to send it and what to ask for. In Kentucky and Ohio, for example the state diagnostic lab is well keyed-in regarding what to look for. There are people who specialize
in this, but any pathologist should be able to handle it.”
Fescue Problems
Fescue toxicity can indeed be a problem, but not it is easy to test for. “I can’t draw blood on the mare or foal to determine whether this might have been the situation. The main thing is gleaning information from the owner. Perhaps they reseeded the pas- ture and inadvertently planted fescue that wasn’t endophyte-free. Not all fescue is a problem. Thankfully, most of the seed compa- nies are now offering genetically altered fescue that is endophyte-free. The more common problem with endophyte-infected fescue is lack of milk production after foaling, rather than a red bag delivery, which is generally a bigger issue,” says Schroeder.
“Here in Ohio, out of 100 foals, we may have only one affected. In central Kentucky, it might be slightly more common. In the general population of foaling mares, the lack of milk is exponentially higher than a red bag delivery. If the owner believes there might be a problem at foaling due to fescue, they should at least have people watching that mare around the clock. Foal-watching can make a big difference on the ones we are worried about,” he says.
164 SPEEDHORSE, February 2019
EQUINE HEALTH