How are Foals Cared for at Birth?
Newborn Foal Care from Birth to Weaning
Reading Time: 8 minutes
How are foals cared for at birth and after? Provide basic newborn foal care from birth to weaning and milking.
by Heather Smith Thomas
The first hours of life are critical for a foal’s survival and future health. The mare should give birth within 15 minutes of beginning stage two labor (strong contractions). If stage two labor takes longer than 30 minutes, it’s considered dystocia (difficult birth) and a medical emergency; she needs help to deliver a live foal.
After the foal is safely born, pay attention to how they’re adjusting. A strong, healthy foal should immediately lift and shake their head to clear the amniotic sac and fluid away from their face. Within five minutes, they should become sternal (upright, lying on the sternum, with front legs out in front). The mare will usually lie there, resting after her efforts, and look around at her foal. They may be trying to get up before she does.
Don’t make the mare get up; blood from the placenta is still pumping into the foal via the umbilical cord, and if she jumps up too soon and breaks that cord, the foal will be short on blood. Let the cord break naturally a few minutes after the birth when either the mare or the foal gets up. If the foal is still lying flat after 15 minutes and not trying to get up, they need help. They should be making attempts to stand within 30 minutes. A foal may require assistance in standing if they’re in a stall with a slippery floor.
A healthy foal is born with a strong desire to suckle and should be seeking the mare’s udder as soon as they can stand — and nursing less than 2 hours from birth. Some will be up and latched onto the udder within 15 minutes.
If the weather is cold, make sure the foal doesn’t get chilled. It can become cold inside a drafty barn. However, some barns are too closed up and insulated with no air movement, which can lead to ammonia buildup in the stall and is unhealthy for the foal’s lungs. Adequate ventilation is important in a barn.
The stall should be clean for foaling, and that doesn’t mean just cleaning out old straw and re-bedding. It should be completely clean from wall to wall, with everything taken out, and the walls should also be clean. If the foaling environment is dirty, it can cause potential infections like diarrhea or navel ill; the foal may become sick as early as two days old.
Newborn Foal Care Immediately After Birth
The umbilical stump should be dipped in disinfectant if there’s any risk of picking up infection. A foal born on clean grass may not need the “navel” treated, but if they’re born in a barn or on dirt, you should immediately (after the cord breaks when the mare gets up) dip it in iodine or chlorhexidine solution. In dirty conditions, you may need to dip it again a couple of times during the first 24 hours until it dries up.
Be careful how you apply disinfectant. It’s best to have it in a very small jar or cup and immerse the cord stump without splashing any on the skin. The thin skin of a newborn foal is sensitive and easily scalded.
There’s no need to tie off the umbilicus unless it’s bleeding excessively. This situation is a medical emergency; if the foal is bleeding from one of the umbilical arteries, it needs to be clamped.
Make sure the foal is able to nurse. If they can’t succeed on their own (too awkward and clumsy, or the mare moves around or kicks at them), they need help. Have someone hold the mare while you guide the foal to the udder. If you can get them sucking on your finger, you may be able to slip their mouth onto a teat. If they won’t suckle or you can’t get them on a teat, milk a little from the mare and get the foal sucking a bottle (very clean bottle and lamb nipple) and then guide them to the teat with the bottle.
The mare should shed her placenta soon after foaling. Put the placenta in a clean garbage bag to have your vet check it to make sure no pieces are left within the uterus, which could cause a severe infection. If she doesn’t shed the placenta within 3 hours, call your veterinarian. It’s wise to have a vet check the mare’s placenta and check the foal during the first day of life.
The First 24 Hours After Birth
Monitor the mare and foal closely. A young foal nurses often, sometimes as much as 10 times an hour. This is different than any other species; most babies (calves, lambs, goats) nurse larger volumes less frequently. The foal will stand, walk to the mare, nurse for a couple of minutes, run around the mare and play, urinate and defecate, then go back to sleep — several times an hour.
Watch to see whether the foal is urinating. The normal foal will urinate about once an hour. If they’re not urinating, they’re probably not drinking. Urine should be fairly clear, like water, since the foal is taking in so much fluid. If urine is concentrated, that’s a warning sign that they’re not nursing enough.
Make sure the foal is passing bowel movements. Some owners routinely give foals an enema within the first hours after birth. It’s simplest to just use 4 ounces of warm, soapy water. A few drops of mild dishwashing detergent to make the water foamy can be administered via a soft rubber tube — something soft and flexible that won’t scrape or puncture the rectum. Soapy water helps soften and lubricate hard balls of meconium (the dark-colored material within the intestines when the foal is born) so they can more easily pass their first bowel movements. Colostrum acts as a laxative; once the colostrum comes through, the feces will be soft and yellow instead of dark and hard. If you see the foal straining and having trouble passing feces, they definitely need an enema.
