Are You My Mommy?
Raising the Orphan Foal By Carolin Von Rosenberg, DVM Laura Kotimäki-Hurd
(difficult birth), a frantic call to your vet or a mare that simply collapses and dies after rupturing an artery. It’s a scene that breeders hope and pray never happens, but one that they still need to prepare for, nonetheless. In addition, there is an occasional mare that completely
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rejects her foal. This is rare, occurring in less than two percent of all births, but almost always involves a mare foaling for the first time. Or, in my experience, it can be a mare that is in excruciating pain. In any case, you have just spent an emotional and
exhausting night in your barn or at the referral hospital, and you are left with a tiny, beautiful, velvety-muzzled orphan staring at you from the depth of the straw-filled stall. She knickers and stands up on wobbly legs to greet you, “Are you my mommy?” Your first reaction, of course, is to respond with a resounding “Yes,” gather up the tiny foal and rush it to your house to be raised via bottle among your kids and dogs. Your second, and more proper, reaction should be, “No, but I will help you get through this and allow you to grow up like a horse. ”If you have seen the documentary movie Buck, you
may recall the horrible scene where a client brings Buck Brannaman, noted trainer and inspiration for the book The Horse Whisperer, a three-year-old colt that the client had raised as an orphan. The horse is unmanageable and extremely aggressive towards people. Despite Buck’s crew’s attempts at handling the horse, he is finally declared too dangerous and has to be euthanized. The Buck story appears to be an extreme, since after all the client did raise the horse in her house for a while, but it serves to demonstrate how proper socialization is just as important as proper nutrition in raising a young horse that can become a productive and well-adjusted member of the equine world.
he loss of a mare during the birthing process is usually unexpected, always heartbreaking and often dramatic. The scene may involve a late night dystocia
Important First Steps No matter what path you choose to raise your orphan, the first few days will be spent assuring that the foal is healthy and has received adequate colostrum and general nutrition. (If the foal is older, over two months, it is probably already consuming sufficient feed and hay so that you will be able to skip the milk replacer step all together.) Newborns who did not receive colostrum from their dam require two liters of colostrum during the first eight hours of life. Breeding farms and referral hospitals often have colostrum saved and available. The colostrum is thawed to room temperature and fed to the foal with a bottle. We use human baby bottles from the grocery store and enlarge the size of the nipple opening. The difficulty of getting a newborn to accept the bottle
varies with the foal and with the experience of the handler. Some foals are born starving and will attempt to suck down anything that comes close to their muzzle, while other foals are less enthusiastic or coordinated and will require some patience. A viable option is to allow your veterinarian to tube feed the foal the first colostrum to assure that it is ingested at the earliest possible time. Proper bottle feeding technique is also very important. The foal’s head has to be upright and stretched towards the bottle to avoid inhaling any milk into the lungs. If colostrum is not available, the foal may receive equine
plasma intravenously in the first 24 hours of life to make up the deficiency in antibodies that the colostrum would have provided. In any case, a veterinarian should examine the foal within the first day of life to take blood and assure that the foal is not suffering from any life-threatening conditions
Warmbloods Today 43
Dr. Carolin Von Rosenberg
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