You have spent a lot of time planning your mares breeding and have kept her in excellent condition.  Between you and your veterinarian, a careful broodmare management program of worming every two months and vaccination for virus abortion (Rhinopneumonitis) on your mare's fifth, seventh, and ninth month of pregnancy have been kept up. In your mare's ninth or tenth month, a tetanus toxin vaccination has been given so the mare will build up immunity in her colustrum and give it to the foal.  Now the eleventh month has rolled around and you need to know what your mare is going to go through.  As the time approaches, the mare will start to produce colustrum, or first milk, and store it in her mammary glands.  This is called bagging up.  Under no circumstances should a normal mare leak milk early.  If she does, it is not normal and a problem surely exists with the placenta.  Call a reproductive specialist for consultation at once.

The mare may bag up for several weeks ahead of time or just before she is ready to foal. As the time is very close, hours to a few days, small amounts of wax or dried beaded colustrum will collect on the end of her teats. She will then relax the ligaments around her tail. From this point on be on careful watch. 

Normal mares prefer to be alone. You may watch very diligently night after night and excuse yourself for a five-minute break, and there it is.  If you are lucky and do observe the process however, you may see the mare exhibit some or all of the following behavior patterns.

The mare will start to get a little restless and may start to make a nest. That is to say she will paw some straw into a pile. She will probably sweat to some degree, if her stall has a window, she may pace the stall looking out the window.  She may get up and down several times, or she may decide to lay down, or stand. You will notice a thin pinkish fluid-filled membrane called the amniotic sack, or water bag, emerge. This sack will probably break. Shortly thereafter a front foot will appear followed by the other front foot.  Almost as the knees are about to appear a nose should poke out.  You should then roll the sack off of the nose as the whole head appears.  As the shoulders will squeeze through, continue to roll the sac off the baby. The chest cavity and belly follow. The body twists a little so that the pelvis can squeeze through and the rest will follow.  The total foaling time, from the time the mare starts to sweat till the foal is on the ground will be from five to twenty minutes. 

The little one will still be attached to the placenta by way of the umbilical cord.  About a pint of blood will flow from the placenta to the foal until the mother or the foal gets up.  At this time the cord will break about an inch from the foal's belly.  Stress from the new environment will stimulate the foal to breathe and within 20 minutes to an hour the foal will be on its feet nursing away towards a happy ending.


TROUBLES: What to look for that could prevent a potential disaster


Prevention of the unhappy ending will have to take place in about 5% of the time.  It is this small percentage that makes sleepless nights in the middle of winter worthwhile. 

If the mare starts to foal and nothing happens in the first five minutes, she could be in trouble. With a clean protective sleeve, carefully slide your hand into the birth canal to feel for the direction of the foal’s feet.  If the feet are in a normal presentation they should be pointing down with the feathers pointing down not up! God placed the feathers on the soles of the feet to protect the mother from injury while the foal is in utero as well as when the feet enter the birth canal.  Remember; from start to finish the total time it takes a mare to foal is five to fifteen minutes. If you think that your mare is in trouble or the feet are mal-positioned, call your veterinarian immediately get the mare to stand and start to walk your mare.  Walking the mare will take her back out of labor and help to delay the rest of the foaling process.

Assuming that you have had a lot of experience, scrub up the mare very quickly, and begin as clean as you can, preferably while wearing sterile gloves, cut the sack and go into her vagina and uterus to determine the problem. Facts to remember at this point are that a normal position for the foal to be in is foal's belly to mare's belly or backbone to backbone and front feet first with head resting on top of the front forearms with the nose very close to the knees.  It is a tight squeeze inside the mare's vagina and uterus.  But, if you think it is necessary to feel inside, you can push the foal back a little by pushing on the chest or forehead. The broad flat surfaces of the knees are easy to feel quickly, the nostrils are easy to feel and so are the ankles.

The first common problem is an ankle that is flexed, causing the leg to be bent at the knee. If this is found, quickly grab the foot and pull it toward you.  The second common problem is a head and neck twisted to one side.  If the front legs are correct, find an ear or nose and try to straighten it out.  The third problem is one or more legs positioned in a straight backward manner.  Start praying and try anything you can try to straighten the legs.  If unsuccessful in a short time, consider the value of the mare and call in the surgical team. 

