Help on Orphan Foal

[Angloarabian]

Here's the situation: My mare gave birth to a foal a few days ago. Huge buckskin colt. She rejected him immediately. Even under heavy sedation, she would still attack him whenever he tried to nurse. A normally sweet mare, it was really unexpected. She is a maiden mare, though. I milked her until the the chlostrom was gone and fed it to him in a bottle. Then we got milk replacer and have been feeding the boy out of a bottle made for calves. Its hanging in the stall in a foal halter that makes a good harness for it. Someone goes out and changes it every couple hours or so and normally he's finished it off. He seems to be doing good. I need to mention too that the mare developed a problem a few weeks ago with eating. She started losing weight rapidly, and we could see that she wasn't swollowing her hay. The vet came out to float her teeth and said they were fine and that it was something in her throat. The only way to tell would be through x-ray or endoscopy under sedation, neither which could be done while she was expecting. We put her on an alfalfa pellet/beet pulp mash and she was beginning to gain wieght again, but was still really thin. So here are the questions: Did her health have anything to do with rejecting him (she never developed a significant udder)? Will she reject her foal next time too? Is there anything else I should be doing with my little boy? HELP!

[tammysinnett]

good luck sounds like he is doing well----every two hours whos the one going without sleep??? anyway I do wish you the best of luck

[madelyn]

You could have VERY EASILY just taught him to drink milk out of a bucket and be done with it. That is what I did with my orphan (mare died when he was 3 days old). Also, supplement that with foal starter pellets. The difference is that you mix the milk replacer in two or five gallon lots and feed it free choice. The bottle is unnecessary.

Regarding the mare, has the endoscopy been done now that she has foaled? Was the problem ever determined? When you say you milked until the colostrum was gone, how did you determine that? Was there no milk at all behind it? The no milk/no bag could have been a sign of fescue toxicosis.

[smilton]

My mare did the same thing but we think it was because he uracus did not close of correctly and she was trying to help natural selection out as there was something wrong with him. She actively tried to stomp him to death.
Vet recommended not breeding her again because there was a very good chance she would do it to her next foal even if there wasn't anything wrong with it.
Foal is now a happy healthy 5yr old gelding. His uracus closed off on its own when he was three weeks old and put on a little more weight.

[Rushtawin]

Good luck with your buckskin baby, and I hope the mare improves!

[henthorn]

I wouldn't pre-judge your mare until you figure out her physical problem. Hopefully the ill behavior was mostly due to her own illness.