by Carin Smith, DVM
You’ve been waiting for this day for months. The last few weeks you hardly slept, creeping out to the barn several times each night to be sure your mare was doing well.
In spite of all your worries, though, your mare delivered a healthy foal during one of your naps. You arrive at the barn to see a wet, wobbly colt searching for its first meal. What next?
Chances are you took all the necessary steps to keep your mare healthy during pregnancy, so your foal has had a vigorous head start. However, after your mare delivers the foal, there are particular points to keep in mind to ensure its continued good health.
First Steps
Your foal’s first few days of life are the most critical. Several important events should occur during the first few hours. A typical foal is able to rise and nurse within two hours of birth. While you may be tempted to assist, it is best to allow the foal to find its own way through trial and error.
Once the foal has nursed, you should dip its umbilical cord in an iodine solution. The cord is an open pathway for bacteria to enter the foal’s bloodstream. This opening dries and closes during the first 24 hours of the foal’s life.
Some veterinarians recommend that you use strong tincture of iodine, while others advocate using a mild iodine solution. (Don’t use iodine soap.)
Whichever product you use, be sure to apply it only on the umbilical area and not on the surrounding sensitive skin. At the same time, be sure the entire umbilical stump is well coated with disinfectant. The easiest way to do this is to put the iodine in a small cup and hold that up to the umbilical area while the foal is standing. Dip the cord every few hours for two or more treatments.
Watch your foal to confirm that it passes the meconium, or first manure, which formed in the foal’s system while it was in the uterus. Some foals can become mildly impacted and may require an enema. Suspect this is the case if meconium has not begun to pass within a few hours of birth.
You can have your veterinarian administer an enema or you may do it yourself. Check with your vet to be sure your technique is appropriate and that you are using a safe product.
The urinary system is another source of potential trouble. During the first day of life, be sure that the foal urinates normally and that nothing is dripping out of the navel area.
During development, the foal’s urinary bladder empties out of the umbilicus. This tube normally closes at birth, but occasionally the process goes awry and urine continues to leak out of the navel.
Post-Foaling Exam
Always have your veterinarian come out to perform a post-foaling examination on both the mare and foal. This is money well spent, since waiting to treat a problem (whose existence you might be unaware of) could result in enormous medical bills. Also, any delay in treatment of a foal’s illness could be life threatening. Catching potential problems early minimizes the amount of trouble they may cause.
Assuming that everything appears normal, most veterinarians prefer to examine mare and foal between 10 and 24 hours after the birth. Of course, you will schedule an earlier exam if you suspect any trouble whatsoever.
Your veterinarian begins with an examination of the mare. After a general physical, the reproductive tract is checked for tears or bruising. The mare’s bag is examined to detect any infection and to ensure there is adequate milk.
You have, hopefully, saved the placenta (afterbirth) in a bucket for your veterinarian to examine. Normally, the mare will pass the placenta within about eight hours of delivering the foal. Call your veterinarian if this does not occur, since the mare could become sick or suffer from laminitis. Never try to remove the placenta yourself.
The placenta is checked to be sure all the parts are present, since retaining even a small portion could make the mare very ill. Also, certain abnormal appearances of the placenta could suggest potential problems in the foal.
Your mare will receive a tetanus booster if she didn’t get one within a few months prior to foaling. Sometimes, if there is a lot of bruising present, the mare is given a mild laxative to make passing manure a little less painful.
The foal is then given a thorough examination. Each veterinarian has a routine procedure that is followed with all foals. These steps vary among veterinarians and between foals depending on individual circumstances.
Many foals are given tetanus antitoxin and a vitamin injection. If the surroundings are extremely dirty, the foal may be given an antibiotic injection as well. However, routinely giving newborn foals a single injection of penicillin is not recommended.
The foal is examined for congenital abnormalities including cleft palate, cataracts, and malformations of the limbs or jaw.
Your foal should have a blood sample taken to check for adequate absorption of antibody from the mare’s colostrum. This is a test which more than pays for itself. If we detect low antibody levels before your foal gets sick rather than afterwards, you will save money, time, and perhaps your foal’s life.
