Ensure there's an area protected from the elements where you can plug your foal's milking device in. | Photo: iStock

The old adage says that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So when the sister of an employee at Waller Equine Hospital, in Texas, found herself with an orphaned foal, unable to secure a nurse mare and unable to easily provide the frequent feedings the foal needed to thrive due to a busy schedule, the clinic staff got going.

The staff members put their heads together and successfully created an automatic milk-feeding device, which allowed the foal access to frequently dispensed milk rations without the milk replacer spoiling in the warm Texas climate. At the 2014 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Waller veterinarian Jenni Schroeder, DVM, shared the steps it takes to construct one of these devices.

Schroeder explained that foals rely on milk as their primary source of nutrition for the first two to five months of life, and they generally consume small amounts of milk several times per hour. Large, infrequent milk meals can lead to gastric ulcers, decreased gut motility, and overfilling of the stomach (which, in turn, can lead to colic and diarrhea)