Advice please! New horse in foal and due very soon :-/

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Benefice1

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Hi everyone, a little bit of background....I keep my horses at my dad's home and had a spare stable. I asked around if anyone wanted it and met a lovely more mature lady who had had horses in the past but had had a long break and was looking to buy a safe sensible horse to hack.
We looked at lots of horses and finally in October found "Armani", a 7yr coloured cob mare. She is everything and more that the lady wanted and has proved to be a lovely gentle safe girl. She keeps her with mine but I do the stable side of things as she works funny hours and its easier just do everything at once. Everyone was happy.
Anyway, when we bought her she had a bit of a tum but she'd been out of proper work and just looked as though she needed fittening up. She wasn't vetted.*
Over the last few weeks she has literally ballooned, even though she's only on hay...I thought it prudent to get her looked at and the vet came out yesterday. And yep she's in foal and quite far gone!
Spoke to prev owner who said they had no idea?! And that they'd had her 8 months before my friend brought her which would take us back to February. This means if she was covered before then that the foal will be here in the next month or so, the vet said perhaps February so...? :-/
Has anyone else had an unexpected foal or has anyone had a winter foal?!
Although I've had horses for a long time I have very little experience of pregnant mares, foaling and foals.
Our vet is amazing and so we can ask him for advice/help at anytime but wondered whether top tips people had leading up to the birth and for those first few weeks after. I'm just concerned about the cold.
Sorry its so long! Any experiences or advice would be amazing x
 
Probably a good idea for starters is to buy a couple of the classic guides to foaling and rearing youngsters - here's a copy of advice from an earlier HHO thread:

DVD - The Nature of Foaling (available from http://www.foaling.com) - a fantastic, informative DVD, and presents everything in a really easy to understand format.

Books -
The complete book of foaling (Karen Hayes), Your mares first foal (Jane Skepper), Complete foaling manual (Theresa Jones), Foal to full grown (Janet Lorch), Your First Foal (Karin Kattwinkel) - all available from http://www.amazon.co.uk

Websites - http://www.eqwest.co.uk/Factsheets/F...ts/foaling.htm
http://www.stallionsdirect.com/mares/foaling.html
http://www.equine-reproduction.com/a...predicting.htm
http://www.dclahdvm.com/articles/foaling.htm

A lot of vets also have fact sheets and videos on foaling, so yours might have? Don't get scared by all the illustrations of things that can go wrong - they rarely do, but it's useful to know what to look out for. Take a look at all the threads on HHO on milk testing as well, as they will tell you how to get a kit that won't cost a fortune but will give you a reasonably accurate guide as to when the mare is likely to foal down. (Save you sitting up for many nights!)

And the key thing is don't be afraid to ask questions - on here or other breeding related forums - the Horsebreeders Forum for instance : http://horsebreeders.forumotion.co.uk/ There are a lot of people out there who are very experienced and happy to help. And you will end up with a very special addition to the family!!
 
Oh dear, not ideal, but not a disaster either. The mare is a cob, so the stallion is likely to be a similar type, so the foal will cope well as long as the mare has plenty of milk.

For now, start to study the mare's udder, do this at least twice a day. You will see developments/changes every day. As the mare is in the later stages of her pregnancy, the udder is likely to be quite developed. Each day you will notice that one side may be bigger than the other, one or both teats will look quite swollen and the udder will increase in size. By making a study of this, you will have a good idea when the birth is getting close. 24-48 hours before foaling the udder will become very large and the teats will look swollen, usually, but not always, little drops of a wax like substance will appear on the end of the teats, bingo, that's the sign that foaling is likely within 24-48 hours. The muscles either side of the top of her tail will soften or sink and you will see a groove there.

If the mare has a stable it would be better that she foals in there on a nice deep straw bed. When she goes into labour, she will appear very restless, this first stage can last all night, it is better to leave the mare in peace and watch from a distance where you will not disturb her. Once her waters have broken, she will lie down and start to push, getting up and down many times during this stage of labour. You will see a greyish bag emerging from the mare's vagina, as she continues to push the foal's front feet will be visible through the bag, followed by the foal's nose. Do not be tempted to break the bag at this stage as the foal could suffocate. The mare will continue to push and the foal will emerge slowly, the mare stopping for a breather a few times. This stage of labour takes about 45 minutes, if the mare has been pushing and there is no sign of the foal, or if progress stops, call the vet as an emergency.

Once the foal is born, his back legs may still be inside the mare and she will be exhausted, as long as the foal's head is free of the bag, just leave them quietly together, do not intervene. The foal will start to struggle to get up and the mare will ususally talk quietly to him, she may stay down for 10-30 minutes, but unless you see something that is not right, leave them to bond quietly. When the foal is trying to get up, the umbilical cord will break naturally and the mare will get up and start to lick her foal.

The foal will flounder about for quite a while, trying to stand and falling over, this is normal. Once on his feet he will begin his search for the udder, looking in all the wrong places, especially if he's a colt. He should sort himself out and be sucking within a couple of hours. He will need the umbilical stump dressed with either a terramycin spray or iodine. The mare should pass the afterbirth within a couple of hours, but if it is still hanging, you can tie it in a knot so that she does not stand on it, you may need the vet to remove it.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
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