taking a foal from straw to shavings

[user 3234]

After a foal is born how long should you wait before you can use pine shavings in mare/foal stall instead of straw?

Sherry

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

I usually wait a couple weeks..

 

[kaykay]

I rarely use straw at all anymore. usually i put shavings on the bottom and straw on top. but since we are there for every birth and dry the foal completely we mostly use shavings now. IF I do use straw I only leave it the first day and go back to shavings. The shavings are really only a problem when the foal is wet and not up and moving yet. I hate straw. Too hard to clean and takes forever to compost

 

[WLS]

I am too very cautious about this. I have a friend whom had a young filly that ate shavings, developed an impaction in her stomach, required very expensive surgery to save. her.

So I use straw for foaling and then switch to a wood pellet bedding a couple of weeks later. If the foal should eat the pellets, the pellet will just dissolve and pass through. Much safer for the foal and I don't worry.

Also watch the mares on straw , some will just eat all their bedding and even colic. The best place for a mare and foal.........outside. Good Luck. Wendy

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Complete opposite her, never use shavings, only ever use straw- shavings takes way longer to rot if a proper much heap is maintained, but anyway that's hardly the point at the moment is it??

Straw is completely safe, foals rarely are physically able to eat it, but I am able to get good clean straw economically.

If you can I would rather see a foal on clean shavings that on dirty straw, obviously.

Shavings is not warm, though, so you would have to leave it until it is warm enough, or at least until you are sure the foal is regulating it's own body heat properly.

It would depend on how cold it is where you are at the moment.

 

[wildoak]

I generally use coastal hay instead of straw - more available to me, less mess and I don't worry if the mare eats it. I only leave it down for a few days after the mare foals. I have a mare up now who can't eat grass hay, she will colic in a heartbeat so she will be foaling on shavings with a layer pelleted bedding underneath. I LOVE the pellets for foaling, under whatever you use. Much more absorbent and easier to clean out after foaling. My choice too would be outside foaling on nice grass - but I can't watch mares that way, unless they are cooperative enough to foal in the daylight, and the runs I use don't have much grass at the moment LOL.

Jan

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Three or four days then switch over to shavings. At one place I worked we foaled everyone out on shavings and it worked very well. Trick is to use high quality shavings that are clean and picked very well to remove all wet spots. I personally hate straw, and it costs almost double hay here!

 

[Becky]

I foal my mares out on shavings with a layer of grass hay over the top. The mares can eat the hay with no worries about colic and the foals have a nice, soft, clean surface to be born on and sleep in. I will add more hay the day they are born and depending on the weather, will gradually start removing it each day. Usually, but the time they are a few days to a week old, there is no more hay in the stall. Only shavings.

 

[Carolyn R]

I use shavings with straw on top, then graduate to all shavings after a week or so.

The following is my opinion, and my opinion only due to personal experiences........

IMO----I will NEVER use pelleted bedding on a young horse again. I had a foal two years ago that dug through the powdered pellets (had already been fully expanded) to find the pellets that weren't expanded. She ate them and got a deadly impaction, she apparently was swallowing chunks of the smaller pellets and once water hit those little chunks forget it,contacted the company, because the bag says it is 100% safe, all the workers at the store said it was 100% safe, the manufacturer said they would work with their marketing to put some type of label on the bag. Never happened of course.

The bag states that you should not worry, if your animal tries some they will find them unappealing and spit them out, hmmmmm, baby mini, much smaller intestinal track than a full size foal, and they put their mouths on everything. For God's sake, they will even lick rocks, simply because they can.

 

[minih]

I use shavings on the bottom and good hay on top. The straw was always too hard for me, this way also the mom can eat wherever the little happens to decide he wants some milk from mom.

Usually after about 2 or 3 days we quit putting the hay on and gradually switch over to the shavings.

 

[Matt73]

The main reason I've heard that it's better to use straw for foaling is that shavings hold and trap more bacteria. So there is more of a risk of infection of the umbilical stump. When I used shavings I used straw for the first week and then switched back; just as long is it take the stump to heal. We've got a BIG barn full of straw from last year's wheat harvest, so even though I love love love shavings, it doesn't make much sense to use them economically speaking

 

[dgrminis]

I am glad to see other people do what we do

We lay down the shavings and then we put hay on top of the shavings -- that way it is soft and the shavings are covered for when baby is first born and all wet so they dont stick to them and also so momma can munch away all she wants in there

It has worked very nicely for us and the hay is also pretty warm so they can snuggle up in it and not have to worry about getting chilled...

 

[Charlotte]

Hay over shavings here is my vote. I found some really clean orchard grass at Red Earth a few weeks ago & really like that for foaling. My top priorities are ..dust free and warmth. I put down some very clean fine shavings on the bottom for absorbancy (is that a word?). Then a deep layer of very clean big chips (I like Sun Coast that I get at Cross Feed). The big chps keep baby from getting down to the fine stuff, but are better insulating than the fine bedding, then a deep layer of hay over all. I think you can see the size of the big chips in these pix. The bottom pic has costal (bermuda) hay over the chips. Shavings just don't provide enouth insulation if the weather is cold like NOW!

Even the three week old filly has on 2 blankets and I had to put hay back in her stall!

I think someone forgot spring this year!

Charlotte