Test Tube Colt Born At Penn Vet's Large Animal Hospital Has 4 Fractured Ribs
By John McDevitt
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa., (CBS) -- A test-tube colt born over the weekend at Penn Vet's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square gets an extended stay at the neonatal intensive-care unit after a discovery was made in an examination Tuesday.
Penn Vet says the colt's delivery was challenging -- the veterinary staff had to pull him out of the birth canal. It's now been determined that in the process, four of his ribs were fractured. New Bolton Center's Dr. Jonathan Palmer says fractures in foal deliveries are not uncommon, but something that is being taken very seriously none the less.
"When ribs are fractured they often have sharp edges and if they are not aligned up with each other and they are what we called displaced they may cut different tissues and they can easily cut the body wall causing a lot of bleeding, but also the underlying lung and sometimes the heart in this case the ends are well lined up and so the changes of that is probably unlikely but still a possibility," Dr. Palmer said.
Dr. Palmer says because of the injuries the colt will have to remain confined to his stall for the next 30 days. He hopes the fractures will heal by themselves.
The not so common pregnancy was made possible by taking the frozen sperm of a deceased stallion and injecting it into the egg from a mare.
The embryo was transferred to My Special Girl, a surrogate horse, in April at the New Bolton Center.
The colt was born on Saturday night.
Also the newborn needs a name. The public can vote by picking from eight names by April 7th.
For more information, visit: www.vet.upenn.edu/foalcam.
