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| FOALING | |
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Please note these are personal experiences and therefore not professional veterinary advice. It is essential if there are any worries or difficulties, you must contact your vet immediately and not rely on just my personal experiences. WARNING: this article contains some graphic pictures connected to foaling which some people may find offensive |
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This is a short illustrated guide to the ups and downs of the Birth of a Foal from some personal experiences.
Although there are a number of books on Broodmares and Foaling, I often get asked lots of last minute questions by panicking new owners of in foal mares as their due dates approach.
These books
can be pretty intimidating as most go into "too much
information", terrifying the first time foaling owners and
leaving them with more questions than answers. So this page
is a very basic guide with illustrations to outline the main
things to look out for before and afterwards.
It has to be said though, if in ANY DOUBT of impending trouble, you must call your vet and not just rely on my suggestions which are only set out here as a guide to ease a few "last days to last minute" wobbles!
It is only through hands on experience from watching and waiting for various mares of all sizes and types (the actual foaling process is the same for all mares large or small) that gives you the confidence not to panic…..well not hysterically at least.
That said, when a mare who is nearing her due date, after waiting so long, finally gives you the imminent indications that a new birthday is about to happen, the adrenalin does surge very high - the pulse rate quickening as she anxiously gets up and down and the first signs of the white of the sac that baby has lived in for 11 long months, appears under her tail.
When this sign of a new life appears on its potentially dangerous exit to the outside world and mum-to-be is pushing with all her might, it is literally a matter of minutes when things can go very right, or very wrong. Generally speaking it really does more often than not go to plan….so relax.
Although, yes, it is nature and all should be fine for them to get on with it and cope themselves, having waited so long, it is just soul destroying for the mare and you to lose the foal – or devastatingly worse, the mare as well, when you could have been there just to give a few small lifesaving things which I will suggest below.
The main fact is that if you have a mare looking as if she will definitely foal that night, she must be regularly checked through the night if you want to ensure the safety of mother and baby. To stay awake at half hourly intervals through the night is NOT an easy task I can assure you, even with the luxury of a small CCTV type camera to watch her undisturbed. It is your eyes with the matchsticks that get disturbed.
Most mares will wait to foal down in the quietest part of the night 2am to 5am. Lovely, just when a human will be at their most desperate need for the deepest sleep of the 24 hours.
It is much more helpful to know exact covering/conception dates for the mare. All the big Thoroughbred and Sport Horse studs have exact dates as they are scanned in foal too. But with miniature mares early scanning is risky, tricky and expensive, so we keep dates of when the mares were actually covered and then if they do not return in season, well that is good enough for us and also lacks unnecessary vet intervention.
A mare’s gestation period is normally 330 to 350 days, but this is still a guideline and some mares are annual "10 month-ers" (300 days approx) and others hang on until nearly the full 12 months. One of our miniature mares (Lulu) hangs on and on with hard udder and all the signs, literally draining you watching her night and day for so long. Being a very small mare, this is even more of a worry.
Sadly with Lulu she really did catch us out with her first foal. After weeks of watching and waiting, we decided to risk going riding. Fatal, came back to find her struggling to get the foal out. Couldn’t believe it happened so quickly after all that constant observation,heartbreaking.
The general feeling is a filly foal gestation will always be shorter than a colt’s (ladies first, naturally, or is that sexist now?) and certainly in my experience this does seem to be the case nearly all the time.
Twin
pregnancies do occur,
This is common practice at Thoroughbred Stud Farms where many twin conceptions are discovered at the first scanning. Our own TB mare from five foals has had 3 twin pregnancies, all to Derby winners oddly enough. One of them naturally aborted after scanning. She was covered again by the stallion (Artificial Insemination is forbidden in the bloodstock world) and 16 days later scanned to discover another twin pregnancy. Unbelievable!
As the embryos were in different sacs, however harsh it may sound, one was successfully tweaked out allowing the remaining foetus to "cook" happily away for 11 months, but only then too tragically die during birth - and with it our dreams of a filly by such an outstanding racehorse. It is times like this you really want to give up.
For those who have been in the same position, they will share how the ups and downs of breeding can be so exciting or so excruciating. The main priority though has to be the health and well being of the mare, particularly as it is us who have put her in that position.
So as the long wait draws towards D-Day, or rather B-Day…some mares get very round even as early as the 4th or 5th month, some stay very small almost to the last few weeks. It is such a great help if you know your mares very well as they are all so different with little individual signs that you get used to with each foaling. Many of the mares can get SO vast it is a wonder how long they can hang on without going bang!
