Orphan foal Advice needed- PLEASE HELP

[amandaj79]

Hi, i really hope someone can help me,

We lost our much loved mare last week, due to a suspected twisted gut, leaving us with her 2 week old orphaned foal.

Bought an array of different mares milk replacer, goats milk, ewes milk etc none of which it will drink either from a bottle ( which it firmly rejected with a rather painful kick, nor from the bucket.

However from a few days old he was pinching hard feed from its mom.

We have continued to give it hard feed in the form of a handful of sugarbeet, molasses and have introduced spillersfoal creep pellets and equivite (spillers) milk based bodybuilder ( which states it isnt a milk replacer). Someone suggested also sprinkling dried milk powder in with the feed which i have done, however he doesnt like it much and leaves half of it.

Getting really desperate now as really concerned he isnt getting the right nutrients from not having correct milk quota.....im desperate. I guess if we had him orphaned from birth it would have been easier to feed him a replacer but hes having none of it. Can anyone help? suggesting a good milk base pellet that is suitable?

Even thought about getting a goat as we have a companion for him and he is attempting to go under their belly as if to suckle.

Also tried advertising for foster mother but peeps say that time elapsed may make it even more difficult to get a bond now.

Reaaly hope someone can help, any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[madmare22]

mix the milk replacer into a paste and use a syringe to get it down.

 

[Maesfen]

I've reared two 'orphan' foals this year; they're 14 weeks old now and they too came off their mares at just under 14 days old (long story which I won't go into now!)

As earlier poster said, I would seriously consider syringing some made up milk down him as he needs not to get dehydrated at all. Mine were already on Dodson & Horrell's Equilac, their milk replacer although they pretended to have forgotten how to drink from a bucket when they came. The first one refused to drink for the first 36 hours he was here and I had to syringe it down him to start him off again then we were away and have never looked back. Other than that, you do really have to persevere to get the milk down him by getting him to suck your fingers first before lowering them into the bucket of milk. They do prefer a light coloured bucket and one which doesn't have high sides when they first start, after that, they'll drink out of anything! At that age, feeding should be every 2 hours, even during the night as I found if I had doubled up the night feeds and just left it all in the bucket so he could help himself, he'd drink the lot in one go which could have caused serious problems. At a month, then you can go down to leaving a 6 hour gap at night which is heaven after all that intensive loss of sleep!
Yours really does need to get the fluids down him, a solid diet is not giving him enough at present, he's not fully developed to digest enough to give him enough nutrients if that makes sense.
You can also try him with a little mash of the foal creep pellets; soak them in some of the milk, literally 100gms of pellets only at a day to start. I'd be very wary of giving him both sugar beet or molasses at this age, their stomachs aren't fully developed to digest so much sugar at that age.

Vets say that goats milk is the closest in make up to a mare's milk too.

Good luck if you need anything else shout but I'm sure others on here will have some ideas too.

 

[amandaj79]

hi thanks for your post, been a week since his mom died,tried with a bottle and a bucket, ( light coloured too ) tried dipping my fingers in molasses and honey so he wud suck my fingers before trying to coax his head into the bucket.

I know the food hes having ( sugar beet and molasses) isnt ideal but he used to pinch his moms and i think hes unfortunately got the taste for it, and if i omit it from the creep pellets he wont eat it dry nor wetted with milk or water ( was hoping to reduce amount gradually until he does) . Forgot to mention earlier he does drink water and watched him have a decent drink on numerous occasions. wen i substitute it for milk tho thats wen the problems start he reacts in absolute disgust. He is a strong foal physically atm and often gets out of our grip if we persuvere too much ( got a nasty bruise from a kick for the constant persevering ) tried all milks to try to find something he likes, watered it down etc ( so to encourage him to start) served it warm, cold u name it. Left double the amount in the stable with little water to encourage him during the night only to find the milk untouched in the morning

if i try to force him he withdraws from me totally and acts threatening towards me, which is a shame because any other time he is a friendly soul

A feed merchant has suggested foal assist by baileys as he said it is given in a syringe like a wormer and is specifically for mares whos milk is nutritionally poor, so im going to get that hopefully tomorrow wen it comes in, and go on the hunt for a goat! ( you've guessed it even tried that in a bucket, bottle and like a cup to lips motion ( i feel a failure :S )

he looks well atm, just frightened he will go downhill and i couldnt bare to lose him like the shock we had losing the mare like we did

Going to try with a syringe tomorrow and try to get some extra help ( my vet has just left us to it, with little help and advice

 

[Shilasdair]

My Shire x Tb (now 4yo) was orphaned and didn't get a foster mum til she was 3 weeks old - it worked out fine...so there's still hope.
Maybe if you could advertise for a foster mare to come to you, you could keep feeding him if it doesn't work out?
S

 

[Foxford]

I lost my mare last summer and was left with a 3 week old foal. Here are a few points I think might help you (MFH's advice is good!)
- Get a white/pale bucket asap.
- Bottle feed him untill he volunteers to take the bucket. It took my foal about 2 days to get to the bucket point. Can be eaiser said than done to get them to drink from the bottle.
- Soak the creep pellets in milk.
- Try a foster mare, it's worth a go and if they take it will be much easier for all concerned.
- Get foal a friendly companion to go out with.

