Six Short Days.....

For three weeks I stayed on baby watch. Scarlett was getting bigger and bigger. I had thought for sure she would have her foal on Memorial Day weekend, but she fooled us. 

 I was nervous and excited all at the same time!

Then out of the blue on Saturday, June 6th, 2015 I went to sit on the back porch

at 10 AM.  I looked up and noticed that Scarlett was doing some odd stretching. 

After the 4th stretch, she laid down and started to push. 

NO OTHER SIGNS BEFORE THAT!

NONE!

ZIP!

She even continued to eat right up to that point!

I read all I could read about foals. But I did not read enough!

This was the first time for me, and it was also the first time for Scarlett. 

I did not know that there was a colostrum substitute you could give your foal within the first 6 hrs. 

I thought Skittles had gotten enough.

Apparently not.

 Although I have a lot of pictures of her nursing in the first few hours.

I really don't think she nursed enough!

She would take a few sips and then put her head down and "chew" her milk!

SERIOUSLY???? it is liquid! But I thought maybe this was just her.

One thing that has really bothered me:

(ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR GUT INSTINCTS!)

Is that when Scarlett stood up, Skittles' umbilical cord did not break off. 

She drug it around for close to 15-20 minutes. 

Just as I was preparing to tie her cord off, it broke off as it should have done a lot earlier!

 This haunts me to this day. That she got infected with a ton of bacteria and then not getting enough colostrum from Scarlett, was the beginning of the end. 

She is a carbon copy of her daddy! A Mini Racer!

 She also had a blood shot eye too that also bothered me. 

Also her one eye if not both, appeared to be a bit cloudy from day one. 

 Her third day on this earth she got sick. 

 I just loved holding her in my lap! She was a lap pony that loved to be snuggled!

 She also slept a lot! I mean A LOT that second day!

 The third morning I woke up to this!

 Scared me to pieces!

 Dr. Barton and Jolin came out to the house. Took her temp, Drew some blood and told me to take her into the office. We were there by 8:30 AM! They put an IV line in her neck. Gave her an IV bag of fluids with some IgG meds that was to make up for the lack of colostrum she did not get.

 She got the WHOLE bottle of this stuff over the course of the first day and the following morning. 

 She seemed to be interested in a bit of hay. 

 She was my baby! My sweet heart! My lap Pony.

I prayed every night she would get better. 

 She even wormed her way into Rick's heart! 

He actually is the one that named her Skittles!

 She had odd sleeping positions.

 Her 6th Day on earth.  I got up for the morning and went to check on her. 

She was weak and listless.
I rushed her back up to the clinic.

 Dr. Sargent and Codi gave her another IV bag of fluid.

 I went home to pray!

At 12:23 PM I got a call to keep my original 1 PM appt, because the doctor wanted to talk with me. 

My heart sunk!

My gut wrenched!

My throat constricted!

At the clinic, They took me to an exam room, and Doc said that Skittles was not going to make it.

He had done a blood draw on her and her glucose did not even hardly register.

There was also something about her White blood cells, and other things that just barely even registered and/or was way off the charts.

I went out back to say goodbye. They called Rick and he came too. Parker was with me, and he got to say goodbye also. 

The tears flowed! My heart Broken! 

 At 1:35 PM I left the clinic and after that doc put Skittles to sleep. At 1:43PM as I crossed the Umatilla River bridge my heart ached bad and the tears just flowed. Skittles left for Rainbow bridge at that moment!

I wanted Scarlett to spend time without a lot of interruption, and they were kind enough to allow her a couple hrs.
At 4 PM We went up to get Skittles and Scarlett. 

We brought them home. I laid Skittles on the blanket. I would go check on her, and cover her up a little bit at a time, so that I did not alarm Scarlett.

At 6 PM I fed Scarlett her vitamins in a bit of oats. While she was eating, Rick removed Skittles.  Scarlett was not aware. She did not discover Skittles gone for another 1/2 hr. I saw that she was walking on the blanket sniffing. She then started to communicate with Racer. She eagerly wanted to go for a walk.

I believe she knew that Skittles was not here anymore. 

 I got the halter and fly mask I ordered for Skittles the next day in the mail!

 Beautiful Flowers from The Drs. and staff at the Vet Clinic!

Everyone at the Clinic worked hard for Skittles!

Everyone shed a tear too!

 A beautiful Fern from my Grandson Cody and his Mom, Angela.

 Skittle's Daddy!

This is Skittles' Daddy! 

He never got a chance to meet his daughter!

He would of been an awesome dad too!

There will be no more "Racer" baby's!

He was gelded to become a "nice" pony for the grand-kids.

Little did I know how all this would play out!

And all this time I was so worried about a "red bag" baby!

I won't breed Scarlett again. I can't go thru all this again!

I had a lot of plans for Skittles. 

She was going to earn her keep. If she had her moms demeanor and her dads personality she would of been the best pony ever!

Some articles I found on the internet later:

Foals and Bloody Poops

Sick Foals

I don't know for sure but I think in the first Article, Skittles had the

CLOSTRIDIUM ENTEROTOXEMIA.

It kind of fits with the scenario.

Then I come across a video like this:

Playing

And my heart breaks all over again!

Racer needs to step up and become the dad he never had the chance to become, and help pay off Skittles' debt!

:)

My heart aches every single day!

I know, Time heals, and my heart will heal, but I will always miss our little Skittles!