It is important to keep careful watch and feel of the udder fullness and how hard it becomes.
Again, this is all so individual and I can still get caught out even now when you are convinced the mare has "a few more days at least" . This is when udder has filled up big time, but is not hard enough to convince you birth is imminent.
It is
generally a gradual process, udder filling to full bags from
a month or more before – but it has been known with a maiden
mare for udders to fill that night and baby pushed out when
no-one is prepared…..but for the sake of confidence! We
must try and stick to general foaling rules…
This mares udder pictured here was taken 4 days before birth.
The main signs…..filling up/hardening of udder, teats more prominent, slackening of the vulva and tail set and general relaxed muscle tone around tail area.
Signs of ready milk/colostrums bursting out at the touch of the udder is still not a guaranteed "imminent" sign and you must resist pinching the udder too hard to see how much of the magic sticky colostrum is running freely. This is an amazing product of nature, essential for all the antibodies and the kick start to life the new baby so desperately needs.
The most wonderful sight to save endless nights of sleep for me is the buttery lumps of wax on the teats, They don’t all get this, but when they do, you daren’t even have a bath…..and that’s another story! In my experience, this sign is a virtual guarantee you are hours away from the mare foaling.
Same mare’s udder about 3 hours before foaling.
In the natural habitat, a mare will foal in the dusky hours to lessen the chance of predators stealing their precious long awaited baby, hence why the actual pushing out process of the foal is very quick if all goes well.
In my opinion, there is no doubt they are better left to foal outside in a safely fenced, flat spacious field (no ditches or water though) and if the weather is fair. If foaling all goes to plan like it should in the “text book” you would wake in the morning and see new baby skipping around and protective mum grazing.
Birthing outside, they have more space to roll around, less chance of the foal getting wedged in a corner of the stable, and the new babies can get a foot hold on the ground as they struggle to get to their feet. Fresh air and space will encourage them to get going quicker and keep mum more on the ball.
I definitely find mothers panic more in a stable with a new foal so there is more chance of it getting bashed accidentally. It must be to do with their peripheral vision as in a stable the newborn can be just up and wobbling around the mare and for a split second, go out of her sight causing the mare to whip round in panic and send poor baby flying.
That said, it is very important to have a clean stable ready for the mare with a deep bedding of clean straw. I don’t personally like shavings as they can get in their little damp eyes and up nostrils etc.
One of the other really main signs that seems to be a certain indicator is the mare starting to get very loose droppings, quite often an hour or two – maybe less - before foaling. As you get more convinced she may be starting to contract, feel for beginnings of sweat low down on chest and rising up the neck.
Once she starts her first stage of labour, this will be seen as circling, pawing the bedding, confused and leaning round looking at her back end, getting up and down. If you can get in and get a tail bandage on her then that is a great help having that out the way, but it is tricky as if you go in too early, you will disturb her and she may fret even more. Ideally you want her to be well into this stage of labour before approaching mare or they can "put it on hold" if interrupted.
One other less than helpful clue from them is that mares are amazingly quiet in labour, unlike cows or sheep who make a hell of a racket. They are just so desperate to quietly get on with it on their own which is why if you can leave her undisturbed it is better, as long as you are there hovering in case of a hitch.
When she is down and lying flat on her side, straining and pushing with her legs out straight, you should soon be able to see the white-ish bubble sac appear under her tail like a small balloon. It can have blood coming out with it, so don’t be too alarmed UNLESS it is an actual red bag birth where the mare is pushing out the placenta/after birth before the foal. Time is of urgent essence here, and if you see this, you need veterinary assistance immediately, even if he/she can talk you through what to do over the phone.
As the mare continues to push and then sit up for a breather between contractions, she may well get up for few minutes and walk round ready to lie down again and start pushing. This is normal and helps her cope. As the pushing continues, the thick white sac should – god willing – be containing the 2 new baby fore legs and nose first.
As you can see from these pictures, this is almost what is happening here. The only slight problem with this presentation is the 2 legs were coming out either side of the head meaning much more strain on mare and foal.
In a perfect birth, one foreleg is slightly ahead of the other with the nose effectively just above the fetlock (this guide is in a mini, nose is higher up leg in a bigger horse). This is the text book position for the foal to be in to allow the comparatively huge shoulders to come through at the right angle.