It's hard for the first few days to get them to make the decision to carry on. In the end our boy was left on his own for a couple of hours (I sat outside the stable rather than in there with him) and he made the choice to drink from the bucket himself. I know it's awful when they won't take the milk but give it time.

Please keep us updated on your progress. My boy is now 1 and although he has a few issues from being handreared he is a normal healthy horse.

 

[henryhorn]

We have reared two orphans and in these early stages you have to syringe milk down them whether they like it or not. Using gaots milk will be loads cheaper and if you find someone with kids they often sell it you for peanuts as they end up throwing it away.
We got the biggest syringe available and just kept using it.
I would allow the foal to eat as it is doing, and worry more about it becoming dehydrated, the actual amount needed by a two week old foal is much more than anyone would expect, I know I was surprised.
Our foal flatly refused to drink from a bucket and was bottle fed for months...

check the teat you're using, a lamb's teat is longer, and they can sort of grasp it easier.
Our last foal liked latex human teats with a bigger hole cut in, so experiment . you do need to sort of force feed to start with, just back it into a corner and hold it's head up whilst you teach it how to suck on the teat (sometimes another person to squeeze the teat making the milk come out helps here)
If he's drinking water then that's a help, but really try and persevere with the milk.
Once he gets a real taste for it it is easier..

 

[Maesfen]

First of all, don't panic.
You haven't said whereabouts you are or the breeding and type of foal he is which would help knowing how strong he is liable to be and also how experienced (at handling young horses) you are yourself, it will all help.

My immediate thought although I might be wrong is that you are giving him too much choice of things to eat and drink and he can't adapt to all of them. Personally, I would stick to one type of milk although you can test with different strengths of it. I'd also mash his pellets up well with the milk but you could add some of his 'syrup' so that he gets the taste again.

If you can't get a syringe of milk down him although I find it hard to believe if there are two of you and are strong enough and have him backed into a corner against a wall. While you don't want to frighten him it is important that he learns he can't walk all over you at this early age especially as he will now be virtually hand reared from now on. It will probably be easier if you have an old towel or something around his neck to hold him, he's still a bit young to be held by his head in a headcollar, although he should wear one for ease of handling.
He's obviously drinking water from a bucket so I would only fill half a bucket, even less and add some milk to it. I wouldn't offer him anything else to drink either; if he is thirsty enough he will drink it and you are halfway there.

 

[volatis]

I agree with MFH, we have hand reared an orphan foal and her suggestion of syringing the milk down him is the route you need to go down. Ours was also bottle fed as his 'uncle' rather liked the taste of milk so we couldn't leave him with a bucket. We also turned out the foal and his companion with the broodmare herd once they had bonded and just went into the field with the bottle. That way the foal grew up as part of a normal herd, just with a male adult to look after him rather than his mum

 

[amandaj79]

[ QUOTE ]
First of all, don't panic.
You haven't said whereabouts you are or the breeding and type of foal he is which would help knowing how strong he is liable to be

[/ QUOTE ]


He's out of a 15hh knabstrubber X mare, by a 16.1 KWPN stallion and im situated on the staffs/ W. Midlands border


Put him out with the shetland today, seemed nice and calm at first ( so let him off the leadrope)then next minute decided he didnt think much of the shetland so jumped over the fence to make friends with my section B gelding instead ( nearly had a heart attack) although they seem to get on

 

[TayloredEq]

If you are trying to bond your foal with another horse you need to put them in the same stable together for a number of days.

I have got Madmares orphan but she was 2 months when I got her. She also didn't like the milk so to make sure she got enough nutrients we made it into quite a thick paste and syringed it in. It had to be thick as she very quickly learnt about spitting it back out.

If you ring Baileys they will send you a foal pack and if you need any milk etc urgently they courier it out to you. Their folad pack also includes a growth/weighty chart so you can monitor how they are developing.

Good luck with it.

 

[Peasfriend]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with MFH, we have hand reared an orphan foal and her suggestion of syringing the milk down him is the route you need to go down. Ours was also bottle fed as his 'uncle' rather liked the taste of milk so we couldn't leave him with a bucket. We also turned out the foal and his companion with the broodmare herd once they had bonded and just went into the field with the bottle. That way the foal grew up as part of a normal herd, just with a male adult to look after him rather than his mum

[/ QUOTE ]

And, as the now owner of said orphan (now 3), if you didn't know he'd been an orphan, you'd never know. He socialises with the others just how he should.

Good luck with your baby