Filly Born at LSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital

LSU Looking for Suggestions for the Filly’s Name

BATON ROUGE—A chestnut filly (young female horse) was born at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 27. “We knew the mare was getting close to having the foal on Monday night. When she started giving birth it came pretty quickly,” said Mr. Pat McClure, equine technician.
The filly was the result of a breeding that LSU pursued after receiving the filly’s mother as a donation last year. The mother, a seven-year-old bay (brown) Thoroughbred mare named “Duma,” was donated to the School of Veterinary Medicine after she repeatedly failed to produce a foal for her past owners. Following the careful evaluation of Duma’s health and potential to conceive, the LSU team developed a plan to attempt a healthy pregnancy for Duma, and a stallion prospect was chosen. The stallion, “Ole Rebel,” from Clear Creek Stud in Folsom, La. , was selected as the sire.

(Pictured above are Duma and her new filly. To suggest a name for the filly simply send an email to LSUfilly@vetmed.lsu.edu)

Over the past 11 months (the normal gestation period for a horse), Duma’s pregnancy progressed without incident. After she began to go into labor, the healthy foal was born in a matter of minutes.
Bringing new life into the world is a specialty of the LSU Equine Team. With plans to develop a new Reproduction Center , the Veterinary School is continually making advancements that further their ability to serve the equine industry in Louisiana and provide incredible learning opportunities to veterinary students.
“The students were very involved with this birth. It is not something that happens every day at the vet school so it was nice to be able to expose them to this kind of experience and let them assist with the delivery and care of the new foal,” said Dr. Sara Lyle, assistant professor of theriogenology and the veterinarian who oversaw Duma’s breeding and pregnancy. Both Duma and her new filly are doing well and photos of the pair can be seen by visiting www.equine.vetmed.lsu.edu.
The only remaining challenge is to come up with a name for the filly; LSU is looking for suggestions. To submit your entry, send an e-mail with your name, address, daytime telephone number, and your suggested name for the filly to LSUfilly@vetmed.lsu.edu; only complete entries with all of the required information will be accepted. Entries must be received no later than 12 p.m. CST on July 24, 2009. All entries will be voted upon by those LSU Equine Clinic faculty and staff who have not submitted entries themselves. The vote will take place on July 27, and the winner will be announced at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine at 9 a.m. on July 31. The winner will get his or her photo taken with the filly and be given an LSU School of Veterinary Medicine shirt and hat and an autographed copy of the book Horses of the Storm.

Both Duma and her new filly are doing well and more photos of the pair can be seen here.