It is so vital not to interfere if you can resist, but in this situation it helps the mare enormously to a swifter birth if you can just hold the legs steady and alter slightly the leg position downwards as she pushes to free up the shoulder coming along behind. This must be done completely in time with her contractions – DO NOT actually pull unless jammed, and NEVER pull if she is resting between contractions.
Be brave and hold on to keep in position while she takes a breather. It is a surprisingly very cold and clammy sac/bag by the time it has been poking out for a few minutes, my children still hate having to touch it!
The bag/sac the foal is born in is also another dangerous hurdle to the young one who so desperately needs to breathe as it hits the deck. It is unlikely that any breeder has not experienced the heart wrench to just miss the whole birth by literally minutes to find exhausted mum and the new baby warm and perfectly formed, but dead, suffocated by the bag itself.
This incredibly tough wonder of nature that is so vital to keep the growing baby alive and help its safe arrival into the world, can also be its killer. It MUST break round the foal’s nose to allow air into the lungs. Nine times out of ten it will, but it is a lethal natural material if it gets stuck round the foals nose as it take in the first desperate gulps of air.
It is the most sickeningly useless feeling that after waiting so long and watching the mare 24/7 as her birth day approached, that you miss it by so little time. 3 years ago it happened to us.
The most exquisite dark palomino filly with the dishiest little head and fine bone china legs. Worst of all, she had thrashed her way out of the bag, even passed meconium /her first – and last - little poo. But a small piece of the bag was breathed in to her tiny little nostrils. I yelled in despair, scooped her up and tried swinging her from her dainty hind legs to let the lungs drain. Heart massage, anything. Ran down into the house with her to get hubby and children to keep massaging her in the long lost hope we could re-splutter her into life. Her tongue and gums were still pink, not disastrously blue, so hadn’t lost all hope
I went back to put mum in a safe small paddock as knew she would run herself ragged. Back inside this perfect, still warm little baby was most definitely not going to come back to life. Truly depressing for us all.
But at least we’ve had more often than these low times some wonderfully healthy babies with trouble free births.
In the
final stages of labour, the rest of the foal will be
expelled with the final push and it is quite normal for the
baby to lie for a few minutes with
She will then look round proudly "chatting" to her new baby with the bag still over the rest of its body and back legs.
As mum gets up the cord that is still attached will "ping" and snap the connection. This will all look a bit scary as quite a bit of blood can spill from baby, but now, this point of life source for 11 long months is no longer required and mum will get on and lick her baby clean stimulating the foal to get up and drink.
Many breeders spray antiseptic type spray on the cord "stump" area, but I never have providing mum gets on a cleans the area and touchwood have had no problems by not spraying anything there – it is nature after all.
The next alarming sight to face us for the first time is the after birth/placenta which hangs from the mare for different degrees of time after foaling.
This becomes the final stage of labour as the mare starts contracting again to expel what is now waste. It is imperative that this is expelled in a complete state, as in - no bits left behind. This can happen if she treads on it and it gets torn away instead of pushed from the inside. Usually this amazing self cleansing process is trouble free, but she will go up and down again as if about to foal. It will eventually "plop" out all in one go from 10 minutes or so after foaling up to an hour or more.
This must never be pulled at and if proving a refusal to be expelled it needs a gentle weight tied to it. However ridiculous it may look, we have tied a rubber glove filled with water, or even an old slipper! It never seems to bother the mare, they are too busy concentrating on the foal.
Mares have been known to eat this once it has been expelled, quite amazing that this doesn’t give them colic, but some of them feel compelled by instinct to chew/destroy the evidence.
If you can spread the afterbirth out on hard ground it is a good idea to piece it back together to check there are no other little holes as this can mean a few bits of tissue could be left in the mare.
It needs to be disposed of carefully as waste. I know people chuck it in the hedge but this can attract foxes and – in our case birds of prey as well! And it wouldn’t take much for a fox to take a weak newly born foal if it was sniffing around foaling leftovers.
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The
foaling process from start to finish (if no problems on way
out of the cervix and birth canal) is incredibly quick.
This takes many people by surprise.
but rarely
go to term and the mare tends to slip/abort them at around 7
to 9 months which is sad and frustrating for all. In early
TB pregnancies, they will "pinch" a twin out when routine
scanning to allow one foetus to grow normally.
Ever
expanding
watch and wait.
its back legs in mum as
she lies still exhausted. 
We are very
lucky to have the daily sight of huge buzzards and kites
circling and swooping over our fields. One was so big last
year we thought it was an eagle, and although these are
meant to be carrion birds, they can unnerve you if they get
too bold and get so near the new borns.