Equine Breeding and Foaling Project: Romantic Sensation (Bertha)

Dylan Djani

April 23, 2013

AVS 455 Advanced Reproduction Management Dr. Jillian Fain, Lecturer Rebecca Shirley

I was part of a group of students assigned to the mare Romantic Sensation. On the farm, she simply goes by Bertha. Bertha’s Lineage: Sire: Son of a Roman Thoroughbred Producer of AQHA ROM in Halter and Performance (American Quarter Horse Association – Register of Merit) Dam: Rug Burn Thoroughbred Pedigree includes Northern Dancer Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse Considered most successful sire in racing history Inducted into Canada Sports Hall of Fame Pedigree includes Mr. Prospector Sire to US Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing Winners Bertha’s Breeding and Foaling History: 2010 Breeding Bred to Amber Pass – aka Stan Quarter Horse AQHA ROM – Hunter Under Saddle, Hunter Hack, and Working Hunter Nominated to AQHA Incentive Fund Expected Due Date: 4/10/11 2011 Foaling Milk strip test showed a 4 for two days prior to foaling Waxing up occurred the day prior to parturition. Parturition occurred on 4/11/11: CU Sensational Pass – aka Armani (M) Stage 2 – fetal expulsion – took 21 minutes Dystocia – foal pulled out by farm staff. Placenta passed in about 1 hour and 40 minutes Bertha immediately showed post-parturient cramps and a swollen vulva Bertha retained a small piece of placenta – given oxytocin and antibiotics Foal showed urination straining, lethargy, and milk coming out of nose Bertha and Armani were transferred to UGA CVM Internal Medicine Service Armani diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia Weight on 4/21/11 at UGA was 134 kg* Possibly due to mild foal maladjustment syndrome Treated with antibiotics Also treated for slight meconium impaction Bertha had fluid in uterus and developed mastitis Treated with oxytocin, antibiotics, and aspirin

2011 Breeding Bred to Time for Chocolate Quarter Horse ROM in Performance and World Show Qualifier AQHA Superior Western Pleasure and NSBA money earner Bred on 5/7/11 with 48 mm follicle on right ovary Ovulation confirmed on right ovary on 5/8/11 via ultrasonography 14d pregnancy check 5/23/11 shows CLs on both ovaries and no apparent vesicles via ultrasonography Pregnancy did not catch – Bertha was not rebred. 2012 Breeding Bred to Amber Pass (Stan) Bred on 3/14/12 with a 52 mm follicle on the right ovary Ovulation confirmed on right ovary on 3/16/12 via ultrasonography 15d pregnancy check (3/29/12) showed 15.5 mm vesicle 26d pregnancy check (4/9/12) showed fetal heartbeat 45d pregnancy check (4/30/12) showed normal pregnancy, accessory CLs 59d pregnancy check (5/14/12) showed strong fetal heartbeat Expected due date: 2/18/13 Bertha’s 2013 Sire: Bertha is being bred to Tillybo Casanova Welsh Mountain Pony Half-brother was 2010 Royal Welsh two-year old colt class winner Dam (Colliyers Cotton Socks) was 7th in 2010 Royal Welsh Barren mare class Reflection My experiences with Bertha throughout the foaling and breeding seasons in 2013 allowed me to appreciate the importance of proper management across all aspects of a breeding and foaling operation to ensure successful foaling and onset of subsequent pregnancy in a timely manner, while maintaining the health of all horses on the farm. A general knowledge of how breeding and foaling is supposed to flow, as well as a scientific and technical knowledge of equine reproduction and available on-site techniques, are both required to make proper management decisions. My hands-on experience helped develop my technical skills, while my discussions with the course professor and farm manager helped me connect the science behind reproduction with logical management decisions in a wide variety of situations. For example, I was able to observe changes in the mare associated with nearing parturition and strip Bertha’s teats regularly to perform and analyze milk strip tests. I also gained confidence in handling mares, stallions, and foals for teasing and ultrasound and being in close proximity with finicky pregnant mares. These hands-on skills will benefit me in the future as a veterinary medical student working with horses during my clinical rotations. Furthermore, management decisions such as

