Equine Amniotic Allograft for Veterinary Regenerative Treatment: Live Birth!

Hey, everyone!

In this post, I wanted to talk about the first birth on the ranch that I got to witness.

Vijeeth and I were doing our regularly scheduled night-watch duties. I got there a little earlier than usual at about 10 PM and he arrived at around 12:30. When we're on night-watch Mr. Ames usually sets up a live video feed on a laptop showing footage of the stables. We usually keep an eye on this while we do other things throughout the night. This night was no different. Things started getting weird shortly before 1 AM though. We noticed Mystic (the horse that was on high alert of giving birth) urinating an unusually large amount of times. This got our attention first but didn't raise any immediate red flags. Then suddenly when she turned around we saw a sack hanging out of her. At this moment we rushed to wake up Mr. Ames and his wife to tell them her water had broken. When we went out to the stables we could already see one of the foal's hooves sticking out within the amniotic membrane. We had to wait for more of the body to be sticking out before we could do any collection. As more of the body passed out Mr. Ames sliced open the amniotic membrane and vacuumed the amniotic fluid into a container. Then he had to make sure to collect the membrane as the foal's body came out. If he waited too long and the membrane fell to the floor, then the membrane would have been contaminated by the floor shavings and would be useless. However, the collection was a success and we were able to collect everything we needed cleanly and safely. One weird thing about this birth was that Mystic never laid down. Most mares prefer to give birth while laying on their side as it widens their birthing canal and makes passage of the foal easier. We stayed a while after the birth to watch the foals first steps, see it drink milk, stretch out the placenta, and wash the amnion. In the end, both mare and foal were healthy and that's what matters.