Alberta mare delivers rare twins
Okotoks home to equine celebrities
Calamity Cash Bar, a grey mare at Widney Ranch Paints in Okotoks, gave birth to healthy twins, Dewey, left, and Hewey, on Easter Sunday. Live twin births occur in as few as one in 500,000 times. Mother and foals are doing well.
Photograph by: Dean Bicknell, Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald
As a well mannered and quiet quarter horse trained for ranch work, Calamity Cash Bar has lived a fairly ordinary rural life. Until now.
On Easter Sunday, the 10-year-old grey mare, which lives on a ranch in Okotoks, did something quite remarkable in the horse world: she gave birth to a set of healthy twins.
So rare are healthy twins in the horse population that the case is quickly making the rounds of local veterinary circles, with some even heading over to the farm to take pictures. One equine expert called it an "exceptional situation."
The birth of little Dewey and Hewey, both colts, also came as a huge surprise to the owners of Widney Ranch Paints, where the duo were born. Ranae and Roy Widney didn't know Calamity was even carrying twins.
"The little guy is a go-getter," Ranae said Friday of the second foal. "When he was born second, we didn't think he was alive. We got him on the ground and rubbed him down, he popped his head up."
On Easter Sunday, the Widney's called the vet because Calamity was having problems foaling. By the time Dr. Troy Bourque arrived, she had given birth to one, but was still in distress.
That's when the veterinarian noticed another hoof as he checked the mare. Calling it "extremely rare," Bourque says there are roughly one set of surviving twins in as few as 500,000 births, according to the literature.
But Hewey and Dewey have done more than just survive. Now they spend their days playing in the paddock like, well, twins. They are small enough to wear dog blankets when its cold, but are trying to eat a little grain and nibble on hay like their mother.
Often, if twins are conceived, one or both die during pregnancy. If an ultrasound is done on the mare and twins are found, one is usually aborted so the other survives. In other cases, they are born dead.
When they do survive, they often face myriad problems, according to Dr. Marie-France Roy, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary's faculty of veterinary medicine. Those include crooked legs, and organ and cardiovascular problems.
"The ones that make it, often they need intensive care or support and a lot of care in the hospital," she said.
That's what makes Hewey and Dewey so remarkable. They needed none of that help and were given a clean bill of health after a checkup the next day. They've now become four-legged celebrities among some local veterinarians.
"They're so rare," says Dr. Beth Cozens, a vet who checked the pair the day after they were born. "I've seen one set of twins in my entire life, before this one."
rcuthbertson@theherald.canwest.com
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