always breeding off of a 35 mm follicle, while knowingly taking into consideration the mare’s historical ovulatory size, makes sense in terms of science and practicality. The most relevant part of the foaling portion of the immersion occurred during Bertha’s parturition event. Problems were evident immediately after Bertha’s water broke and stage 2 parturition began. Instead of seeing the hooves of the foal tightly wrapped around by the amnion, what was observed was the amnion coming out with a water balloon appearance without the foal’s hooves, although red bagging was clearly not occurring. A halter was placed on Bertha, and palpation for fetal positioning was performed and determined to be correct, but the foal was pushed back deeper inside Bertha in order to ensure positioning was completely correct. Two veterinarians were called, and after twenty minutes no progression was made in terms of expelling the foal. The veterinarians did not arrive until after the foal was expelled. Throughout the process, Bertha stood back up and moved around quite a bit, and Bertha’s tail was wrapped up in preparation for expulsion of the fetus. The other students and I made room for Bertha to lay back down in an appropriate area of the stall to provide Bertha enough room to pass the foal. The decision was made to assist Bertha in expelling the foal due to the lack of progression of parturition, and I assisted Rebecca (farm manager) and other students in pulling the foal by the legs, wearing sterile gloves, in synchrony with Bertha’s contractions, so as not to damage Bertha’s reproductive tract. While assisting Bertha in expelling the foal, the foal broke through the placenta, clearly took its first gasp of air, and was breathing. The foal was finally completely expelled at 11:15 pm, meaning that stage 2 of parturition lasted three times the average/normal time; however, the foal was not breathing after expulsion and no heartbeat was palpated or heard upon auscultation. The veterinarians arrived about 15-20 minutes after the foal was completely expelled, and each pronounced the foal dead. Dr. Stafford of Stafford Equine Veterinary Services in Pendleton, SC, took Bertha’s case and designed a treatment plan for Bertha. Bertha was given 10 cc of Banamine for pain and 25 cc of the antibiotic Gentamicin to treat and prevent any potential infections. Bertha stood up at 12:00 am and examined the foal. She lightly pressed her hooves on the foal in an attempt to get the foal to stand, and Bertha clearly realized the foal had passed. Dr. Stafford also started Bertha on SMZs (sulfamethoxazole – 15 g) at 12:00 am to prevent post-parturient uterine infections. I used twine rope to tie up Bertha’s placenta to help in its passing and to prevent Bertha from stepping on it. The placenta was passed at 12:17 am, well within the ideal three-hour window following expulsion of the fetus. I brought the placenta from the stalls over to the lab area, where the hose and drain are located, and untied and completely spread out the placenta for examination. Gross examination by the veterinarian and me showed a fully intact placenta with no holes aside from where the fetus broke through. I filled the placenta with water to double check for any holes, which would be evident via leaking water, and the placenta was further documented as intact. The condition of the placenta showed bruising, but the overall color was good. I assisted in stripping Bertha’s teats for milk, which was indeed colostrum. The

specific gravity of the colostrum measured via a colostrometer was 6.9, meaning that the colostrum was of good quality. The decision was made to collect and bank Bertha’s colostrum, and I assisted the other students in collecting about 120 mL of the colostrum for the bank. Finally, the foal was removed from the stall, much to Bertha’s disliking, and weighed. The foal’s weight was 128 pounds, which is at minimum 28 pounds over the average weight range of newborn foals. Bertha’s foaling history describes dystocia with the first foal she carried to term back in 2011 after being bred to Stan, resulting in she and her foal taking a trip to UGA’s veterinary medical school for extensive care. She experienced dystocia again during the 2013 breeding season after being bred to the same sire; however, in this case no trip to UGA was warranted and the foal did not survive. Unlike back in 2011 Bertha’s stage 2 of parturition lasted much longer than normal, which could have contributed to the death of the foal due to constriction of the foal’s chest. With uterine contractions repeatedly squeezing the foal’s chest with limited progression, the foal’s thoracic cavity could have been compressed to the degree that the foal could no longer breathe. Even though the foal took initial breaths, the foal was exposed to such contractions for an extended period of time beyond normal. Even if the foal had survived or had been resuscitated, the foal would have likely experienced hypoxia during birth, resulting in dummy foal syndrome or possible severe mental retardation. Another contributing factor to the dystocia this year was the foal’s weight – 128 kg. At birth the foal was only 6 pounds lighter than Armani was 11 days after birth in 2011. The fact that dystocia occurred during both of Bertha’s foaling events may seem to indicate that a horse who experiences dystocia is likely to undergo dystocia again; however, the fact that the stallion to which Bertha was bred was the same during both foaling events is significant. Because the foal’s presentation in utero was correct the dystocia likely may not have occurred if the foal had been smaller. Thus, a management decision was made to breed Bertha back to a much smaller stallion: a Welsh Mountain Pony by the name of Tillybo Casanova. Ideally Bertha’s foal in 2014 will be much smaller, allowing for a much smoother parturition event. Although Bertha’s parturition was a very stressful event, the delayed fetal expulsion was the only abnormal concern. As such, the dystocia may not have had any implications in Bertha’s subsequent re-breeding, aside from prompting the management decision to use a smaller sire. Bertha’s reproductive tract was intact after parturition and her ovarian activity became normal after the first cycle. Bertha had a fairly large follicle that lasted from 3/8 until sometime between 3/20 and 3/25 without ovulating, which may have been due to the follicle on the ovary not creating enough estrogen to elicit positive feedback on GnRH, resulting in no surge of LH and no ovulation. A lack of estrogen also explains why Bertha did not display any signs of estrus on 3/12, even though she had a 45 x 48 mm follicle on the right ovary. The lack of estrogen from the follicle could be sourced back to the fact that this cycle had no progesterone priming from the previous cycle by virtue of being Bertha’s first post-partum cycle. The issue seemed to resolve itself, and the farm would not have wanted to use the oocyte ovulated from that follicle anyway due to

