am I doing the right thing or should the RSPCA take my pony away

I know! Lol. You'd think I wanted to remove a leg, not a bit of her coat!
This is why am asking advice its not my opinoin or the vets that counts its everyone elses! Am cruel if I do and cruel if I don't.
 
klipped said:
This is why am asking advice its not my opinoin or the vets that counts its everyone elses!
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Absolutely. Why should you, who sees your foal every day, or your vet, have any input in this decision. We random strangers on an Internet forum, can obviously make a much more educated guess as to whether to clip your foal or not ;).
 
Its more about "public opinoin" than what I should or shouldn't do.

I am pretty sure if I see a foal clipped I'd ask why!
I am sure someone else has been in the same situation. Was hoping they'd pipe up lol

Regardless going to do a bib tomorrow. I'll post pictures.

That way it will be clear she survived lol
 
I have done a full clip on a hairy 8 month old foal, but I had rescued him, and he was crawling with lice, (clipped on vets advice ) He looked pretty smart too :p , much easier to treat the sores he had
 
klipped said:
I know! Lol. You'd think I wanted to remove a leg, not a bit of her coat!
This is why am asking advice its not my opinoin or the vets that counts its everyone elses! Am cruel if I do and cruel if I don't.
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I still haven't worked out if your vet thinks this is a good idea or not. Personally I'd tend to be guided by a vet's advice, not the advice of a load of strangers who have never seen your foal.

I thought you'd probably made your mind up anyway, seeing your other threads re clippers. :-))
 
Just take the rug off and leave her as nature intended. If she has a thick coat and a rug, she will be itchy because of the heat... others have said this aswell ... winters not hit yet.... she or he will need her coat when it does
 
Can I just point out that your light wicking rug to dry her out will trap all the air in her long coat and create a massive insulating, and warming, effect? She has her own wicking coat. I would not rug her, not would I clip her when the temperature could be minus five tomorrow or next week.
 
OP- is your foal the little fluffy chesnut thing? I seen the same problem being asked on a 'chatty' facebook page. If so.... she is absolutely gorgeous!

If you are that person, my sister in law left you a comment on that page- she clipped out her rescued shetland foal when she was about a year old or so- she was very very itchy and uncomfortable. She coped absolutely fine, was rugged when the temp took a turn, and she lived at the bottom of the Pentland hills so in pretty rugged surroundings.

Clipping a foal isn't really a done thing, but you know your pony, and if you need it and the vet says its fine, then why not try just taking a little off the neck to start with, then its not the end of the world and is just a little bit to let a draught in and help her cool down?
 
My 9 month Shetland seems to be sporting a triple coat and in this mild weather has been a bit sweaty when just mooching around and gets very sweaty when playing with the other youngsters. I won't be clipping or rugging, he's as nature intended even if he looks a complete mess.

The only time I've taken clippers to a foal was one that got a large matt between the front legs and it was pulling at the skin so I clipped off a small patch to take the matt out.
 
I've got a foot firmly in both camps, on the one hand my boy was a wooly beast and whilst that was fine for the most part of a pretty cold winter when the spring came all hell broke loose with the coat and I had a proper meltdown. He got so hot during the day I would find him lying down in the field (because of course he wouldn't take his hairy ass to the field shelter to cool down). He would sweat and his coat matted up, I spent hours a day brushing the matted hair out as much as I could only to find it back the same way the next day so I absolutely feel your pain, was it a nightmare? Yes. Did I consider drastic measures? Yes. But I am a firm believer that nature puts the coat there for a good reason, so I didn't clip him.

On the other hand, if you believe the foal is too hot, I would clip belly and neck only, I would do a conservative clip (think, take as little as possible off). I would also feed sulphur (add a lump of rock sulphur to drinking water) for a week or so, sulphur is fabulous with skin issues, and it cools the blood, stopping itching. It's at least as effective as a shot of steroids in my opinion (probably more so). I have fully clipped an unhandled un backed cob for medical reasons before, granted she wasn't a foal but I see no reason not to as long as you are as I say "conservative" with your clip. I believe there are some breeds of minis that get clipped as standard practice when they are born because they are sooooooo fluffy.
 
OP, I would treat her for lice even if you have not seen any as they are not easy to see. Ask your vet for a 5ml dose of Cooper's Spot On and repeat it in 2 weeks.
 
Jnhuk said:
Simple answer - REMOVE THE RUG!!!!! You are being cruel to let your horse overheat. Horses cope with the cold far better than you may realise.

Far far kinder to remove the rug than even consider clipping the poor youngster.
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The foal isn't rugged, OP just said she has access to them
 
I would treat for lice too. It's impossible to find them in a thick coat and it doesn't take many to make them itch. I wouldn't clip unless she had some really awful skin infection that needed treating.
 
By October i had to clip my shetland mare, she was sweating in the stable (i had to bring her in to cool off) and my stables are freezing. I would just do arm pits and up the chest/neck a little bit.
 
klipped said:
How do I post a photo on this thread? X
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Can't help you OP, I've never figured it out!!!! Lets say that I'm a total computer numpty, and IMO its toooo flippin complicated:( Think you have to use something like PhotoBucket, but dunno how.

Can anyone help the OP please???? We're all dying to see this little hairy beauty!!! Aw bless.
 
never bother with photobucket anymore. If you have Facebook, take a photo from there, click on the photo (so it comes up with the comment/tag options) then right click/tap and hold if on ipad and choose open photo, copy the URL and paste inbetween the following code with no spaces


www.example.jpg
 
Will post a piccy..

Today we took out under her neck and chest! This afternoon she seemed a lot happier! Should be enough! Thanks for posting guys xx
 
Are those recent pictures? She doesn't seem to have much of a coat there. Then again I'm used to hairy natives.
 
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