Big belly update

And this time I am not talking about mine. We already did that, didn't we?

This is Miss Melody. She is due on March 14, but last year she was a tricker and went two weeks early. If she does that again this year, she will spit forth her spawn this weekend. Of course, since I am expecting that, she will do no such thing. I am trying to trick her to hang on til it is a little warmer around here. I stopped over to feed her and check all the soon-to-be mamas this afternoon, and while she is not bagged up far enough for me to think she is going to foal soon, she is uncomfortable, so who knows.

I won't be finding out if something happens via the living room though as Barry did not get the foalcam set up yet and he is leaving in the morning. Nor did he get the horse trailer moved over there--for the first time ever, I am looking forward to staying there on the nights when I am watching multiple mares, because I will get to stay in the new fancy horse trailer!~

But it aint there yet, so that is not going to happen either. He swears he will do it this weekend---

That is a lot of karma running into each other for one situation, isnt it? Me sick and unable to be at the top of my game, Mel not showing signs, so not stalled, foalcam not up anyway, trailer not there for me to be on standby, but Barry leaving town for three days.....that ought to make the universe work extra hard to get things lined out.
Big Xan is due at the same time as Mel. She too went early last year--12 or 13 days, I cannot remember which. I am watching her ass too--but she is not even starting to bag up. I am not having her slide by me this year like she did last year though, no sirree Bob.

If those two trickers are not enough, Hotrod is also due at the same time as them! Sly was wearing himself flat out on these girls last year, knocking up four of them in the space of 24 hours (and no, he did not breed all four of them the same day--but they managed to ovulate within 24 hours of each other or so--I could not make that happen had I tried to).

These top three mares are my biggest girls size wise--and not just height, but girth as well. They are all also about the same age, and I know what to expect from them when they deliver. Absent any mal-positioned foal or other unforeseen complications, I do not worry about them very much. I do want to be there for them though, as I have seen so many births that it has become normal for me to see them rather than abnormal. I know how wonderful it is, and now that I have the good camera, I want to be on top of things.


This one gives me some pause. Baby Cash--I guess we should stop calling her that now that she is about to become a mother--is due on March 13. Since she is a maiden, there is no telling when she will go. And while I say she is "due" then, there is really no such thing as a due date for mares--let that be todays horse trivia. They are considered full term after 32o days, and normal terms are from then until 360. It is habit for me to fix their due date at 340 days, which is what a lot of people do, and to expect a baby around that time. Some never do that, for example Playmate who always foaled at 326 days even if she had to back up to you and birth it in your lap to get it done on time. She was like magic. Other horses are not so reliable, although many will make a pattern of going around a certain number of days. With mares who have never foaled, though, it is a crap shoot.

Cash conceived on April 8 last year. That is how I picked March 13 for her day. However, we have passed the 320 day mark, so if she foals anytime, it will likely be okay for the baby as far as being developed enough--some just do not have to cook as long as others. She is started to bag up, which is cute on her, since she is such a roly poly.

I wonder if she knows what is going on? Is she scared? Or excited? Last year, she stole Gypsy's baby from her right after it was born (another surprise a couple of days early with no warning), and was trying to take care of it--so I hope that carries over to her own baby. Horses are so weird, a maiden can do any fool thing like not have any interest in the baby, or hate it or be scared of it, or try to hurt it--so I dont want to miss this one under any circumstances. I have only had that happen once in all these years and that was one of our first babies, and I pray to God it never happens again, as we had to put the little baby down. I hate that.

On to other medical matters of interest besides the birthing of babies, Tequila is making it het job to lick herself into a bald oozing sore. She currently has these nice two lick granulomas or hot spots she is working on like it is her damn job. They are not nice. They ooze. I am not a fan of that. So she is back on prednisone and an abx for any infection it allows in. The pred makes her pee, which makes me glad I dont have the kind of illness that makes me queasy for sure.

She is a piece of work, but her back end was working pretty good today--enough that I saw her playing with Ratty boy and peeg today
Then I have the eye injury of unknown origin in Aries. She has somehow caused her right eye to swell shut--the lower lid is swollen pretty good, and it is almost all the way shut. She started eye with an ulcer treatment yesterday, just in case, but that takes a while. Eye injuries are weird. A little bute got the swelling down some tonight, enough that she fought the eye meds due to pain. Poor girl, I hate that for her. She is due in April, and I hate using a bute on one that close but it is not good to let her hurt either, so maybe a couple days of that will help her out.

I love that horse.
Yeah this is a pic of nothing--one that I focused on funny when trying to take shots of babies that will not get out of my way--it kind of turned out a little artsy though with the focus in the background rather than the fore.

I think my fever is making me loopy.