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Newborn Foal

It’s important to monitor carefully the first few hours of a healthy newborn foal

Newborn Foal

It’s important to monitor carefully the first few hours of a healthy newborn foal and to recognise any problems at an early stage.

Umbilicus: the umbilicus should break naturally at its weak point when the mare stands or turns to lick the foal. We should avoid breaking it ourselves or clamp it. The umbilicus is an open hole to the foal’s abdomen, very good source for infections. So, once it is broken, you should treat it with 0.5% chlorhexidine solution or spray it with antibiotic.

At 24h after foaling, the umbilicus should be dry!

It is essential to follow the 1-2-3 rule!

STAGE 1

Standing

Immediately after birth, the foal should position itself in sternal. The foal should stand up within 1 hour post-foaling.

Once the foal gets up, it should stands for 15 minutes.

STAGE 2

Nursing

The foal should be nursing within 2 hours post-foaling.

STAGE 3

Meconium

 The foal should passing the meconium (the first faeces that are hard and darkish) within 3 hours post-foaling.

Urination: the foal should pee between 6 – 12 hours after foaling. It is important to observe it coming full stream and without effort.

Call your vet if your foal unable to stand up quickly after birth.

Call your vet if your foal has not drunk any milk in the first 2 hours of life.

Call your vet if milk has seen coming out of the nostrils.

Call your vet if the mare does not allow the foal to nurse.

Call your vet if no meconium has been seen after 3 hours post-foaling.

YOUR VET SHOULD DO A CHECK-UP ON YOUR FOAL AT 12-24h POST-FOALING!

The newborn foal will be administered a tetanus antitoxin and a blood sample will be taken to check passive transfer of immunity (level of IgG) and any potential evidence of an impending infection.

The foals are born immune naïve. They need to get enough colostrum (the first milk) with antibodies to get protected for the first months of life. If the IgG levels are low in its blood, your foal will need to have a plasma transfusion to get immunity.

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