Premature foal behaviour

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abbieandfiona

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Just wondering how a Normal premature foal should behave? Mine is still struggling with feeding one minute she is fine next she can't latch on.

Very quiet, likes to stay behind her mum most of the time I've only seen her canter around once.

Vet has checked her over and heart rate normal. Mouth seems normal.
 
How prem was she?

I don't have personal experience but my friends mare foaled approx 3-4 weeks before she was due and the foal was as you describe, seems to latch weird, never away from mum and very freaked out by life in general. Shes now around the age she should have been born at and seems to be a little more foal like.
 
I would be restricting her turnout so that she can rest as much as possible. she will still be developing inside a bit so at the moment as long as she is drinking sleeping and pooing/weeeing and the vet is happy that she is developing at a sensible rate then I would not be over worried and they normally start latching on better after a week or so
 
Thanks she was born on day 313.
Vets is going to do a transfusion. I thought her behaviour was inncorect even for this early as I have had prem before but never witnessed this type of behaviour
 
What makes you think that the foal is premature? I've foaled mares early and the foals weren't 'premature'. Premature means that the foal isn't properly formed. I'll agree that premature foals are generally born early in the generally considered gestation period, but being 'early' doesn't necessarily mean that they are 'Premature', if that makes sense! Foals can be premature at 340 days (unlikely!) and they can equally be premature when they are an early birth. 313 days wouldn't be considered THAT early I wouldn't have thought.

I had one mare who was covered in hand for three successive years and the first foal was 30 days early, the second was on the day and the third a month late. They were all entirely normal. Foals generally dictate the point of birth and it's to do with how well their lungs are developed, so I'm told!

I'd agree with crabby mare, and especially for foals which aren't bouncing about like loons. Rest is VITAL. If you're having anything like the rain which we've had over the last week or so, foals need to lie down, in the dry.

Alec.

Ets, how old is the foal now?
 
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It sounds to me like she's a bit dummy, which is to be expected given how premature she is - all the foal's I have known born that early have shown signs of dummy foal syndrome at some point. Hopefully as she has been able to nurse etc she will just need help with standing/feeding every couple of hours but it is possible that she will go down hill, generally the cut off mark is 72hrs old and if they make it past that ok then it should be upward from there. The ones that go downhill can end up as 'bed-babies' (i.e. can't stand or feed, need intensive care and a lot will have seizures), however with a lot of care many of these foals will survive. Has the vet taken x-rays of her knees/hocks? If she really was only 313 days she is likely to have incomplete ossification at that gestation which means she should be doing no exercise for several weeks due to the risk of the bones being crushed.

Alec, 320 days would be considered the earliest for normal gestation, anything less than that is premature and certainly in thoroughbreds, not many survive before 320 - where I worked in kentucky, those foals would come straight to the clinic for intensive care cause of the high likelihood of problems. The youngest I've ever known survive was 314 days, and a few 318-319 days, although there are stories of foals born at around 300 days that survived. But fingers crossed if the OP's foal is up and about she will just need some help over the next few days as she gets stronger.
 
As this was AI i know the dates so no chance these are incorrect or out by a few weeks. she is premature and small, her half sister born by my other mare was also premature however showed no signs of this. The mare had 3 bouts of colic before she went into labour and had been bagged up from day 220. She lost her colostrum 4 weeks ago it was leaking. She showed signs of labour for a week before foal was born.

She is a first time mum so I cannot say what her normal cut off date to give birth would be. I know all mares are different my other foals around day 320-325.

Foal is now 5 days old. Cannot stable them as mum would kill the foal by accident being confined into a smaller space, my mare is unaware of things around her at times and would stand on the foal by accident, or she would jump out of the stable as she has done on a number of occasions. Foal has a rug on and there is natural shelter in field which foal lays under so stays dry.

Murphy88 no X-rays have been done yet we have discussed this as foals half sister is having X-rays in 2 weeks time to see how her fracture is healing.

The mare has struggled to produce milk, we have had injections which have not helped so now starting on tablets from tomorrow. Foal is having her transfusion thursday morning, I managed to feed her colostrum however still not enough as results came back from lab. Have been trying to milk the mare best that i could and also using goats milk to feed her as she is starving.

Milk comes out of the nose when she suckles from the mare however when fed by us this is not happening. She is more confident on her feet now and also has some attitude as well, she clearly wants to feed from mare and is angry when we feed her.
 
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