asynchrony between oocyte and follicular development: the oocyte would have b een over-matured in the un-ovulated follicle. By 4/5 Bertha had a dominant follicle on board and was bred on 4/5 and 4/6, with ovulation confirmed on 4/8. Bertha’ s 15-day pregnancy check falls on 4/23/13, leading to an inconclusive determination of whether Bertha experienced the onset of pregnancy for the 2013 breeding season. Foaling Journal All milk strip tests were performed between 3pm and 5pm. 1/31/13 Started milk strip testing – milked a 1-. Only a small amount of milk collected. Little bagging up was observed. 2/7/13 Tail muscles felt slightly more relaxed. Attitude: seemed very agitated Milk strep test – milked a 1+. Milk color appeared a bit creamier, but still very clear. Fetus appears to have shifted ventrally and caudally inside Bertha. Bertha has begun staying overnight inside the barn. 2/9/13 Bagging up a bit more. Milk strip test – milked a 1+. Milk color appeared yellowish and clear. Attitude: Bertha was very well behaved. 2/10/13 Appears to be bagging up more on the left than the right. Milk strip test – milked a 1+. Milk color seemed a slightly pink, odd color. Attitude: Bertha was very well behaved 2/11/13 Tail head muscles seem looser. Bagging up appears the same. Milk strip test – milked a 1+. Milk color appears yellowish and clear. Attitude: well behaved. 2/12/13 My group prepared a stall designated to Bertha for her parturition. We cleaned the dirt and cobwebs off of the dirt of the stall, took out the mats, added clean shavings to the stall, and scrubbed the stall walls.

2/17/13 Bagging up even more on the left side. Tail head muscles seem somewhat relaxed. Vulva appears elongated. Milk strip test – milked a 2-. Attitude: well behaved. 2/18/13 Tail head seems relaxed to the same degree as before. Milk strip test – milked a 1+. Much easier to obtain milk from each teat. Does not seem close to foaling. 2/20/13 9 o’clock checks on Bertha were started – 9pm – 11 pm Bertha stood around for most of the check and casually ate hay. 2/21/13 Bertha was observed from 9pm – 12 am Stood around mostly, but walked around a bit and shifting weight Defecated once, and ate hay quite often 2/22/13 Overnight foal watch on Bertha was started. Bertha regularly urinated and defecated, ate hay, and drank water. She mostly stood in the corner, but kept shifting weight and walked around some. 2/23/13 Attitude: well behaved. Clearly waxing up. Milks trip test – milked a 4 very quickly. During overnight foal watch, she acted the same as the night before towards the beginning. During the early hours of the morning, she seemed uncomfortable and kept shifting weight and stretching out her limbs. However, she completely calmed down in the later hours of the early morning 2/24/13 Waxing up and streaming colostrum from teats. Milk strip test – milked a 3+. Parturition is expected tonight. 2/24/13 – 2/25/13: Overnight Watch Shifting weight and walking around periodically from 7pm to 10pm Eating hay off and on – urinating and defecating periodically. Defecated at 9:48pm, still eating straw.

