O.K. here’s the scoop. So far, so good, but this is really a lot of work. I never imagined how much time a newborn foal could take.
My wife, parents and I spent all day Saturday partitioning a section of one of our paddocks to accommodate our newborn. Then we went around and around baby-proofing it. We also put her dam into the paddock to see if we could get them to bond. No such luck. Although Rosie, (the dam) would tolerate her, she would not allow the filly to nurse. I left them together all day, but again, no bonding seemed to occur.
I returned Rosie to the connecting pasture Sunday and am continuing to monitor them to see if there is any progress. So far, nothing. This concerns me as I know that this filly’s social development will be hindered without contact and exposure to her dam.
My daughters are having great fun. They are beginning to listen to me and are starting to understand how to act and handle yourself around horses. Before now, it has gone in one ear and out the other.
My wife is becoming very attached to this baby and has expressed her concern about her chances. My thoughts are that the longer she goes without taxing her immune system, the better her chances for survival. I am currently updating my opinion of her survival to 70-30%.
Any helpful thoughts or ideas would be welcome.
April 30, 2007 at 11:58 am
Have you been able to milk the mare at all? The baby would have needed colustrum right away for her immune system, and goats’ milk won’t do for that. A vet can show you how to do that.
April 30, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I wish I had more information about what the mare is doing to refuse the foal because I could be more specific with things to do but it sounds like the mare is indifferent to the foal but not attacking it since you can put them together.
I had a maiden mare that didn’t accept her foal. She didn’t really understand the whole motherhood thing. An old Indian vet told me to hobble her and turn her out only with the foal. We put hock hobbles on the mare because she was trying to kick at the foal when he moved next to her. The hock hobbles made it so she could not kick at him. We made use of the restraint to get the foal in close and teach it to nurse. Once we got past that hurdle we turned them out together. She could run with the hock hobbles but not kick the foal and he was able to stay with her. Within a few hours she totally accepted her foal. It was interesting to watch. The mare associated the dominance of the hobbles to the foal. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.
Also, does the mare have milk? Can you milk the mare and use that to feed the foal? Milking the mare would help keep her production going while you work at getting the mare to accept the foal. Then if you hobble the mare and can teach the foal to nurse, she will associate the relief of pressure as pleasure associated with the foal.
April 30, 2007 at 12:03 pm
[...] have any foal advice? 30 04 2007 The folks at Soup Or Nuts have a little’un, and the mare is not allowing it to nurse. Like Scarlett [...]
April 30, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Hey thanks guys for the advice. In response to defrostindoors, I was out of town at the time of birthing and the foal was not found for up to 12 hours after birth. My father called the vet and they administered a shot to stimulate the immune system. At that time, my father was not able to get the dam to allow the foal to nurse. We arrived home approximately 18 hours after birth and took over feeding the foal, first by feeding tube (about 4 hours until she managed to pull it out) and then by baby bottle. It took a little figuring on both our parts, but we are managing quite well right now.
Thanks MiKael for the hobbling advice, I had considered it, but having no input and not knowing what to expect, I haven’t tried. I think I can locate some hock hobbles and I may give it a try. As of Saturday evening, the dam was still producing milk.
Finally thanks to Bridlepath for getting the word out.
May 3, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Here’s a great article that talks about a similar problem — with a very unusual solution.
http://thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=9048