Newborn foals are precocious, active, and grow at an incredible rate. They can stand and gallop within a few hours of birth and gain 1–1.5 kg (2.2-3.3 lb.) per day during the first month of life. That rapid growth makes early nutrition and care especially critical—so when a broodmare dies, the tragedy deepens if her orphaned foal is not quickly placed on an effective feeding and management program that closely mimics natural nursing. With proper care, orphan foals can still successfully develop into healthy, thriving adults.

The first and most important step is getting colostrum into newborn foals within the first two hours of life. This first milk gives foals the antibodies they need to temporarily build up their immune systems to fight disease, but after 18-24 hours they can no longer absorb these antibodies.  A foal orphaned without receiving colostrum must be given colostrum from another mare, frozen colostrum or antibody-rich plasma as soon as possible, ideally within 3 – 12 hours.

Foals are dependent on a milk-based diet for the first 3 – 4 months of life.  If orphaned during this time, the short-term, emergency feeding is best addressed by feeding a well-formulated mare milk replacer. If mare milk replacer is not immediately available, choose a nonmedicated kid (goat) or multiple-species milk replacer. Other suitable options in an emergency include unmodified goat milk or low-fat cow milk (2% fat) with 20g/L of dextrose added.  Sucrose should not be used because young foals lack enzymes to digest it.

Long‐term feeding options include use of a nurse mare, induction of lactation in a parous (has foaled at least once in the past) barren mare, or hand raising with an appropriate milk replacer. Securing a substitute nurse mare is the ideal solution for raising an orphan foal. A well-fed lactating mare can effectively support two nursing foals, if the foals receive a high-quality mare-and-foal feed. The appropriate foal feed will help nutritionally support good, steady growth and accustom foals to eating dry feed.

When a suitable nurse mare is unavailable, mare’s milk replacer is necessary for orphan foals and possibly foals whose dams have low milk production. Raising a foal on milk replacer requires intensive and vigilant management. A foal’s small stomach limits how much it can eat per feeding, but hand feeding more often than every two hours isn’t practical for most owners. If high volume intakes are desired, consider an automated system or free-choice feeding. 

In one study foals orphaned from 12-24 hours postpartum reportedly grew slower in the first two weeks of life compared with mare-nursed peers, but both groups grew at similar rates from two weeks through 50 days. Foals fed 26% more than their recommended intake ate less solid food, drank less water, and experienced diarrhea earlier and for longer duration than those fed milk replacer as recommended or mare-nursed foals. High volume intakes of milk replacer appeared to prolong diarrhea. Foals fed milk replacer do not always develop diarrhea but can experience soft feces.

Diarrhea in replacer-fed foals at 1 to 2 weeks of age might or might not reflect feeding mismanagement. Maintaining accurate feed intake records on orphan foals and mixing the replacer accurately are important to success of the program. Normal growth rates occur when milk replacer and good-quality feeds are fed concurrently.

To help orphans through the tough early stages of life, review the emergency feeding program developed by the Purina Animal Nutrition Center or talk to a Purina PhD nutritionist for nutritional support.