Foal Care

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Premature Foals (Book Excerpt)

Foals can be born prematurely for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons for a premature delivery are infection of the placenta (placentitis) or long-standing placental insufficiency.

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Foal Imprinting — Research Review

While horse owners worldwide want a simple answer to the question of whether foal imprinting works or not, it’s hard to give a simple answer to what really isn’t a simple question. This was the message of an imprinting research review presented

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Dealing with Dummy Foals

At first, everything seems fine: Your foal was born without incident and started nursing as he should. But two days later, the baby quit suckling and began acting strangely–wandering around and pressing his head against the stall wall. Your

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Growing Problems

Horse breeders have long known that problems can develop in the bones of young horses as they grow. The term developmental orthopedic disease (DOD) was coined in 1986 to encompass all orthopedic problems seen in the growing foal and has become

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Fractured Ribs in Foals

Surgically repairing or stabilizing fractured ribs in a newborn foal can reduce the risk of further complications such as puncturing a vital organ, say Robert Hunt, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, and Fairfield Bain, DVM, MBA, Dipl. ACVIM, ACVP, ACVECC. Th

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Make a Lasting Imprint

It’s been 14 years since the concept of foal imprinting hit the equestrian world’s collective consciousness. Since then, the notion has been marketed, written about, practiced, modified, and even studied in scientific research. In short, it’s

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Joint Injury Prevention in Foals

Developmental and traumatic joint injuries are a significant problem in Thoroughbred foals. These injuries, such as osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) and fetlock joint lesions, often require costly medical treatment or surgical repair.

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Vaccinations for Youngsters

Protecting tender immune systems against disease is the surest way to ensure the young horse doesn’t fall victim to either temporarily uncomfortable or life-ending infections.


Even though foals receive some immunity by drinking colostru

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At What Age to Shoe?

Questions involving the ifs and whens to shoe horses have been debated for years. There are those who will argue that a horse’s foot should not have metal attached via nails under any circumstances, while others will opt for shoeing certain horses

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Eating Poop

Our first foal is 10 days old and has already been spotted eating manure. We have accepted the fact that eating manure is normal foal behavior and are trying to ignore it. A quick question: When should he get over this behavior? via e-mail

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Puberty in Thoroughbreds

Puberty is a transitional period for horses, from a time of reproductive immaturity to a time where sexual behavior is demonstrated and sperm is ready for release in the colt, and the filly starts to cycle. Unfortunately, very little information is

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Umbilical Cord Length and Foal Health

A long umbilical cord increases the risks for abortions and stillbirths in horses. Complications include strangulation of the foal and excessive cord twisting, writes Karin Bosh in a recent edition of Equine Disease Quarterly, a newsletter

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Innovative Mare Milker

A new invention by Buck Wheeler called the Udderly EZ mare milker is helping breeding farms manage colostrum collection and the sometimes difficult task of milking a mare.


The device is a hand-held, trigger-operated pump that fits on a

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Foals of Non-Milking Mares

I have a gorgeous palomino Quarter Horse mare that I would like to breed, but I have a problem. She ran into barbed wire as a yearling and she cannot produce milk as a result of that accident. The man who owned her before bred her twice, and he

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Pneumonia Linked to Large Farms, Lots of Horses

Farms with large acreage and many mares and foals are more likely to have cases of R. equi foal pneumonia than smaller farms with fewer horses, according to a recently published Texas A&M University (TAMU) study. Additionally, farms

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More From The Horse

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Down Horse _ 3
Collecting Colostrum, colostrum, foal care, mare care
foal nursing

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