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If the foal has had an opportunity to nurse adequately before the mare dies, and the
mare had good quality colostrum, this will
be a simple process. If the IgG level indicates failure of passive transfer, the age of the foal will likely determine the next steps. The foal
is able to absorb orally provided antibodies
for the first 18 hours of life. Therefore, if the foal is under 18 hours of age, he may be a candidate for oral colostrum supplementation to bring his IgG up to an acceptable level. This colostrum may be milked from the dam or may be from a banked colostrum source from another mare. If the foal is over 18 hours of age, or if he is younger but deemed a poor candidate for oral colostrum, plasma may need to be administered to achieve passive transfer. A key fact to keep in mind: anything besides colostrum administered orally to a foal has the potential to close the gut before that 18 hour mark. Additionally, milk replacer should be avoided until plasma has been administered due to the potential risk of anaphylaxis.
A veterinarian should perform a physical exam, complete blood count and other blood analysis to ensure that, despite a good IgG, the foal isn’t at risk for developing sepsis.
FEEDING THE FOAL-NURSE MARE VS MILK REPLACER
Unfortunately, the big issue of feeding the foal long-term now looms ahead of you. Ideally, a nurse mare would be provided as an adopted mom for the foal. Orphaned foals who are raised on a bucket tend to get the reputation of being too tame and lacking in the usual respect for their human counterparts. In short, they can be real jerks. Nurse mares have the double benefit of providing the milk source and eliminating the orphan foal behavior problems.
Nurse mares become mom; so, they
teach their adoptive foal how to be a horse, provide a source of good bacteria for the foals developing gut, and teach grazing and herd behavior. However, it’s not as easy as snapping your fingers and having a mare at the ready.
If you’re further into the foaling season, you may be able to wean an older foal and graft the young orphan onto the mare without much lag time... but what do you do when it’s the first of January? There are folks who specialize in nurse mares, and often can be contacted
to provide the mare and will usually assist in the grafting process. (As an aside, the grafting process needs to be a whole ‘nuther article in itself). Additionally, don’t discount the benefit of social media to find a mare. A request put out on Facebook can generate a large network of nurse mare candidates in a short period
of time. But sadly, sometimes a mare cannot be located, or it’s going to take some time to get her to your place. What do you do then? Commercially available foal milk replacers are a great option for feeding a foal until a nurse mare can be found, or long term if no nurse mare is available.
Milk replacers such as Land O Lakes Mare’s Match Milk Replacer, Buckeye Foal Starter,
or PetAg Foal-Lac Milk Replacer are excellent nutritional options for an orphaned foal. Because foals feed frequently, powdered milk replacer
is a labor-saving option as it can be mixed up
and left out for short periods of time (usually a couple of hours). In very young foals, it is often best to offer this via a bottle set up for the first few days. I like to use a rigid bottle, such as a glass Coca-Cola bottle and a lamb nipple with the teat opening slightly enlarged. As the foal
gets older, and accustomed to the milk replacer, they can be fed from a bucket or feed pan. Most companies, such as the ones listed above, also have milk replacer transition pellets that can be fed as the foal ages. Keep in mind, when feeding a foal from a bottle, you don’t want to force the feeding-let the foal latch and suckle naturally. When we get impatient and try to force the foal to take the bottle, we set the foal up for a real risk of aspiration pneumonia. Also, timely feedings (every 2 hours or even a little more frequent) will be needed for young foals on a bottle. These little ones can be tedious and tricky to get the timing just right. They need to be hungry enough to want to eat, but not so hungry that their blood sugar gets low. When their blood sugar drops,
so do they. The manpower involved in feeding very young foals is where the bucket, pail, or
even more creative vessels (see the yearly facebook posts with the Gatorade cooler and a nipple) come in handy. All of the commercial products provide feeding guidelines based on the age of the foal that include the daily amount that should be
fed, as well as preparation instructions. Another foal feeding option that I personally
have never had the opportunity to try, is goat’s milk. Goat’s milk tends to be very well tolerated by foals; in many cases they seem to like it even better than milk replacer. Ideally, goat’s milk should be diluted 1:1 to avoid constipation in the foal.
HEALTH STATUS OF THE FOAL
While the IgG is critically important, an orphaned foal’s overall health status needs to be thoroughly evaluated. Particular to newborn foals we want to be on the lookout for sepsis. Your veterinarian will want to perform a physical exam, complete blood count and other blood analysis to ensure that, despite a good IgG, the foal isn’t at risk for developing sepsis.
Additionally, if the circumstances surrounding the death of the mare involve an illness or potential toxin, the foal should be thoroughly evaluated regardless of age.
Besides the work involved with feeding milk replacers, they also have the potential to cause diarrhea in the foal. Generally, this is just a
case of too much of a good thing, and the foal
is overeating, or we are providing too much volume at one time. However, as with any young foal, any deviation from normal is a good reason to set up a visit from your veterinarian.
As mentioned above, milk replacer before plasma is a recipe for disaster. We see severe anaphylactic reactions occurring in neonates
who have been fed milk replacer prior to plasma administration. This occurs because the protein in milk replacer is bovine in origin, meaning it has a
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