DAVIS, Calif. -- University of California veterinarians say triplets born to a buckskin quarter horse are beating the odds that gave them 1 chance in 300,000.
The two fillies and a colt have received 24-hour care on the UC-Davis campus since arriving from a remote pasture on the outskirts of Modesto where they were born at sunrise Monday.
'It was touch and go for the first 24 hours and will continue to be for the next week,' Dr. John Madigan, senior clinician of equine medicine, said Tuesday. 'I don't know of any vet that has ever tended to triplets born to a horse. It is so rare.'
Madigan said veterinary texts estimate that triplets occur in horses only once in every 300,000 births.
'And that they are live births is even more extraordinary,' Madigan said. 'Mares often conceive twins and often abort both or one of them.'
The largest filly was 35 pounds and the colt 28 pounds. A foal usually weighs about 40 or 50 pounds, Madigan said.
