Orphan foal

[trisblu]

Has anyone ever had success in raising a 6 week old foal who has lost its Mother without resorting to a surrogate dam?

What did you feed them? How big was the setback? Any vet issues?

 

[TayloredEq]

MFH09 raised 2 last year from a couple of weeks old.

I looked after madmares orphan from 3 months. We used the shteland pony as company. we were lucky though and only had to do a week or 2 of milk before she could start on the hard feed. Baileys horsefeeds were very helpful and if you ring them they will courier out milk powder to be with you as soon as poss. You can also speak to one of their nutrionists throughout the process.

Setback wise, you could see the difference at the futurity last year. This year I don't think you can really see. I would def recommend that an orphan runs with a herd of other yougsters as soon as poss so that they learn manners around other horses.

 

[DW Team]

You could phone National Foaling Bank Miss Vardon is so very helpful She would be a good place to start.
http://www.nationalfoalingbank.com/index.html Good luck

 

[BallyshanHorses]

We bottle fed one of ours years ago after her mother rejected her.My mother used to feed her every three hours by bottle as she would not take to bucket feeding until she was three months.She was left in a paddock with a mare donkey and has grown up to be a happy and well rounded mare.
We never made too much of a fuss of her as ive heard too many horror stories of orphans becoming over friendly.
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www.ballyshanhorses.webs.com

 

[ritajennings]

Hi, I found that my Orphan foal drank from a bucket from 4 weeks of age, but IMO it is very important to feed little and often, this was your foal will not get the pop belly that alot of orphan foals get from being fed large amounts of milk at only a couple of time aday.
I was lucky that the foals 3 yo full sister cared for her although she could not feed her.
Good Luck

 

[Maesfen]

Last year, I took over two orphan foals when they were just a fortnight old.
They were started on a bucket straight away, no bottles at all as they pick it up much quicker than if you used bottles first; they can be hard to wean off bottles sometimes. They prefer light coloured buckets too and it might be an idea to start off using a feedscoop as that is low so won't be frightening.

They were given Equilac, a dried milk feed you mix with warm water, made by Dodson & Horrell every two hours for a month, then down to every three hours until they were 12 weeks old then, bliss, they went to every four hours with a six hour break from midnight to 6am!
Right from the start, they were also given a handful of Suregrow, again by D & H, twice a day and for the first week it was mixed with warm water and a spot of bran to encourage them to eat it. After the first week, they'd eat it dry and loved it; they also had some nice haylage to have a nibble at.
They stayed in for a fortnight, then were turned out in their own separate paddock but they came back in every night all summer. I was lucky in that I had the two and they kept each other company as that is most important at that age, so if you can find company for your foal that won't either beat it up or ignore it, so much the better else you will become it's play toy!

It is a huge time commitment but very satisfying and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. If you need any other info', please get in touch but the feed firms were a great help and well worth contacting.

 

[volatis]

We raised a week old orphan by hand after attempts with a foster mare proved fruitless and stressful. He was 'adopted' by my 4yo dressage horse and once we got past the 2 hourly feeding stage (had to be bottle fed as couldnt leave a bucket in the stable with my greedy gelding) the pair of them lived out with the rest of the broodmare herd.

Always very careful not to treat him any differently to any other foal. He's now about 17.3hh as a 4yo, so certainly being orphaned didnt set him back too much

 

[whitewood]

Just pm's you - there is a foster mare in Devon just lost her foal if you are interested in pm'ing me