How To Care For Your New Foal.

You have waited eleven months for your foal to arrive. Now he is
here what can you do to ensure he gets off to the best possible
start in life?

Make sure that the foal sucks. A normal foal should stand and
drink from the mare within two hours. If the foal is having
difficulty sucking, or is not interested, he may have serious
problems. Call an experienced horse vet sooner rather than
later.

Colostrum, the first milk, is very important. It contains all
the antibodies your foal needs to protect him from infectious
disease. A foal needs between 1.5 – 2 litres of good quality
colostrum. It is most important to make sure he gets enough.

If the foal won’t suck you can collect some colostrum from the
mare and give it by bottle. Or the vet can put it directly into
the foal’s stomach using a tube. Colostrum substitutes are
available if the mare doesn’t have any milk.

The foal’s intestines can only absorb colostrum for the first 24
hours or so. After that, the vet can give a plasma transfusion
to boost the antibodies if necessary.

Check that the foal is passing meconium. Meconium is the firm
dark feces that has built up during the foal’s time inside the
mare. Colt foals, in particular, can have problems passing this
because their pelvis is narrow. Your vet may recommend giving an
enema.

It is a good idea to have the vet to give the foal a check-up.
The vet can give an injection to protect the foal from tetanus.
This is especially important if the mare has not been vaccinated
recently. A blood sample can be taken from the foal to check
that adequate antibodies have been absorbed. Probiotics may be
useful in preventing “foal heat scours”, which often occur about
10 days of age. The diarrhoea is probably due to the digestive
system adapting to life outside the mare rather than anything to
do with the mare’s hormones.

Carefully monitor the foal’s progress. Even those foals that
appear normal at birth can develop problems later on. Foals
should become brighter and more active over the first few days.
One of the first signs of serious infection is that the foal
becomes dull or spends more time sleeping.

With good care and attention from an early age you and your new
foal can look forward to an exciting future together.