Eating straw and defecated small amount at 10:10pm 10:15 am – urinated large amount Water broke at 10:16 pm – Bertha finally laid down afterwards. Amnion coming out of Bertha had a water balloon appearance, instead of being tightly wrapped around foal’s hooves – red bagging was not occurring. No progression was made towards fetal expulsion after twenty minutes. I assisted in pulling the foal with the farm manager Rebecca and other students during Bertha’s rhythmic uterine contractions. Foal was completely expelled at 11:15pm. Foal was passed away. Veterinarians arrived 15-20 minutes later – pronounced foal dead Bertha was given 10cc Banamine and 25cc Gentamicin Bertha was started on oral SMZs added to diet Bertha stood up at 12:00 am – I used twine rope to tie up her placenta. Placenta passed at 12:17 am – I assessed the placenta for color, condition, and entirety by gross examination and by filling with water at the point where the foal broke through. Entire placenta was present - had good color and condition with slight bruising. Colostrum assessed via colostrometer – specific gravity = 6.9 120 mL colostrum collected and banked for future use if necessary. Other students and I rotated in collecting colostrum. Foal weight was 128 lbs At 8:45 am Bertha’s vials showed a temperature of 99.1 degrees F, a hear rate of 32 beats per minute, normal gut sounds in all four quarters of the abdomen, normal gum color, and a slightly slowed capillary refill time. Dr. Stafford’s physical exam also revealed a small tear at the top of Bertha’s vulva. Bertha received 15 g of SMZ orally added to the feed in the PM. 2/26/13 Bertha’s overall health and vitals looked good – temperature was 99.3 degrees F in the AM and 99.9 degrees F in the PM. Dr. Stafford was satisfied with the physical examination findings. At 9:00 am, Dr. Stafford performed a uterine flush on Bertha in order as further prophylaxis for post-parturient uterine infections. Bertha was also given 5 cc oxytocin intramuscularly in order to help flush out anything residual in the uterus. Bertha received oral SMZ added to her feed in the AM and PM. 2/27/13 Bertha’s temperature was 99.5 degrees F in the AM and 100.2 degrees F in the PM, and her overall health condition was satisfactory. She received SMZ orally added to the feed in the AM and PM.

2/28/13 Bertha’s temperature was 99.1 degrees F in the PM, and she received SMZ orally added to the feed in the AM and PM. Bertha received oral SMZ in the AM and PM all the way through 3/6/13. Bertha was turned out to pasture on 3/7/13. Breeding Journal Throughout the breeding season I assisted in handling and teasing mares, handling the stallion Ripley, recording teasing and ultrasonography results, putting together the artificial vagina for stallion collection, analyzing and preparing semen and insemination doses, artificially inseminating mares, checking the mares for pregnancy, and in various aspects of foal care. Unless otherwise designated, the days on which I assisted were during the designated laboratory time on Tuesdays: 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, 2/19, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26, 4/2, and 4/9. Because of time constraints and the individual estrous cycles of each mare, my participation in various events may not have been directly connected with Bertha specifically; however, I am including information on Bertha for the days when I was not present and information concerning my experiences with mares other than Bertha because both are relevant to my immersion in breeding and foaling of mares. 3/8/13 Begun monitoring Bertha via ultrasonography for breeding in the 2013 season. Ultrasonography showed 45 mm follicle on the right ovary, as well as a small amount of fluid in the uterus. 3/12/13 Bertha teased in at a 1, thus not indicating signs of estrus; however, ultrasonography revealed a 45 x 48 mm follicle on the right ovary as well as a small amount of uterine fluid. 3/13/13 I performed artificial insemination on Kismet; however, follow-up ultrasonography showed that she did not ovulate in time for pregnancy to be possible. 3/20/13 Ultrasonography revealed a 46 x 48 mm follicle on the right ovary. 3/25/13 Ultrasonography revealed a 33 mm follicle on the left ovary, and a 36 mm follicle and a CL on the right ovary. Furthermore, uterine cysts were observed and cultures were recommended. (Note – cultures came back negative at a later date)

3/26/13 Ultrasonography revealed a 36 mm follicle and a CL on the right ovary. 3/29/13 Ultrasonography revealed a 36 mm follicle and a CL on the right ovary. 4/1/13 Ultrasonography revealed a CL on the right ovary. 2cc Lutalyse was given. 4/3/13 Ultrasonography showed a 27 x 38 mm follicle on the left ovary 4/5/13 Ultrasonography showed a 36 x 41 mm follicle on the left ovary Bertha was given 2.5 cc hCG IV and bred. 4/6/13 Ultrasonography showed 36 x 40 mm follicle on the left ovary Bertha was bred. 4/8/13 Ultrasonography showed ovulation had occurred: CL on left ovary 14d pregnancy check is scheduled for 4/22/13 4/15/13 I observed in jugular venipuncture on Zephyr’s foal and performed an IgG Snap test to determine whether appropriate passive transfer of material antibodies via colostrum was obtained in the foal. The test showed that the foal’s IgG levels were >800 mg/dL, thus passing the IgG test. 4/18/13 I assisted in obtaining mares for ultrasound and recording the results. One of the mares had a foal by her side, and I assisted in foal restraint and movement to keep the foal by the mare’s side for ultrasound via a long rope made into a figure-eight around the foal. 4/22/13 Pregnancy check on Bertha did not occur today at the horse farm. Bertha’s current pregnancy status is unknown as of yet.