Preparation For The Birth Of Your Foal
The best preparation you can do for the appearance of a much anticipated foal is to keep the mare in top health. She ought to be given a dosage of deworming medication between 4 and 6 weeks prior to the anticipated date-of-birth. She will also need to be immunized against Rhinopneumonitis in the 5th, the 7th, and the 9th months of her pregnancy. If her yearly vaccinations are due, administer them between 4 and 6 weeks before foaling. This will be of incalculable help in boosting colostrum antibodies. Once the foal is born, it should be dewormed when it is 2 months of age. There are other vaccination shots that your foal has to get, and they sometimes start at the foal’s sixth month. You must work out and implement the schedule with your vet.
Use clean straw to wipe the newborn foal just after birth. Be very soft, very gentle. Doing this’ll help you in bonding with the foal. Most pony owner’s effect changes in the bedding after about a week or 2; they move to beddings of shavings, pellets or hemp that are more absorbent. Keep removing and replacing soiled bedding as and when required.
Horses have a natural preference for foaling out in the pasture or open range. You may want to think about this; open air foaling carries many benefits. The natural environment will usually be much cleaner than enclosed man made environments. There is plenty of room for the growing foal to find and develop his feet.
Further, in the pasture there’s no need to be worried about the mare foaling too close to corners or walls. Obviously, you’ll have to make sure your fence isn’t of a type that may cause harm to the foal. Lots of horse owners seem to prefer field or board fencing, and this is probably the best kind of fence to have around with a foal present. Be alert to spots that will trap the foal’s feet, and to points on the fence that are such that the foal may get stuck if it rolls there.
I know many owners are far more amenable to have the mare foal in a clean stall, in order that they can maintain a constant presence and closely observe progress of both mother and foal. They are at hand should any sort of awful situation appear.
If you do prefer indoors, be absolutely sure that the stall is spotlessly dry and clean. The mare should be continuously supplied with clean water. It is a great pleasure raising a newly born foal; you just have to take some trouble to make sure that all goes very nicely with the mare while pregnant and with the mare and foal during and following delivery.
Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers read more