Another problem is one of complete mal-position. The foal may be sideways, upside down, backwards or any combination thereof. The only mal-position that can be delivered that does not have to be corrected is the one in which the foal is in correct presentation, that is backbone to backbone, but exactly backwards. In other words, hind legs first.  Deliver this foal as rapidly as possible; it is in great danger of suffocating.


PROPER WAYS TO ASSIST: Techniques that will lessen foaling trauma


When minor help is required there are a few things to remember. Keep the mare out of the corner of the stall.  You need room to work and she needs space in which to deliver. You may have to rupture the amniotic sac, which is frequently very tough to tear and/or puncture. Assuming correct presentation, pull the longest front leg only in a downward direction, that is slightly towards the mare's hocks. The direction of pull is the same whether the mare is standing or lying down.  If the mare is standing, your job is easier until the foal is about to hit the ground. Cushion its head and the rest will bounce like rubber. The cord will break sooner than one would like; however this usually presents no problems.

There will be three tight spots in your efforts. The first is as the head is passing out. You may pull and exert a lot of force without damaging any structures, however, use only human force and not mechanical force.  The foal's tongue will appear purple.  Do not be alarmed, this is normal.  Just be sure that the amniotic sac is off the nose.  The second tight spot will be the shoulders passing through the birth canal.  To assist this blockage, try pulling only on the longest leg, this will allow the shoulders to slant going through the birth canal. The third tight spot may be the foal's hips passing through the birth canal. Try twisting the foal slightly.  There is a larger space for the foal's hips to fit diagonally across the mare's pelvis. The critical thing to remember is that once the chest cavity is through the birth canal the foal will start to breathe. Make sure it is breathing before spending more than 60 seconds trying to rectify a hip lock. 


POST DELIVERY CARE: Tips that will expedite post foaling acclimation


Assuming no complications, the normal foaling sequence most likely occurred in about five minutes, from the appearance of the front legs until the foal is on the ground.  There are still several important things to do. First, make sure that the foal is breathing. If it is not, use standard cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques.  Hold the lower nostril closed and less importantly, the mouth closed and exhale your full lung capacity into the foal.  Do this two or three times rapidly and most likely the foal will start to breathe on its own. Place your hand over its heart, which is located just behind the elbow, and feel for a readily detectable heart beat.  If none is present, slap the chest twice and pump over top of the heart several times making sure not to exert too much pressure, which could fracture the ribs. Then breathe several times and pump. If the heart does not start it probably isn't going to. If the heart is beating, just use artificial respiration at the rate of twenty times per minute. This can be kept up for quite some time until successful respiration starts on its own. Do not give up too quickly.  Also, don't be squeamish about the procedure. It is a simple and life saving technique.

There is one additional circumstance where very rapid assistance is necessary. The normal amniotic sac is a pink, thin looking membrane. If you see a bright red thick membrane instead, then you are looking at an early-detached placenta. Remembering that the foal gets its oxygen supply from the placenta until its chest cavity passes through the birth canal. One must act with lightning speed to get the foal out so it can breathe. Its oxygen supply is gone due to the early-detached placenta.  Rush in and pull the foal out as fast as you can and administer CPR if necessary.


COMMON ABSOLUTELY PREVENTABLE LOSSES: No excuses!


By carefully watching your about-to-foal mare, you can prevent the foal from dying from the following problems.  Foal drowns in a pool of fluids, Foal dies because it was still in the sack, Foal dies of a broken neck because the mare was stuck in a corner, Foal bleeds to death because the mare chewed on the umbilical stump and/or tore it off, Mare steps on or maliciously kicks the foal, A mean mare that will not let the foal nurse, Foal dies of severe exhaustion due to an excessively long delivery.  If your mare and foal mean anything to you! Either send the mare to a farm equipped to properly attend to your mare or watch her like a hawk!




FINAL TOUCHES: Tips that will improve a foal’s vigor


After the cord has broken on its own, saturate the stump with 3.5% Next Generation Iodine. Do not use strong 7% iodine because you will blister the foal’s belly.  Soak the stump several times per day until it is dry. This will usually take from three to five days.  During the foal's first few hours of life, while it is getting accustomed to its new environment, give it one or two adult-sized Fleet enemas.  This will aid the passage of the first hard, sticky feces called meconium.  Otherwise, the foal may get colicky from an impaction.

