Raising an Orphan Foal

Each time you have a new foal, milk some of the mare's colostrum in the first 12 to 24 hours. Taking 8 to 16 ounces from each mare should not hurt her current foal in most cases. It takes a couple quarts to help a newborn foal, so you'll need plenty on hand. Put it inside two freezer ziploc bags or freezer-safe containers (double wrapping might help it store longer without freezer burn).

Have Domperidone/Equitox (equidone) on hand, or know where to get it immediately. We have it here always, and if we think a mare is close to foaling and has not developed a bag, we give it to her to help her prepare to make milk. Some of our local vets have never heard of it, and some don't carry it. So, know where you can get some!

Have Oxytocin on hand. It's very cheap...maybe $13 for a 100 cc bottle that would provide a LOT of shots. This is good for any mare after foaling to help her uterus contract, but also helps mares with milk "let down" for their foals or for you to express milk.

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The foal must get colostrum within the first 24 to 48 hours, and multiple doses of it. Horse colostrum can not be manufactured, so this requires advanced preparation.

Prevent dehydration. Once a foal is 12 hours old, it will really be needing some assistance. IV fluids, sub-cutaneous fluids, or bottled colostrum will help prevent the foal from getting so far down that it can't recover. Our vet put a stomach tube in, wrapped tape on it with a tag sticking out, and stitched that tag of cloth tape to our foal's nose. That kept the tube in for 2 days, allowing us to feed him to prevent dehydration. See photo above.

Some people recommended a vitamin B12 boost.

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Get colostrum into the foal. This may require bottle feeding, force feeding with a large syringe, or finding a mare that foaled the same day.

Contact your vet to put him/her on notice that you may be needing help.

Make an appointment to have your foal's IgG levels checked. If the foal didn't get proper transfer if antibodies from colostrum, you may need to do a transfusion to keep the foal alive long term.

Some people recommended "Nurse Mate", which is a first milk supplement and appetite stimulator in an acidified paste for newborn foals. It also contains a source of live, naturally occurring microorganisms. It can be found online at several catalog sites.

Get some probiotics. The Foal Lac label suggests giving probiotics on two separate days in the first week. Be prepared with these by obtaining them if you don't already have them on hand. In a pinch, you can try plain yogurt with active cultures. But possibly an equine-specific probiotic paste might be the best. If the foal's intestinal flora are off kilter, you could have serious problems! Don't leave this step out.

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Try using a baby bottle liner (not the drop in kind, though they'll work in a different way) to milk. It can actually fit right on the teat and you can milk the mare through the soft plastic.

Give the mare a little oxytocin (consult your vet) to help her drop her milk down 5 minutes before milking her. We used 1/2 to 1 cc per quarter horse sized mare.

Cut the end off a syringe. Put the plunger into the wrong end, and fit the "handle" end on the teat. Gently draw back on the syringe to express milk.

There is a commercial pump for milking mares, but last time I saw it, it was over $300.

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Don't discount a mare with an older foal. Mares with newborn foals might be too worried about their foals. Mares with older foals might be more relaxed about motherhood. Try them all!

To get another mare to accept a foal can be tricky or easy, depending upon the mare. Rubbing vanilla on the foal and the mare's nose to make them smell the same can help. Using a tranquilizer (such as Ace) might be needed, as well as a twitch or lip chain for a few days.

A mare without a foal can become a nurse mare, but it requires hormone manipulation. It could be as simple as Domperidone (equidone) paste for a few days to bring in milk, or might require more extensive assistance. Contact your vet.

Vaginal/cervical stimulation can help mares accept a foal. Massage the cervix for 2 minutes each time, twice, 10 minutes apart. Click here for details.

A large goat (such as a nubian) can make an excellent mother, and goats have raised many foals. Provide a couple straw bales for her to jump up on. Once the foal learns to nurse from the goat, they'll act just like family.

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Most foals prefer a lamb nipple rather than a calf nipple.

Surround the nipple with soft material (suede, a towel, etc.) to simulate the mare's udder if needed.

Hold the bottle near your underarm so the foal can root on something. The stimulation of feeling something soft on his face helps him feel like he is nursing an actual mare. Rub that material on his dam or another nursing mare to get some scent on it if you have trouble.

The milk must be warm and fresh to train him to "want" it. You may waste some milk replacer, but most foals won't drink cold milk. You do what you have to do!

Most lamb nipples' holes are a little too small. You might have to enlarge it a bit.

Try putting a lamb's nipple on a 60 cc syringe to help train him to the nipple. It's easier to hold a syringe, and you can push the plunger to force milk into the foal's mouth, encouraging him to swallow and suck.

If the foal successfully learns to suck a bottle, you can move him to an "Igloo Cooler Momma" hopefully. This is a stroke of genius from whomever figured it out! It will reduce the numbers of times per day that you have to feed, as the cooler will keep milk fresh longer and is "always available." It consists of an Igloo cooler with the spigot removed, PVC pipe screwed into the hold, and a lamb's nipple placed over the PVC pipe. A brick in the bottom helps displace the milk replacer so less is wasted. Click here for instructions and photos. If you use this method, Buckeye or Progressive make a milk replacer that is good for 12 hours without spoiling. Once you get the foal going on a bucket, this saves a LOT of time, because you don't have to make new milk every 2 or 3 hours.

Use a soft plastic pop bottle with the lamb nipple. This allows you to squeeze gently to force a bit of milk into the foal's mouth while trying to get him to suck on the bottle.

Dip your fingers in milk and try to get him to suck on your fingers if he won't nurse from the bottle at first.

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Milk must be warm to train the foal to drink from a bucket. You'll waste some, but it's necessary to keep what is in the bucket warm until the foal leans to want to drink it.

Buckeye or Progressive make a milk replacer that is good for 12 hours without spoiling (from what I've heard). Once you get the foal going on a bucket, this saves a LOT of time, because you don't have to make new milk every 2 or 3 hours.

Repeatedly dip the foal's muzzle in the milk to get him to lick his lips and taste it. One person said they had good luck putting the bowl's edge into the foal's mouth, because he'd suck on the bowl and get some milk as well. That helped him learn to drink from the bowl, and then he learned to put his whole muzzle in the bowl to drink. Then, onward to a bucket!

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Check into feeding Foal Lac pellets, or another early foal solid supplement. The Foal Lac pellets "melt in the mouth" (I wonder if they look like M&M's? ha ha!) and might help reduce the amount of milk replacer needed.

A foal raised on milk replacer might not look good as a weanling, but will catch up. However, I have heard of some mule foals and quarter horse foals raised on Progressive's milk replacer that won halter competitions and futurities!

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http://www.mustangs4us.com/how_to_raise_orphan_foals.htm

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