Day 13- Camel Joe

    After the birth of baby number three last night, we jokingly called him Camel Joe as he had a great big dome shaped head making him irresistibly handsome. Unfortunately, after examining the placenta this morning we discovered there was some bad news on the horizon. The placenta was not in good shape and could have had an infection while housing the fetus, which can lead to a lack of blood flow and therefor oxygen to the fetus while in utero. This condition can lead to the birth of a "dummy" foal otherwise known as Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopthy. Basically this means that the lack of oxygen (hypoxemia) leads to lack of brain development. One of the many signs of this disease is a dome shaped head, very similar to our little baby number three, Joe. There are many levels of severity for the disease depending on the severity of the placentitis (infection of the placenta). This disease although treatable to a degree can be a grueling process of treating seizures and infusing nutrients as the foals usually loose maternal recognition and suckle reflex, and is most often a terminal disease. Fortunately for our little Joe he is getting plenty of nutrients as we checked his level of antibodies tonight and they were high! High antibody levels can only be obtained from the consumption of colostrum (mothers first milk), so his test results tell us he has consumed plenty of colostrum, this is a great indicator for Joe's survival! So we are watching him very closely as sometimes this condition can take 72 hours to progress and we are treating him for any complications as they arise. For now little Joe is comfortable in the foaling barn and proving that he is a fighter! He is very vocal and lets us know often that he isn't giving up just yet! Today he needed an enema and let us know he wasn't too happy about it!