Thursday, July 12, 2012

You Could Buy One Cheaper....That Soft Sucking Sound

Do you hear it?

When I picked up my cell phone off of my desk Tuesday (7/3/12) and saw that the stallion owner had called and left a message AND sent me a text.  I hadn't been away from my phone for more than 10 minutes and she had contacted me twice.
I knew that Horse Girl was headed to the vet for an ultra sound to confirm my...I mean Chad's Si Dude foal that day, but was shocked that she had reached out twice.
I didn't bother listening to the voice mail, I just looked at the text.
It merely said please call me ASAP.  It was left at 10:52 and it was 10:55.  
I thought to myself...for me that IS ASAP!  (0:
I totally felt like a kid who was about to get her butt chewed by her mom when Terry answered the phone.  She said Hello Nikki, we've got a problem.  I am going to put you on the phone with Dr. Goddell (I think...I honestly can't remember for sure)
That's when I heard that soft sucking sound sneaking its way into the room...
It's sound increased as the vet introduce himself and being explaining "our" problem.
When the vet preformed the ultra sound to see the heart beat of the foal, they found a uterus full of fluid instead.  This is the vet that did the ultra sound earlier in June to see if she was near ovulation.  So he knew for a fact that she wasn't fluid filled before breeding.
We talked about why fluid fills the uterus first...  What causes this?  Generally infection.  Lovely...
She had a negative culture.  He assured me that sometime you get a false negative, or you have a dormant infection and that breeding gets it going.
So I say, what's the plan for us now?
He says we will do a culture and see what we get.  He said he wouldn't be surprised to find a positive on her...
They contacted me on Friday, to say that the culture was positive and that they would begin treatment on her on Monday (7/9/12) and then keep ultra sounding her to make sure the fluid left and to also watch for a follicle.  They would then breed her once the follicle appeared.

I haven't hear how much fuel I owe for transporting my horse to and from the vet twice...so I can't tell you that yet...
But we have another ultra sound that showed us our troubles: $45
Vet says treatment, board at facility, and ultra sounds to get her bred won't run more than: $400
(Yikes...)
Another month of mare care: $217
And she ran out of grain...not sure how much I owe there, as they bought her more....I'll throw out another $40 on that just to be safe....
So direct costs thus far, not guesstimated costs: $843.00
Indirect costs: $418.37
Total out of pocket thus far: $1261.37

That sucking sound is slowly growing in volume... it was a distant soft sound, not now...  (0:

Good grief...so much for a home run on the live cover.
Also time to decided if she doesn't take this time, what to do....


4 comments:

Shirley said...

Sooooo, foals bought at weaning time (which I charge $600, the same as my stud fee) is starting to look pretty affordable isn't it?

Chad said...

Yes ma'am it does! :0) I figured you were in the $1200-$1400 ball park, which i don't feel is too much for a weaner of your colts quality... I am now REALLY sad that Nitro is a dude...

Nikki
Not Chad as this is going to post when I hit publish...just his account!

Shirley said...

I used to charge more for my foals, I used to start them at $1000 but with the economy the way it is now, I'm just trying to make it affordable to buy good quality colts. I'm not in it to get rich, that's for sure! I do charge way more for yearlings and older though; it's like an incentive to buy them right off the mare. Yearlings start at $1500 and go up from there depending on how much ground work I put on them.

Kellie said...

Yikes! not good.