# Another question, about the placenta!!



## Serenity087 (13 April 2010)

When the vet was checking the placenta, she found what looked like a baked bean attatched by a thin piece of flesh about 5-6 inches long.

She had a good look at it and said she'd never seen anything like it before, perhaps it was River's twin!

It obviously never got anywhere, and probably would have been expelled if it wasn't for River developing next to it, but has anyone else ever found anything like it?  Or have a better idea of what it is?


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## angrovestud (13 April 2010)

my memory not what it was but isant there some myth about finding something lucky like that when a mare foals maybe legend or something someone else is bound to let you know my brains gone to fog.


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## LazyS (13 April 2010)

Could it be this ....... It was my first thought so looked it up .......

Hippomane
Hippomanes is NOT allantoic fluid or meconium, as homeopathic literature (since Boericke) has it. 
And it has NOthing to do with the remedy Manchinella, with which it is confused sometimes because of a similar common name in english language.

But Hippomanes are soft putty-like aggregates of urinary calculus (deposits or stones) which form throughout pregnancy and are present in all placentas in the allantoic cavity.  Fragments can sometimes be found in the urachus.  They vary in colour and size and have a layered appearance when cut. Occasionally there are accessory small hippomanes either free in the fluid or attached to the chorio-allantoic membrane. 
The hippomane is about 14 x 1.5 cm and contains high concentrations of nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and magnesium. The hippomane occurs singly in the allantoic fluid and is passed during or after second-stage delivery (this is the stage of delivery in which the foetus is expelled).
The hippomane is first found in the allantoic fluid at about Day 85. The only contribution from the foetal membranes is desquamated epithelium which provides a nucleus of tissue debris for the subsequent formation of a soft allantoic calculus.

Though I would have expected the vet to know this. Think I saw a pic of one in one of the Foalie/Breeding books exactly how you described it.


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## Beatrice5 (13 April 2010)

I found the hippopotame ( can't spell ) when my mare gave birth and it was kinda greenish / yellow colour slippery like kidney shaped thing. I then promptly lost is somewhere is the deep straw bed but at least I had picked it up nd seen it  It was a reasonable size though about 10cm long by about 4 cm I'd guess.

Vet should well have known if it was this though!


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## Serenity087 (13 April 2010)

Doesn't look like a hippomane, as it was pink.  Have found an old link to a post Janet George made about something that looked right, called a yolk reminant...

Humm, either way, doesn't sound like it was a twin!


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## todd1074 (13 April 2010)

I was always told it was lucky to find the melt??
~I don't know if this is the hippomane?
I lost a foal 13 years ago when it was born in the sac and found the melt which we kept.When it dried it dried in the shape of a pefect heart.Later that year we went to look at some foals with a friend  not intending to buy anything and saw a foal with the exact same heart on his head and bought him.He turned out to be the most amazing horse I have ever owned and I still have him today.
We also found the melt from my next foal and again kept it but this one just dried as a lump.
~I can add pictures if anyone is interested.

I just read that the melt is held in the foals mouth and expelled at birth or can be attatched to the placenta.


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## Amymay (13 April 2010)

I just read that the melt is held in the foals mouth and expelled at birth or can be attatched to the placenta.
		
Click to expand...

Indeed.  The sac breaks in the process of foaling, but ocassionaly doesn't - which is why it's a good idea to be present at the birth to assist.


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## holiday (13 April 2010)

The hippomane is as follows (I asked this question very recently)
Hippomanes are soft putty-like aggregates of urinary calculus (deposits or stones) which form throughout pregnancy and are present in all placentas in the allantoic cavity.  Fragments can sometimes be found in the urachus.  They vary in colour and size and have a layered appearance when cut. Occasionally there are accessory small hippomanes either free in the fluid or attached to the chorio-allantoic membrane. 
The hippomane is about 14 x 1.5 cm and contains high concentrations of nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and magnesium. The hippomane occurs singly in the allantoic fluid and is passed during or after second-stage delivery (this is the stage of delivery in which the foetus is expelled). 
The hippomane is first found in the allantoic fluid at about Day 85. The only contribution from the foetal membranes is desquamated epithelium which provides a nucleus of tissue debris for the subsequent formation of a soft allantoic calculus. 

source.....  http://www.homoeopathie-wichmann.de/heilmittel/Heilmittel-Ordner/hippomanes.htm

They can be varying in size but this is the one from Sandras birth!!!!  We call it the "Cud" - not all vets have come across them!!!


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## volatis (13 April 2010)

I would worry if a vet didnt know what the hippomane was!! - we call it the melt


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## KarynK (13 April 2010)

Here you go, wording under figure 9 was it like Fig 10?-  there was a more detailed piece but it's no longer on the internet.
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rfoster/repropath/FOP/VETM3460normalplacenta.pdf


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