Signs of Trouble
The field of veterinary neonatology has grown tremendously in the past decade. Veterinarians are able to recognize and treat many disorders that were fatal in the past. However, the first step still lies in spotting any problems to begin with. That begins with you, the foal’s owner and constant observer.
Foals are delicate and can become ill quickly, so keep in mind the signals that require an immediate call to your veterinarian.
Call the vet if your foal has not stood and nursed within two hours of birth. This is a signal that something may be wrong, and waiting will only compound the situation. Whatever the reason for lack of nursing, the result is that the foal does not receive necessary antibodies to fight illness.
Inadequate intake of colostrum during the first day of life can result in a variety of illnesses, from diarrhea to pneumonia to joint infections. Without those protective antibodies from the mare, the foal is much more susceptible to disease.
Certain other conditions are known to be associated with a higher risk of illness in foals. These include excessive leakage of colostrum from the mare prior to foaling, early umbilical cord rupture, and prolonged labor.
Occasionally, a foal passes meconium while still in the uterus, and this material can be inhaled (you will see meconium on the foal when it is delivered). Foals delivered outdoors in poor weather, those that do not nurse within three hours of birth, and premature foals are also at higher risk of illness.
How can you tell if a foal is premature? The length of gestation is not the only measure of maturity. While the average pregnancy lasts about 340 days, normal foals can be born sooner or later than that. In contrast, a foal born at the correct gestational age may still show signs of prematurity due to delayed maturation or a uterine infection in the mare.
Learn to look for symptoms of prematurity or dysmaturity in the newborn foal. Signs include low birth weight, weakness, a short and silky hair coat, lax tendons, and difficulty in standing.
Observe your newborn foal carefully for signs of illness. Although all foals sleep a lot, one sign of illness is sleeping all the time or a dopey attitude. Colic, diarrhea, coughing or difficult breathing are also signs of a problem. Call your veterinarian immediately if you see any of these signs.
Colic (abdominal pain) in the neonatal foal can have many causes, but two of the more common ones are meconium impaction and a ruptured urinary bladder. The appearance of a foal with a ruptured urinary bladder or a meconium impaction may be similar. However, foals with urinary bladder rupture typically are noticed at about three days of age with a visibly distended abdomen. The foal with a meconium impaction shows signs a little sooner, with colic symptoms during the first and second days of life.
Colts suffer from urinary bladder rupture more commonly than fillies. The problem occurs if the bladder is full and receives sudden pressure during delivery.
Another potential illness in the foal is neonatal isoerythrolysis, or hemolytic anemia of the newborn. This problem is similar to the Rh blood type incompatibility in human infants. However, since foals do not absorb antibody while in the uterus, they do not develop symptoms until after they nurse and absorb colostrum.
Neonatal isoerythrolysis occurs in foals that have a different blood type than their dam. The mare became sensitized from a previous birth, when exposure to the foreign blood type of a foal caused the mare to develop antibodies. If the mare is bred again to the same stallion, and if the foal shares the stallion’s blood type, then trouble can result.
The foal absorbs antibodies to its own red blood cells when it nurses and takes in colostrum from the mare. The result is severe anemia that can be fatal.
Problems with neonatal isoerythrolysis can be avoided by blood typing both parents or by avoiding breedings with incompatible stallions. If an incompatible breeding has occurred, the foal will not become ill if it is not allowed to nurse during the first two days of its life.
After that time, the foal’s gut is no longer capable of absorbing antibodies and it may be allowed to nurse. In the meantime, many foals are muzzled while in the mare’s presence rather than being separated entirely from the mare.
Healthy Foal Care
While you need to be aware of all the potential problems that could arise with your foal, chances are that everything has gone smoothly and the foal is doing just fine.
Remember to begin handling early to accustom your foal to everyday experiences of grooming, picking the feet, and a routine physical examination, including taking its temperature and opening its mouth.
Schedule vaccinations and a deworming at two to three months of age. Provide the newborn foal with a large exercise area, plenty of sunshine, and tender loving care, and nature will take care of the rest.
Dr. Carin Smith has been a practicing veterinarian since 1984. She is a regular contributor to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and is the author of Easy Health Care For Your Horse.
