Question for cs wilson&pure country

[ALICIA]

My mare had a large colt. 3 weeks before it was due. I did not find them till 10.30am. Baby was weak, but still wanted to nurse, but couldn't stand up. I called the vet and by the time he got their it was 12.30, the colt died in the mean time. Vet thinks he ruptured his diafraim, but I still think he just died because I didn't feed him in time. If I would of got some mare milk replacer and give him some till he got on his feet to nurse do you may be think that would of saved him. I know colts are not like calf, but I have saved a lot of caves by giving them milk replacer, and then in about 2 hrs they are on there feet getting the colostrum from there mother. This is just for if I ever get the nurve to try it again someday down the road.

[GrnAsMoss]

Let's get this straight. Vet said baby may have ruptured his diaphram, the muscle that pulls up and down his lungs so he can inhale and exhale properly. Did baby have a hard time breathing when you saw him? Did your vet palpate through the skin and feel a rip in his diaphram? One little slice and you won't be brow beating yourself. Just slice him open and look yourself, layer by layer - baby won't feel it now. The muscle just below (posterior)his lungs would have a tear in it, check his stomach contents while you're there. You could give him all the colestrum in the world and with a ruptured diaphram he still wouldn't make it.
Sounds like you either need to trust your vet more or find a new one.

[ALICIA]

Vet said to leave baby with mare for 2 or 3 days to settle mare down. So I just said oka and didn't have the baby cut open. Baby is baried.
But when I ran over baby stretched his neck and turned his head to look over the mare whitch was laying down. Mare got up. So moved in to have a better look at baby he looked just fine other than I could tell he had never got to his feet. When I bent down to him he attempted to get up and when I put my fingers on his mouth he would of taken a bottle of milk and drank it down. I heard a sound from his throat, and just asumed that he still had some fluit left from the birthing, nothing to worry about, so I thought.
Beating my self up is just my way of trying to live with the guilt of not being there. June 15th seamed like a long way of from May 15, None of the books that I've been reading say that a foal can come a month early and be so big that the mare had that hard of a time.

[cswilson]

Alicia I wouldn't beat yourself up too much-sometimes things just don't work out-if mare was quiet you probably could of milked a bit out for colt. My Gramma kept a baby alive by milking a draft mare during the depression-the lady had dried up.As far as being there our mares foal out on the grass on their own all the time. Their gestation length varies soo much really hard to know when to watch-I know it's hard to lose a colt but sometimes it just happens.

[PureCountry]

As long as your sure of the breeding dates and due dates, it's tough to say what would cause the colt to be big. Like cswilson said, sometimes these things just happen. I hate it everytime I lose a calf or foal, but the worst is the ones where you don't know the answers. And unfortunately, finding the answers usually takes the profit out of 2 other calves.