{"id":8313,"date":"2021-03-26T00:18:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/?p=8313"},"modified":"2021-03-25T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T18:17:21","slug":"red-bag-birth-with-a-happy-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/en\/2021\/03\/26\/red-bag-birth-with-a-happy-ending\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201eRed bag\u201c \u2013 Birth with a happy ending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Miniature Shetland Ponies often have a harder time coming into the world than their larger counterparts. Fortunately, it is not always as dramatic as for Sunny and her mum! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today I would like to tell you again about a particularly exciting birth experience, which – fortunately – only happens rarely. This time it is not about an Icelandic foal but a Shetland Pony. However, I think that what I had to experience at this birth is interesting for every owner of a mare who is looking forward to their foal and hopes that everything will go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it is not always like that and the better you are informed about possible complications, the better you can react, at least that is my experience, which I would therefore like to share here. Sometimes minutes count for there to be a small chance that a foal will survive! Therefore, here is my report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were expecting a miniature shetland foal last year. It was Tinkerbell’s first foal and she took her time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We monitored the mare around the clock with a camera so that nothing escaped our attention. Three weeks overdue, I came across a friend’s comment on Facebook one evening that she never wanted to breed with Shetland ponies again because they always had such difficult births. I was quite shocked and immediately started googling what could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the first page that opened, I found the words “red bag”. I had never heard that before! I briefly read through what it meant, but then I thought: Come on, don’t be ridiculous, nothing has ever happened in all these years, why now of all times? Nothing will go wrong\u2026! But I had apparently stored the information in the back of my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following night, it was finally time to go. I was alone at home – without a car. Around two o’clock in the morning, the mare became restless, I jumped out of bed, quickly got into my Icelandic overall and off I went to the stable. – But no, not the direct way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who it was that whispered to me to run to the kitchen and grab a knife beforehand, I can’t tell you, it was probably the Icelandic elves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I arrived, the mare was already in heavy labour. I waited, but it still took an eternity without anything happening. But suddenly I could not believe my eyes: In front of me I saw in reality exactly what I had seen and read about on the internet the day before: the typical “red bag”, a red balloon, which was the first thing to appear and which closed the birth canal so that the foal would suffocate if it was not born in a few minutes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I reacted as if in a trance: I flung the camera away and mechanically performed what I had seen on the video a few hours before: I reached for the knife and cut open the red balloon. Immediately the real amniotic sac came towards me, then the foal’s front feet and snout, which was already quite blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then helped with every contraction to bring the foal into the world and after what felt like ten hours – in fact it was only 5 minutes – Sunny was born: a little mini Shetland foal filly. She was chirpy, only her mum and I were totally exhausted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After everything was over, I tried to reach a vet, but at half past two in the night it was hopeless in my area\u2026. I ended up calling the clinic in Vienna and they were really amazed that the foal had made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinkerbell still had a few problems getting up to let the little one drink, but after a few tries that worked out too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 16 May we celebrated little cheeky Sunny’s first birthday, together with her brave mum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miniature Shetland Ponies often have a harder time coming into the world than their larger counterparts. Fortunately, it is not always as dramatic as for Sunny and her mum! Today I would like to tell you again about a particularly exciting birth experience, which – fortunately – only happens rarely. This time it is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[],"series":[],"speaker":[],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/HS-Shetty_7.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/podcast-img-scaled.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/hestasaga","embedCode":"

\u201eRed bag\u201c \u2013 Birth with a happy ending<\/a><\/blockquote>