Preparing for an orphan foal?! Need help!

[acresaway]

Hello all - I am devastated with the fact that I may have an orphan foal soon. Long story so I will just to get to the many questions I have - I have tried searching these topics on the forum but I cant find answers to all my questions.

From everything I read, it seems having the baby nurse from a shallow pan works the best - I am not interested in trying a bottle as I am worried about asphyxiation and the fact that its more time consuming (Im not lazy but I know nursing a foal will be time consuming and tiring and more so with a bottle) .

If i cannot get foal lac powder in time, can I use some other formula in the mean time... something that perhaps tractor supply carries?

What is the correct amount of powder to water dilution? How much should be given... and what is the timeline to increase it?

Colt was born last Friday afternoon!

Thanks all, I am sure I will have more questions coming soon!

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

The best solution is a foster mare/donkey/goat who will take the foal. Failing that you can use goats milk until you get the correct formula. When you have the formula you will need to use the directions on the packet as it varies from brand to brand. If it was born last friday it would hoepfully have gotten all the colostrum but i would have a vet check anyway incase it needs any immune boosters.

Can i ask why you may loose the mare? xx

 

[chandab]

You can use canned Goat's milk from the grocery store while you wait for Foal Lac, it's actually probably better than many of the powdered products you use, but it's very expensive.

I haven't fed a mini foal, so don't know the quantity for them. If you can get the foal to drink out of a bowl, it will be somewhat easier for you, but you still need to provide fresh milk round the clock when they are very young.

 

[ohmt]

Call your vet and ask what they think is best until the foal lac powder comes in. Jill had a post, I think in the Best Of Forum, when she had her "bottle baby" (pan baby) that really helped me a lot when my foal was orphaned. Wish you the best of luck!

 

[mystic collies]

Jill's advice was stellar. We follorwed it last Spring and our botte baby is now a beautiful yearling

 

[paintponylvr]

I know that when we started with our filly in 1996 - we milked the mare and bottle fed her. That lasted about 2 days and then the filly refused to take the bottle (the mare had refused her foal and kept attacking her, the foal received a blood, plasma transfusion and fluids IV.). So, I stuck a small bowl with her dam's milk in it under the filly's nose and she "lapped" it right up. I still had some of the mare's milk a couple of days later when the mare "dried up" (became a real witch about being milked and then started drying up), and we then mixed that with Foal Lac (the only thing available to us then in Northern MT). I was lucky a feed store had it when I needed it and that I didn't have to wait.

Wasn't long, we couldn't keep up with feeding her every 2 hours (I was often working 70 hours a week, not the standard 40)... So I made up the formula and during the day, kept it in a bucket for her (until it turned too hot, the gallon jug sat behind the post that the bucket was attached to, anyone could check to make sure there was milk in her bucket several times a day). First in the camper trailer she was in during a snow storm and then later in the pen she lived in for several months. I had a "mini" (8 qt) bucket w/ no nipples, and used it. I was VERY thankful that it worked! She wasn't a difficult foal at all.

The purple bucket behind her head is her milk bucket. The gallon milk jug is on the ground behind the post... There weren't as many flies up in MT as there are here in NC. I don't know if we could do this here...

***

Years later, I would provide a 2 month old shetland filly to keep an orphan TWH filly company (she was 2 weeks old @ the death of her dam to colic and starting to "fail" from depression despite IV and medical care - she simply wouldn't eat! Her crying was similar to my daughters' when she was in NICU the first week of her life). Our little filly was bigger than the TWH filly at first - taught her to suck up milk and sweet feed from a flat pan on the ground. That feed pan was filled several times daily - by whatever employee or other person that happened by the stall. Both fillies became VERY friendly as they learned that their "slush" came from PEOPLE... (Our Shetland mare wouldn't accept the TWH foal, so we just left our filly and removed the mare - It WORKED!). By the time the filly was a month older, she was towering over our filly, but still very much dependent on her. Separating them when the TWH filly was 5 months old was the same as weaning a "regular" foal from it's dam.

***

Today, there are a lot of other products besides Foal Lac. You could try different ones, if Foal Lac doesn't work or if the foal isn't happy about it. Just follow the instructions for mixing and then try different methods of giving it. I love the bucket method and free choice is even better! I know of several breeders (big horses) that put buckets of "milk" into the stalls with their mares and foals to drink - giving them fresh buckets several times a day as they consume it.

You can try a milk goat or a nurse mare, too.

 

[stormy]

Buckeye will send you milk replacer overnight if you go to their site....

 

[acresaway]

Thanks everyone. I found a feed store close by that carries the Foal Lac and Mares Match so I will try to use the foal lac. I am sure I will be back with more questions soon.

 

[acresaway]

How many ounces of Foal Lac should he be drinking at 2 weeks old? I am feeding him every two hours as he seems hungry but I believe I read somewhere he can go every 4 hours.

Thanks,

Dawn

 

[chandab]

What does the packaging say? I know the directions mostly talk about amounts for full-size foals, but you should be able to do the math and scale it down for a mini foal. Is the foal from A-size or B-size parents? If from A-size parents, then probably about 1/4 the recommended amounts for full-size foal of same age. If from B-size parents then probably about 1/3 the recommended amounts for full-size foal of same age. This should give you a place to start, til someone comes on with more knowledge of bottle feeding a mini foal.

 

[Allure Ranch]

Feel free to contact me (Kimberle) at (210) 789-0925 at anytime. I've been tending to an orphaned foal since February 25, 2014 who's dam passed.