Rejected Foal

WoopsiiD

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I won't be able to go into too much detail so please don't let that put you off posting!
Long story short-we were called to help a foal who was born 1st April early hours. When he was found he was clean from top to toe but being sheltered by another mare (who is not in foal)
He is about a week early.
He was moved with his mum to private area but mum has rejected him good and proper.
She kicks out, bares her teeth, will not let him near her!
I've never seen anything like it before, she shows no maternal instinct at all. She seems totally oblivious to the fact that she has given birth.
A vet was called straight away and the young chap is on antibiotics and being bottle fed on demand by very dedicated owners!
He is rugged in a dog coat as thats all we had to hand and its actually too big!

Today he looked bright and happy.
He is taking from a bottle but also drinking milk from mum from a bucket.
Mum is being milked as she is a bit sore and it seems to be relieving her.

Honesty now...
What do you think his chances are?
Is there anything we can do to help?

We have tried the vix trick, he is still 'with' her but as close as she will let him. He is under near constant supervision.

Thanks in advance
 

SCMSL

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Get him in with the other mare and talk to your vet about inducing lactation. If she took to the foal immediately (which it sounds like she did) it would be pretty easy as the hardest part is actually forming a bond between the surrogate mother and the foal.

This is the best option. If its not possible, than you'll just have to hand raise the foal, which is very tiring and far from ideal for the foal. Research the "Foal Igloo Milk Cooler" method.

Also, bare in mind that if the mare isn't being milked regularly (at this point, about every 2 hours) she will stop producing milk very soon.
 

EstherYoung

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No real constructive advice but there is hope for these rejected foals. My bay arab was rejected by his dam when a foal, same sort of scenario, she really hated him and wished him dead. He was hand reared for a bit and then they weaned him onto a suffolk punch mare who had plenty of milk. He's now 27.
 

tweedette

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We had a similar instance, we left the foal next to the mare so she could see it but not get to it. We had to restrain the mare so the foal could suckle and did this every two hours for about a week, after that we threw the towel in and took the foal away to hand rear it. As the foal went out of sight it called for its mother who called back, we took the foal back immediatley, put it down and she took to it . Always worth a try.
 

Fools Motto

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We had a similar instance, we left the foal next to the mare so she could see it but not get to it. We had to restrain the mare so the foal could suckle and did this every two hours for about a week, after that we threw the towel in and took the foal away to hand rear it. As the foal went out of sight it called for its mother who called back, we took the foal back immediatley, put it down and she took to it . Always worth a try.

This. Happened twice, same mare.
 

JanetGeorge

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We had a similar instance, we left the foal next to the mare so she could see it but not get to it. We had to restrain the mare so the foal could suckle and did this every two hours for about a week, after that we threw the towel in and took the foal away to hand rear it. As the foal went out of sight it called for its mother who called back, we took the foal back immediatley, put it down and she took to it . Always worth a try.

That's exactly what we did with the only mare I have had this problem with - she was a visiting mare. For the first couple of days she had to be twitched so foal could drink, then just held, and by day 5 I just had to hang over the stable door and growl fiercely at her. But she still wouldn't accept the foal without anyone there. So we took them to the manege and I took my biggest dog in there to 'threaten' the foal - the mare suddenly realised HER foal was in danger and we had no trouble after that!

However, it IS essential that the mare is milked out constantly until she gets the message so she doesn't dry up!
 

jodie3

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We had a mare last year who foaled in the field (all ours do) then abandoned her foal and stole one of the other mare's foals instead.
We brought the mare and foal in and the mare wanted nothing to do with her foal at all. She had to be restrained to let the foal anywhere near her.
On our vet' s advice we built a pen in the corner of the stable so they were still together but the foal was safe and then the mare was lightly sedated every couple of hours so we could let the foal drink (after spending ages getting her to suckle)
On one of my trips down to them in the early hours the foal had decided she couldn't wait for me and had got out of her pen and was suckling unaided.

I wouldn't say the mare became the best mother in the world but the foal survived without any further problems.

We tried the dog trick too but it didn't work for us.
 
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WoopsiiD

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Thank you!
Mare is being milked every couple of hours and thankfully the owners had the know how to milk her straight away. He has had first milk so we think that helped him enormously.
Mum is being kept close, but when I saw the reaction when he moved in the straw-not even going to her I was, I'll be honest horrified! I worked at a welsh d stud for a couple of years and never saw anything like that. Last night we tried the Vicks trick and no joy. I just think I wanted to know that there was hope for the little guy as I've become quite attached to him!
 

zigzag

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Had a mare who did this ( a maiden) If we hadn't been there she would have killed the foal. We had to twitch and sedate her to allow foal to suckle. Stayed in the stable with them for 4 days, (did shifts) Mare was trying to kill foal if he moved or she would just stand at the door and weave (never weaved before) Milk dried up after 4 days even though he was being fed ever 2 hours, gave up then and hand reared as couldn't get a foster mare.
Mare couldn't wait to get away from him and didn't call to him even when he was calling her. very sad, luckily an old gelding we had "adopted" him and looked after him and taught him manners, he grew up ok , but bloody hard work and bloody expensive with the replacement milk
 

WoopsiiD

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Vicks trick-put some vicks around the nostrils of the mare just incase its the smell of the foal thats putting her off.
Now moved on to milking her, warm flannels on her teats and manuka honey just incase she does let him suckle he won't get a mouthful of udder creams!
Its not looking good on the getting them together but his owners are a determined bunch who are camping out and feeding him whenever he is ready.
We found a dog rug and have put that on to keep him a bit warmer and hopefully act as a comfort blanket.
We have exhausted all the methods suggested so far but are open to any ideas-just a pain that its a race against time :(
Again-Thank You All!
 

april mischief

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We had a similar experience a few years ago with a maiden mare. It took us two weeks of initially milking the mare and bottle feeding the foal, then progressed to foal suckling direct from the mare under supervision but she did finally accept him and they didn't look back after that. I would advise you phone and speak to Johanna Vardon at the National Foaling Bank; she gave us the advice we needed to work through it. Good luck and don't give up, it can be done.
 

Fazzie

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Thank you for explaining that whoopsiiD. We have a mare due to Foal (bought in foal) who rejected her last foal (we didn't know this at time of purchase) so this thread has been very helpful
 
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