Allow the foal 20 minutes to an hour to get up.  If the foal hasn’t risen with in that time frame, I will draw out 4-5 oz of colustrum from the mare into a bottle and offer the milk to the foal to encourage the desire to nurse. This works great to establish a suckle and will also work as an early identifier of Hypoxsemia or “Dummy Foal” disorder.  After that time, help raise the foal and aim it in the direction of the udder.  The more you force the foal the more resistant it will become, also, karo syrup coated teats may help.  If the foal is unable to get up within four (4) hours, veterinary help should be obtained.  However, you can milk the colustrum into a cup, strain it and offer it by baby bottle or coke bottle fitted with a lamb's nipple.  The foal must get colustrum before twelve hours. By twenty-four hours the intestines become refractory and the foal can no longer absorb the immunoglobulin.

One last item is the placenta. Allow the placenta to emerge on its own. Do not pull it out.  If the mare cleans rapidly put it in a placenta bag for your veterinarian's examination when.  If it has not passed in two hours time, tie a water soaked towel roll or a 3/4 water filled plastic gallon jug to the placenta and allow this weight to gently pull on the placenta. Keep tying it up as more is expelled to prevent the mare from stepping on it. If the placenta is retained more than eight hours, the potential for endotoxemia and laminitis becomes very great.  This is a dangerous situation, which requires immediate attention from your veterinarian. The uterus must be flushed with an antibiotic to minimize bacterial toxins.  The mare should also be given banimine to prevent laminitis. Retained placentas can be successfully managed for three to four days, if necessary, by treating with oxytocin, large volume uterine lavages and banimine® an impending infection is your only self limiting factor.
 
FOALING PROCEDURE

1)Wrap entire tail when pre-labor begins. Wash with warm water and castile soap the complete vulva area thoroughly, including udder and between the teats.

3)Have all necessary supplies within reach. (See enclosed list below)

4)Once labor begins, (breaking of the amniotic sac) record time as labor.

5)At this time, check for normal positioning; feathers on the bottom of feet should be pointing towards the ground, if pointing upwards call for help, get the mare up, walk and wait for assistance.

6)DO NOT RUSH THE MARE, if assistance is required with normal presentation, apply pressure down towards the hocks of the mare.

7)As the mare passes the shoulders, apply pressure only to the longest leg.  This will ease the shoulders through the mare’s pelvis. Start to fold the afterbirth back and continue as foal passes through birth canal.

8)Once the foaling is complete, apply towel clamps to the vulva lips, rub foal down lightly, place towel over foal's body, leave the stall, shut off the lights, record this time as foaled.
9)Once the mare has risen, tie up the afterbirth, iodine the navel, towel off again, give enema, tag tail mane, and fit a halter on the foal, and move to a dry spot in the stall.

10)Leave stall; allow mare and foal to get acquainted.

11)Once mare has passed the placenta, examine for any tears and/or missing pieces that still could be attached in the uterus, place in a plastic bag and record this time as cleaned.

12)Foal should stand within an hour to an hour and a half maximum. If foal hasn't risen in an hour, give four (4) ounces of colustrum. Do not let the foal fall asleep, although, keep trying to get the foal up by pinching the skin along the spine.

13)Once foal has risen on its own power, record this time as stood.

14)Once the foal has nursed and that time recorded as nursed, clean the entire stall and re-bed with an eight-inch depth.

15)At this time, take tail wrap off and wash buttocks, legs and tail. 

16)Continue to iodine the navel with Next Generation Navel Iodine every 2-3 hours throughout the night and into the next day.
 

FOALING SUPPLIES  (click for the store)

1) Neoprene Tail Wrap (#285)  Tug –N- Tie® Stall Tie (#463)

2) Stainless Steel Bucket (#400)   1 – Disposable Soft Tip Enema (#416)

3) Thick Roll Cotton (#298)  1 - Placenta Bag 4mil (#411)

4) Castile Soap 1 - No-Slip Placenta Ties

5) 1 - Towel Clamps – stainless steel   Foaling Data Sheet (#337)

6) Next Generation® Navel Iodine (#413)   2 - Heavy Terry Foaling Towels (#412)


This foaling outline is to be used strictly as a “Layman’s” guide; I compiled a short concise checklist that will identify most trouble situations.  Each and every foaling is different this guide will allow you the opportunity to identify a problem.  Always be prepared for any situation that may arise – May the best be with you each and every time.