Orphan abused foal.... :-(

[Secret22]

Last Nite I got a call asking if I wanted a little foal that was seperated ffrom its Mum out in the forest... of course if we didnt take it the man was gna make it dog meat so Mum couldnt say no...

It is a gorgeous bay with a lovely white star on its forehead and the sweetest little angel ever.

The man that I got him from had taken all his boys out with him in the forest and were chasing the herds and obvisouly split him and his Mum up then they tyed him to there horses tail n dragged him all the way home with wasnt a short distance and that was after they had chased him miles with his herd... My poor little guy was wrecked when he got home and then after that they couldnt be bothered feeding him only three times a day of another mare which wasnt enough :no:

He is so weak but is recovering quickly and I hope he makes a full recovery...

NOW lol I need some help.................... NAMES!!! HAHA I have to find a name for him... I would like his show name to be African or maybe his paddock anem but not both as the lady that is helping me out is from Africa.

Any name opinions would be GREATLY appreciated (show names and paddock) also any tipz on raising a foal would be great too!!

Thanks forum family!!! x0x0

 

[nootka]

Approx. how old is he?

Have you got foal milk replacer either the powder to make liquid or pellets? His nutritional needs are great right now and I am going to assume he's old enough to have had colostrum so that shouldn't be an issue.

Are there other horses he can hang with to get him to feeling comfortable and increase his mental well being?

My greatest victory in raising our week-old orphan was to get one of our other, gentle broodmares that had given birth a week prior to his birth, to accept him in the paddock with her and her colt, where they played and she became a sort of "foster" to him. he learned that when her own colt was nursing, he could sneak in from behind and grab a sip now and then in addition to the bottles we fed him.

I would consult with a good vet and look at the name thing as I, too, love some of the African names. We had some family friends from Ethiopia, and they were such beautiful, melodic names.

Liz M.

 

[Secret22]

Um we dont think he is much older than 1 week old... Oh and yea we do have the foal milk powder.

 

[nootka]

I suppose just keep a close eye on him for signs of dehydration, fever, and other symptoms of possible colic or infection (input is as important as output, just like in human children).

He is pretty young.

I was looking at a name site and this one sort of leapt out at me:

Bamidele: African Yoruba for "Follow Me Home"

Seemed apropos. Maybe you could run it past your friend and see if she agrees, also if she could help w/pronunciation. Bami for short?

Here is one of the sites I looked at:

Male African Names

Of the family we knew, the father was absent (believed killed in their home country by government forces, though he was found many years later and now lives w/his family in the us), but the son's name was Tesfalem (not sure of the spelling). I don't know the meaning, either.

All the other family members were female, so that won't be any help!

Liz

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I'm a bit at a loss here- why would they expend all that time and energy to get one foal- or did they catch the rest of the mob and he was just separate??

And then why would they raise him for- what three days and then give him away??

Some people, it just makes you wonder.

Hopefully he is a lot older than a week- I would be surprised if he were that young as i doubt a week old foal would have survived such treatment- I'm surprised the horse did not kick it to death when they tied it onto it's tail.

 

[Miniv]

Is this a mini? Pony? Big horse foal? (I'm assuming big horse foal?)

The whole things sounds very wierd. Can't they find his mother? You'd think she'd be out searching for him, calling for him - plus she'd have a full bag, so it would be easy to identify her.

In the meantime, you need to feed him every 2 hours to start with. A vet check will help determine his age and approximate weight, which will help with knowing how much he needs per feeding.

By the time our orphan was about a month old, we were able to feed him about every 3 to 4 hours, plus we added Foal Lac Pellets, some hay and grain to his diet.

MA

 

[Secret22]

I'm a bit at a loss here- why would they expend all that time and energy to get one foal- or did they catch the rest of the mob and he was just separate??

And then why would they raise him for- what three days and then give him away??

Some people, it just makes you wonder.

Hopefully he is a lot older than a week- I would be surprised if he were that young as i doubt a week old foal would have survived such treatment- I'm surprised the horse did not kick it to death when they tied it onto it's tail.

In answer to you RabbitsFizz... Well they were catching the grown up horses and chasing them all over the place and the foal must of got left behind and they said that they just caught it because it was there not because they paticually wanted it. No the horse it got tyed to wouldnt have kicked it to death because it is highly trained for that sort of thing and it tows wild horses in all the time... We believe he is between 7-11 days old as we had quite a few experienced horse people inspect him and this is what they all thought.

The Mum probably is out there some where but it is a MASSIVE forest that covers all of one coast of where I live and I wouldnt know where to start looking and i doubt that the mare would take it back after so much human contact. There are also hundreds of thousands of herds out there so looking for the mare would be difficult.

Oh and yes it is a Pony foal...

Thanks for all the advice that has come in so far!!