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Discussion on Red Bag
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Sunday, Feb 9, 2003 - 5:19 pm:
Dr. O,
I have a friend whose mare delivered yesterday. The foal was past full term . . . it was the mare's first delivery . . . the foal was in the correct position . . . an endoscopy had been done a few days before with no signs of problems . . . the only problem being that the mare was well past due . . . the foal was born perfectly formed but barely breathing . . . he died shortly after birth. The placenta was eventually removed and was termed "red bag" and terribly infected. The owners are suspecting that another one of their mares bred to the same stallion (their own stallion) may have similar consequences. . . . she is due in 2-3 weeks. They have sent the placenta to CSU, and will be monitoring the other mare closely as she approaches her delivery date. My question is, why wouldn't a placenta as badly infected as the one removed from their mare have poisoned the foal previous to birth causing an abortion?
Thank you.
Holly
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Feb 10, 2003 - 6:06 am:
Maybe the infection is recent?
DrO
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Monday, Feb 10, 2003 - 6:36 am:
Maybe. I will be interested to know the CSU findings. My friend said that there were characteristics of this red bag unlike any he had ever seen. The mare had blown her mucous plug about two weeks before. Palpation revealed the foal was in correct position and was alive because he pushed back on the examiner with his nose. An endoscopy was done about a week later, and she still didn't deliver for about a week after that. Are you saying that the foal WOULD have been still born if the infection were a long-standing one? If the bag is terribly infected as this one was, would the mare show signs of a fever or would it be the foal who has the fever?
Thanks,
Holly
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 11, 2003 - 5:43 am:
How quickly the infection results in abortion would depend on how wide spread the infections was and how much damage it did to the placenta, Holly. There is no rule of thumb on how long after a placenta becomes infected that aborption results.
Placentitis without fever is typical however. There generally are not any systemic signs. Because of this it usually is not recognized until after the abortion. For more on this see, » Equine Diseases » Reproductive Diseases » Problems Keeping Mares Pregnant » Placentitis.
DrO
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