Just a few tips about breeding, foaling and foal care. I hope other breeders will add their tips.
Care and Comfort of the Newborn Foal
It is such a wonderful moment when that new baby’s wet little body first emerges from the mare! There is just no other feeling in the world quite like it. But now you are responsible for a beautiful new life, what do you do next?
I have clean towels in my foaling kit and start drying the baby off and wipe its nostrils clean before it stands. Also, if the baby is outside it’s nice to place a clean towel under it. After the new foal is dry and nursing, watch for the black “meconium” pass from its intestines. If the foal is straining and no stool is passing, put the foal’s head in a corner and hold the baby there with your left arm and administer an enema very, very gently with your right. Once the meconium and one normal, light colored stool passes, the immediate worries are over. With the bedding clean and a few hours of sleep, its time to consider the continuing care and raising of the baby. Your vet can draw a blood sample for IgG in twenty-four hours and it is nice to have your vet just give the baby a quick health check. Hopefully, you have considered safe fencing and have a run or paddock where the new baby can exercise. I like to keep my mares and foals in stalls at night and turn them out during the day for the first two weeks, then, if the weather is warm, will give them access to the runs off the barn at night. The foals and lead to the turnout area. The mare will stay close. If you halter the mare, the foal may go anywhere and the mare will be frantic. Since the foal has no idea how to lead, use a soft cotton (never nylon, which can burn) lead rope. Put the halter on the foal’s head, pet him and tell him over and over what a good baby he is. Attach the lead rope with the snap and drape it around his behind, making a loop over his back. Hold the loop so you can pull him forward with it using your right hand, while holding the lead under his head loosely in your left. Continue to praise the baby as you scoot him along. Once you are in the turn out area, gently remove the halter. Never leave a halter on a baby. That practice is dangerous to a grown horse, tragedy in the making for a foal. If you treat them gently and with kindness, they are not hard to catch.
Starting on the foal’s first or second day, it is good to start feeding yogurt. Most of my foals seem to prefer strawberry or strawberry banana. Suck it into a 60 ml dosing syringe (with the large tip not intended for injections). At first the babies are put off by the hard tip on the syringe and it is generally necessary to back them into a corner, put a finger in the corner of the foal’s mouth, slip the tip of the syringe in its mouth and gently inject some yogurt. In a few days, they all figure out how to suck it from the syringe and begin to really look forward it.
During these first few days, start picking up baby’s feet. Don’t hold them long at first, just a few seconds. As the baby relaxes with having its feet handled, start gently tapping them as you hold them. This is also a good time to introduce clippers. Cordless ones are the easiest to use. You need not even clip but the foal, but get it accustomed to the sound and vibration. Teach it to allow you to rub its body gently, wipe it with towels anything you can think of that will cause a disturbance if left till later. Only approach one subject at a time with the baby, but always think about how much easier it is to teach a ninety pound foal to pick up his feet than a six hundred pound yearling! Be kind and gentle with everything you do – this is a baby and his attention span is very short, but it is a very good time for his schooling to begin.
As the mare comes into her foal heat, you can expect the dreaded “foal heat” diarrhea. My vet assures me that it actually has nothing to do with the mare’s coming into heat, but is caused by a bacteria the foal is born with that matures at about the same time. Feeding yogurt can reduce the severity of the diarrhea. If the foal still has very loose stool, you can help by adding Probios to the yogurt. If the diarrhea is severe, call your veterinarian before the foal dehydrates. I find it helpful to goop a thick layer of Vaseline on the foal’s behind at the onset of the diarrhea. It can really burn the little fellow’s behind and even burn off the hair. A thick layer of petroleum jelly can save him a lot of discomfort and keep the hair from being lost. If the loose stool manages to get on the baby anyway, a few paper towels and some warm water will clean it right off.
As your foal grows, treat him with kindness and respect. Give him the love a baby needs and when you discipline him, be gentle. Your voice is a great tool for discipline, your hands are wonderful tools for teaching gentleness and giving to pressure in a kind way. Since all advanced training centers around giving to pressure teaching your foal to move away with a gentle nudge is the beginning foundation for many lessons to come. Above all, be considerate of your mare and her baby and let them enjoy you as you enjoy them.
What If My Maiden Mare Won’t Feed Her Foal?
How to Care for Your Foal If the Mother Won’t Feed It
We all have times when a foal is born and the mare won’t allow it to nurse. Instead of feeding her baby, she just turns away from it. She will generally clean and care for the baby and appears to love it, but will not feed it. This usually happens only with maiden mares, but is certainly possible with any mare. There are several things to keep in mind when this happens:
First, don’t be angry with the mare, especially if she is a maiden. Giving birth is a very painful and often frightening experience the first time. Your mare needs your kindness and understanding.