How are Foals Cared for at Birth: After the First Day
Once the foal has safely passed the first 24 hours, has been checked by a veterinarian, and seems healthy, the foal and mama are better off outside for sunshine and exercise than in a barn. A small paddock is best, ideally with grass, but snow cover is okay, instead of dirt or mud — as long as the foal can return to a sheltered place to lie down.
The paddock should have a safe fence so the foal can’t put a foot or head through. Grass footing is nice so if the foal wants to lie down and take a nap, they can, with mama grazing nearby. Pay attention to the mare. Is she urinating and defecating? Some mares become impacted or constipated after foaling because they’re sore and don’t pass manure. Does she have enough milk for the foal, or is the foal bunting her udder every few minutes wanting more milk?
To assess whether the foal is healthy and nursing appropriately, monitor the size of the mare’s udder and whether she’s worried about the foal. If the mare has a large udder and is streaming milk, there’s something wrong with the foal; they need to be examined immediately.
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between a foal that’s dull and one that’s napping since foals sleep a lot. Observe them enough to know if they’re healthy. Foals nap after they nurse, but if they’re sleeping too much and not getting up often to nurse, this is a warning sign. Any time a foal spends excessive time lying down and not nursing, with a worried mama, this usually means they’re sick. If they’re lethargic or have diarrhea, call your veterinarian. Some of the infections that cause diarrhea can quickly be life-threatening.
Foals in Extreme Weather
The newborn is wet with amniotic fluid, and air moving across that wet body will chill them rapidly if it’s a cold day. The fat stores in the newborn foal are minimal; they have less than 2 hours’ worth of glycogen (stored sugar) that can be used between birth and nursing. It’s imperative for the foal to get up and nurse quickly, since colostrum contains a high level of fat that serves as instant energy to help them keep warm.
If they get chilled, they may not have the strength to get up and seek the udder. It takes quite a bit of energy to scramble to their feet.
The flip side is foaling in a warm southern climate. The young foal has a hard time handling the heat. They get hot quickly if it’s 80 or 90 degrees F and humid. You may need fans in a barn. If you turn the mare and foal out, do it in an area that has shade. You might turn them out only in the early morning or late evening when it’s not as hot.
Ensure the mare has plenty of water so she can produce enough milk. Foals can quickly become dehydrated when they don’t nurse often enough — whether cold or hot. In hot, arid climates, you may also be dealing with dust — which can damage the young foal’s respiratory system.
Other problems besides extreme cold or heat include down-pouring rain. Wet weather is hard on the young foal’s respiratory system. The worst-case scenario is cold, rain, and wind. Dry cold or snow doesn’t bother the foal as much as cold, wet rain, or wet snow. If the foal is dry, with their hair coat fluffy, moisture doesn’t get down to the skin. But once the hair is thoroughly wet, it loses its insulating quality.
You should have a thermometer and be able to take the foal’s temperature. A digital thermometer you get at the grocery store works fine. Rectal temperature is still the best way to obtain a reliable temperature. Other styles of digital thermometers, such as the quick-read forehead thermometers, don’t work well for horses. A normal foal’s temperature is about 100 degrees F. In summer, it may go as high as 102 degrees F. But if the weather is cold, and the baby has a temperature of 102 degrees F, that’s a fever.
A sub-normal temperature is equally concerning. Foals that are cold won’t nurse. They tend to lie around and chill even more. If they aren’t nursing, they can’t generate enough body heat to keep warm.
Milking a Mare
Mare’s teats are small and sometimes difficult to milk. The mare may also be uncooperative, which makes it even more challenging.
Many farms and veterinarians now use a mare milker (Udderly EZ), a hand-held trigger-operated pump. The soft-edged flange fits over the teat, and squeezing the trigger creates a vacuum that draws milk into the bottle. It fills the bottle much quicker than milking by hand, and is comfortable for the mare.
This invention is a modification of how people used to draw milk from the teat with a large syringe (the end cut off and placed over the teat), but it only takes one hand to operate the pump, and most mares tolerate it fairly well.
One person can usually do this alone by standing alongside the mare, holding the pump with one hand and the mare’s lead shank with the other. You don’t have to bend down under the mare to milk her with one hand and hold a container with the other. It’s safer for the person milking and easier on the mare; she’s less inclined to kick. Nervous mares tolerate it better than hand-milking because it can be done so easily and quickly.
The newborn foal must get an adequate amount of colostrum in the first few hours of life to obtain antibodies that will protect them from disease. If they’re slow to nurse on their own, you can milk a few ounces from the mare and feed the foal by bottle to get those antibodies into him on time. That first feeding will also stimulate them to try again to suckle the mare.
Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband near Salmon, Idaho, raising cattle and a few horses. She has a B.A. in English and history. She has raised and trained horses for 50 years and has been writing freelance articles and books nearly that long, publishing 20 books and more than 9,000 articles for horse and livestock publications. Find Heather’s online blog here.
Originally published in the May/June 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
