You’ve planned the breeding of your mare to a stallion you’ve carefully chosen. You’ve gone through the process of getting her in foal. The pregnancy went smoothly, or maybe it had some rocky moments, but finally the blessed event has occurred. Your mare has foaled out and the beautiful baby is finally in front of you! Now what? The process of successfully bringing this foal into the world is not quite completed. The newborn foal examination is the final step to ensure that you have done everything in your power to ensure a strong foundation for your new foal’s life ahead.
Having an equine veterinarian evaluate your new foal within the first day of its life is important for a number of reasons. First, it allows your veterinarian to check that the mare is accepting the foal and allowing it to nurse. Also, that the foal is willing and able to nurse and that the mare has ample colostrum available for the foal. Colostrum, the first milk the mare produces, is vitally important to the foal. It provides antibodies that will protect the naïve foal from disease for the first few months of life until its own immune system has time to go to work and create its own antibodies. The foal can only absorb the antibodies in the colostrum into its blood stream from the gut for the first 24 hours after birth. If the foal is not nursing for any reason, the foal is in jeopardy of not getting these needed antibodies. A simple stall side blood test should be run on every foal within the first 24 hours to determine if the foal received the needed colostrum and absorbed the appropriate number of antibodies. The IgG level should be greater than 800 mg/dL to be considered adequate. If it is below that amount, various treatments can be done, depending on the age of the foal, to still ensure that it gets enough antibodies to make it through the first months of life. Taking this step can save you money in the long run by preventing more expensive treatment if the foal becomes ill due to not receiving adequate colostrum.
Second, the new foal exam allows your veterinarian to perform a complete physical exam of both the foal and the mare. The foal’s exam includes evaluation for any birth trauma, congenital defects or angular limb deformities the foal may have that need immediate attention or monitoring over the coming days, weeks or months. It also looks for evidence of illness in the new foal that can be quickly life threatening if it is missed. Evaluation of the mare includes checking that she has passed a complete, healthy placenta in a timely manner and that there is no evidence of damage to her reproductive tract such as tears to her uterus, uterine arteries, vagina or vulva that will either immediately impact her life or future reproductive health. Some issues involving the mare need immediate attention while others may need follow up care in the coming days to weeks.
Third, a quick rectal exam of the foal allows your veterinarian to determine if the foal has passed all its meconium, the first manure the foal will pass. If this isn’t passing appropriately, it can lead to colic and impact the willingness of the foal to nurse. If needed, an enema is administered to help the foal pass this manure successfully and completely. The mare should also be observed for manure passage because failure to pass manure can be an indicator of internal trauma from the delivery that may require emergency care to prevent life threatening complications.
Finally, having your veterinarian present during the first hours allows them to evaluate the foaling area for issues that may be dangerous to the foal, to discuss concerns you may have regarding handling the mare and foal as well as discussing the nutritional needs of the new mother and foal.
On a personal note, it allows your veterinarian to have an often times happy fun farm call to see a beautiful healthy foal with its equally relieved and happy owner as opposed to the emergencies we more often see...
So, include a new foal and post foaling mare evaluation in your plans for the first day of your new foal’s life. Your mare, foal and veterinarian will thank you for it and it will save you money in the long run if problems are found early and treated rather than missed leading to costly, life-threatening complications for either the foal or mare.
