Your Foal's Health

Dr. Martin Adams, Equine Nutritionist for Southern States

Chances are your foal will sail through the baby stage with flying colors, especially if he is normal at birth and good management practices are in place at your farm. However, even under the best circumstances, it's possible that your youngster could fall prey to one or more problems that can affect foals. How does a healthy newborn foal appear?

Healthy newborn foals should:

Assume a sternal position (be able to sit up on his chest) within minutes of delivery.
Breathe easily, slowing from an initial high of about 70 breaths per minute to 40 to 60 minutes within 15 minutes of birth.
Have red or at least pink mucous membranes, indicating adequate oxygen is reaching the tissues.
Display a strong suckle reflex within two to 20 minutes of birth.
Appear alert and display an affinity for the dam.
Be able to stand within two hours and nurse within three hours.

If your foal fails to meet these criteria, he may already be suffering from a serious condition and needs the prompt attention of a veterinarian.

Good observation coupled with prompt action gives you the best opportunity to help your foal avoid a setback. The following is a Foal Health Watch Guide that describes signs of a variety of common ailments that can occur during the first 6 months of a foal's life. In most cases, even if the problem is not life-threatening, you will still want your veterinarian to confirm the diagnosis and direct you in the most effective treatment. Please keep in mind this guide lists signs that are frequently observed with a certain disorder in a foal, but not all foals display the same signs or to the same degree. A foal's condition can deteriorate very rapidly, so don't wait until your sick baby shows all the signs before taking action and calling your veterinarian.

Make every effort to maximize the chances of your foal's continued good health. These good management practices can make the difference between a healthy foal and a sick one:

A well-ventilated, clean foaling environment
Good farm and stable hygiene and parasite control.
Sound nutrition, current vaccinations and regular deworming of all equine residents
Plenty of fresh air and room to exercise for the foal as well as commencement of a regular vaccination and deworming program

Foal Health Watch Guide

First Symptom	Other Symptoms	Probable Diagnosis	Actions
Labored, suppressed or noisy breathing	Soreness, reluctance to move	Broken ribs due to severe compression from deliver	Stall rest, gentle handling
	Reluctance to move or nurse, extended abdomen	Ruptured diaphragm, often due to birth trauma	Immediate corrective surgery
	Yellow-stained amniotic fluid with delivery	Meconium-aspiration pneumonia	Antibiotics
	Depression, coughing, intermittent fever	Foal pneumonia	Antibiotic treatment based on bacterial culture
Loose stools	Mild diarrhea at time of dam's foal heat	Transient, "9-day scours"	Gently clean foal's tail and buttocks with soapy water to prevent scalding of skin
	Dehydration, scalding of skin on buttocks, matting of tail	Noninfectious diarrhea (due to overeating, eating manure, etc.)	Fluids, decreased rations, clean tail and buttocks aes above
	Rapid dehydration, scalding, matting, fever, depression	Infectious diarrhea	Antibiotics, fluids, clean tail and buttocks regularly
Colicky	Colic after ingesting first milk, enema ineffective	Closed colon or rectum - development error causes gut to end in blind pouch	Surgery, success depends on length of missing part
	Rolling, thrashing, lying on back, fecal matter not passed	Severe constipation, fecal mass too large or too far forward for enema to be successful	Laxatives, fluids
	Lethargy, appetite loss, diarrhea, teeth grinding, lying on ground with feet in air	Ulcer	Confirm with endoscopy, treat with anti-ulcer medication
Profuse watery discharge from eyes	Blinking, avoidance of light, scratched cornea	Inversion of eyelid (entropion), dehydration, if uncorrected can lead to blindness	Fluids, lubricate eye and lids gently, pull out eyelid as often as necessary, surgery may be needed
Navel stump dripping urine	Wet, soiled, warm, swollen navel stump	"Leaky navel" (pervious urachus), failure of umbilicus to close	Daily cauterization with silver nitrate or iodine, some require surgery
Straining	Tail switching, meconium (first feces) not passed	Simple constipation, meconium not passed	Enema, fluids
	Distended abdomen, little or no urine produced, toxicity, fever, jaundiced membranes, progressive weakness	Ruptured bladder due to birth trauma or jerk on umbilical cord after delivery	Surgery to repair hole in bladder, drain urine from bladder, fluids
Low immunoglobulin (IgG) count	Less than 400 mg/dl	Failure of passive transfer, foal did not receive adequate colostrum or was unable to absorb IgG	Foal probably adequately protected, but watch closely
	Greater than 400 mg/dl, low risk environment	Partial failure of passive transfer	Antibiotic treatment based on bacterial culture
	Less than 800 mg/dl, high risk environment	Partial failure of passive transfer	Administer plasma IgG transfusion, monitor IgG level
Weakness, incoordination	Delivery between 300 and 320 days of gestation, low birthweight, little or no suckle strength, weak fetlocks and lax pasterns	Premature birth	Oxygen, humidity and temperature control, tube feeding, fluids
	Intolerance to exercise	Congenital heart defect	Cardiovascular exam, surgery
	Will not nurse, severe diarrhea, dehydration, subnormal temperature, bluish-white third eyelid	"Sleeper foal" caused by Actinobacillus equii bacteria	Antibiotics, fluids
	Inflammation of umbilical vein, fever, depression	"Navel ill" (septicemia), systemic infection of bloodstream	Antibiotics, fluids, intensive nursing care
Swollen joints	Lameness, fever, depression, joints are hot and painful	Joint ill (septic arthritis) or bone infection (osteomyelitis)	Antibiotics, surgical draining
Mare cannot nurse	Mare dies, does not allow foal to nurse, or is unable to provide milk (agalactiae)	Orphan or rejected foal, agalactic mare, early weaning	Supply colostrum is newborn, provide foal milk replacer or nurse mare