The second thing to keep in mind is that you have a very limited amount of time to get colostrum into the baby. Every mare’s colostrum and every foal’s ability to absorb the nutrients it contains is different so, while colostrum can absorb for up to twenty-four hours, it is best to keep your sights on getting an adequate amount in to the foal within twelve hours. If the foal does not get adequate immunity from the colostrum, it can die from the smallest cold or infection. The only way to find out whether the foal has an adequate immune system is to have your vet get a blood sample and run an IgG. If the test shows an IgG below 400, the foal is in jeopardy, below 200 and chances are strong that you will lose it. The situation can still be rectified by having the vet infuse a bag or two of plasma into the foal. This is an expensive process, so let’s concentrate on getting the colostrum into the foal instead.
It is good to have a foaling kit ready and waiting in the barn. I keep mine in a sealed clean Rubbermaid box. It contains:
Several clean towels
Baby bottle with an extra large X shaped hole (sharp scissors do the trick)
A plastic jar of iodine
A couple shots of banamine
A “breast pump” made from a syringe (click here for instructions for making one)
A couple of gentle saline enemas, readily available at the drug store
Vaseline
After foaling, I ALWAYS give my mare 10 cc’s of banamine. It eases the pain and helps the milk come down. Banamine is a prescription drug and must be obtained in advance from your veterinarian. I never exceed 10 cc’s every twelve hours for a total of three injections. Most mares are fine with just one injection. If a mare (usually a maiden) is having a difficult time with labor, I had one this year who was terrified by the onset of the pain, I will occasionally give the banamine then. It does not inhibit labor.
When the foal is out, I help the mare dry the foal then back off and let them get acquainted. This is a good time to occupy yourself cleaning wet and soiled straw from the stall and making a nice hot bran mash for your mare. She has just been through a lot and its a comforting meal for her. Mare and foal will generally be on their feet in five to fifteen minutes. The foal may need help getting up the first time if the footing is poor, like rubber mats under the straw. As soon as the foal is standing, get a good dip of iodine* on the naval. Help the foal find the right end of the mare to nurse on. There are several things that can prevent the foal from getting that precious colostrum promptly at this point. First, the foal may just fail to find and recognize the nipples. Some babies are awfully slow! Second, the mare may run away and not give the foal the chance. In either event, I choose at this point to use my syringe and baby bottle and get some colostrum into the foal. If the mare is just turning away, she may stop when you tie her or have someone hold her. If not, place your syringe gently but firmly over one nipple, and draw the plunger back. You may get barely an ounce the first time, but every drop is lifeblood to the new baby. As the mare’s milk comes down, it will become easier to full the syringe. As the pressure eases on the udder, try helping the foal to nurse again. It can be an exasperating process as the little fellow tries to suck everywhere but where you want it to, but be gentle and patient. If you have fed from a bottle, the foal will follow the bottle to the correct location. If it just cannot find the right place, milk the mare some more and get that colostrum down the baby. This year I had a foal who liked being fed and decided he really didn’t want to be troubled to find it himself. I indulged him until that all important first twenty-fours had elapsed and got well over sixty ounces of colostrum into him then left him to starve. He was nursing on his own in half an hour.
My second maiden mare this year was more difficult. The banamine was not enough. She is a very sensitive mare and worries about anything new. Her colt was quite aggressive about wanting to eat and was too rough with her. She ran away from but allowed me to milk her and feed the foal. When he tried to nurse by himself she raised a threatening foot and once pushed him away with it. To me, that a firm enough “no” that I knew I was not going to get her to let him nurse without help. I called my vet and kept feeding the foal every hour or so until he arrived. By the time the vet arrived, the foal was ten hours old and had consumed well over twenty ounces of colostrum. The vet gave my mare an IV shot of ace-rompun, that really mellowed her out. The foal was able to suck and as the drug wore off, it was old hat to the mare. She is a wonderful mother now and has many fine foals in her future.
In summary, have a good working relationship with a veterinarian you trust. Also, have a good working relationship with your mare. When you need to milk her is not best time to handle her udder for the first time. Cool, summer baths can get her used to being handled well in advance. Don’t be angry and frustrated with your mare, she needs your help at this most critical time. Remember, with a little extra effort on your part now, you can rectify the situation. Motherhood is a strong instinct but some need a little more encouragement than others. The joy of watching your foal grow strong and healthy at his mother’s side is well worth a little extra effort in those first hours.
*Some people are using Nolvasan for this, but we recommend iodine, it has a strong drying effect and helps seal the naval shut.