The arrival of a new foal is a miracle. First, you have the cost and anxiety of getting the mare bred. Then it's 11 months of waiting and preparing. The big moment arrives and you're full of nervous anticipation as you watch the birth progress and make sure that everything goes smoothly. At long last you have a beautiful baby on the ground and a tired but content mother. And then the real work begins... within the first couple of hours of life that little foal needs to learn how to stand up and nurse from it's mother to get the valuable first milk (colostrum) full of antibodies that will keep it healthy and strong through the first months of life.
Watching a foal learn to stand and nurse is honestly one of the most frustrating parts of the process, at least for me. It is remarkable that they can master these skills so quickly but watching the fumbling attempts and trying not to intervene any more than is necessary so that they learn on their own is a challenge. At times, the foal needs assistance in figuring things out and we try to get involved quickly in these cases as the clock is ticking on the foal's need to get colostrum into them. I am far from an expert at teaching a foal to nurse- Dehan is the one with the patience of a saint- but we've had our fair share of practice and often get asked about the process from new breeders who are struggling so here are a few tips that we've learned along the way.
- We always start by gently pointing the foal at the udder to see if they will figure out the suckling on their own. At times, a simple prod in the right direction is all it takes. If not, we then move to putting our fingers in the foal's mouth to trigger the suckling reflex and then moving our hand down next to the udder and transitioning the foal from our fingers to the teat. This approach works best with at least two people, as often you need someone standing behind to foal to keep them in position and a second person doing the finger-to-udder transition underneath the mare.
- A little bit of something sweet on the teat (or bottle, if you end up going that route) can be a lifesaver for encouraging the foal to suckle and then get milk in their mouth. The easiest route is to milk a little bit of colostrum onto your fingers and then spread it on the teat. If that's not exciting enough you can also use Karo syrup or honey. The foals generally love the taste and want to get as much of it as possible, which leads them to suckling. As an added bonus, the sugar give them a quick energy boost.
- In some cases we find that the size of the foal presents challenges for nursing well. If the foal is tall and the mare is short it can be awkward to get into the correct position. At times we have helped the process by putting the mare in our trimming stocks or standing her uphill from the foal to give her a few extra inches of height.
- If the foal can't master nursing on the mare's udder you can offer a bottle to try and get the colostrum in the foal. I can't stress enough that nursing is very time sensitive so while we may leave the pair alone for an hour or two if the foal is making an effort, by the end of a couple of hours if the process is not figured out we are moving on to plan B. In the end, the foal always prefers the udder to a bottle so we're not overly concerned about ending up with a long term bottle baby. But in the short term the important part is getting that colostrum in the foal quickly so we will milk a few ounces of colostrum into the bottle and offer it to the foal. It's important not to milk out all of the colostrum at once when attempting a bottle, as if the foal refuses the bottle you have no way to get it back into the mare! We have had the best luck with a simple baby bottle with the nipple cut a little wider to allow faster milk flow. Others use a lamb or kid bottle for foals. It generally comes down to what the individual foal will take and we have a few different styles on hand to try if needed.
- Some foals are born as 'dummy foals' and have a poor interest in or ability to suckle. In these cases, foals can be helped by a technique called the Madigan Squeeze. The procedure uses a system of ropes to squeeze the foal and simulate the pressure of the birth canal in an attempt to 'reset' the system and initiate a suckling reflex. I can't explain the process terribly well but there are many videos and articles explaining it and being aware of this option is the first step to tracking them down if you need it.
- When all else fails, if the foal cannot nurse the udder and won't accept a bottle or has no suckling reflex at all it's important to get a vet involved and they will put a tube down the nose and into the stomach and administer the colostrum that way. This is not the ideal scenario but it is essential if the foal will not nurse on their own.
- Regardless of the method used to get the colostrum in the foal we always follow up with a test of the foal's antibody levels (an IgG test) at 12-24 hours after birth. This shows how well the antibodies were absorbed by the foal and gives and early indicator if the foal will need additional immunity in the form of plasma or additional colostrum supplementation.
As I shared, nursing training is not my favorite part of the foaling process but it is incredibly important for getting foals off to a good start. Draft foals seem to have a higher than average incidence of nursing challenges but the good news is that they are generally short lived. Once the foal gets a taste of mom's milk and figures out how to make it flow there's no stopping them! I'm thankful for the help of my husband and horsey friends as we work through the process and grateful for every single foal that makes it through and moves on to being a champion eater without my assistance.
Dehan starts a Gypsy foal off with a bottle full of colostrum. In this case, the mare is older and her udder was so large that he couldn't get his mouth on the teats well. We had to continue milking out the mare and offering colostrum in the bottle until her teats were small and soft enough for the colt to latch on without our assistance.