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What's In Our Foaling Kit? - By Kathy St.Martin

4/6/2017

1 Comment

 
What to put in a foaling kit
Welcome back to the Avalon Equine Blog!  After a particularly rough week for a few of our breeder friends, we realized that some of the simple things we do here that we've learned through experience, may be helpful to those that may not have attended as many foalings!  I'm going to walk through what we have in our foaling kit and what we do immediately post foaling.  

First, we recognize there are oodles of articles on what to do during a foaling, IgG testing, what to expect, red bag deliveries, dystocias, etc.  This Blog is just about what "we" do immediately following a normal foaling and why we do it. 

Above is what we here at Avalon have in our foaling kit.  It includes a dose of Ivermectin, Vetwrap for the mare's tail, packages of sterile lube, a navel clamp, a 50ml centrifuge tube with .5% chlorhexidine solution for dipping the navel, ob palpation sleeves, a baby bottle for collecting colostrum, a ziploc bag for freezing collected colostrum, a 30 ml syringe, an insemination pipette that has been cut down to about 8 inches, an enema and one of those hay cutter safety knifes in case of a red bag delivery or to cut the umbilical chord if necessary.  We then put all of that into a palpation sleeve and hang it on the stall door! 

An OB palpation glove to hold the items for your foaling kit
Putting everything into a palpation glove makes a nice, neat, clean package that is ready and there when you need it!
umbilicle clip for foaling
Umbilical clip is great if you have an umbilical cord that continues to bleed or needs to be cut.
Baby bottle for collecting colostrum
​

A baby bottle with a drop in liner is clean and easy to use for collecting colostrum!
Hay bale cutter to cut placenta

​

Hay bale cutters are EXCELLENT for cutting open a placenta in the event of a red bag delivery.  The blade is covered, so you are less likely to inadvertently cut the mare or foal while cutting through the placenta.  They also work great for cutting a tough umbilical cord!  
Give the mare Ivermectin after foaling
When we have a new foal, we do a few things immediately post foaling.  The mare is given a dose of Ivermectin.  The foal's navel is dipped with a 1/2% solution of chlorhexidine and an enema is given.  We tie up the placenta, and last but not least, we strip off about 150 cc's of colostrum and give it to the foal.  We then leave the stall and let the mare and foal bond.  By giving the foal it's first feeding of colostrum, we accomplish a couple of things.  First, we ENSURE that the foal receives a good healthy dose of colostrum before it even stands.  Secondly, we have all watched as a foal attempts to nurse on everything including walls, buckets, legs of the mare, sides of the mare...often everything BUT the udder.  And of course, the frustration of worrying WHEN the foal will get it right and realizing valuable time is passing, often to the point that we feel inclined to intervene.  By giving the foal that first feeding, you immediately start the absorption process AND you have time to wait and watch and let the foal figure things out as well as leaving the mare and foal to bond naturally.  Usually that means you get to go back to bed for a couple hours!  And by the time you get up, in most cases the foal is nursing all on its own.   

Giving a foal an enema
If you don't have a way to warm up the enema before giving it to the foal, sticking it in your waistband or shirt will warm it nicely.
Dipping a foals navel
50 ml centrifuge tubes work well for dipping the foal's navel!
giving a foal colostrum
The method we use to get that first dose of colostrum in the foal, is also the same method we use if we find we have a dummy foal.  With a dummy foal, one of the biggest issues with it is that it has no suckle response.  So trying to feed with a baby bottle is futile.  Yes, you can tube the foal, but in most cases, that requires a veterinarian's intervention.  And when one considers that during the first few days of life, that foal needs to be fed every one to two hours, unless the vet lives on farm, tube feeding is probably not going to happen as regularly as it needs to.  So, necessity being the mother of invention, we have found that by taking an insemination pipette, cutting it down to about 8 inches and attaching it to a syringe, once you have expressed about 150 mls of colostrum, you simply pull up 30ccs into the syringe (a 30 cc syringe is easier to handle and depress the plunger), while the foal is still lying down, you simply straddle it, guide the pipette into its mouth lying the pipette tip at the back of the tongue and slowly depressing the plunger, allowing the foal to swallow.  Foals with a suckle response will usually suck and swallow easily and readily.  Foals that have no suckle response will, in spite of that, swallow as you depress the syringe. 

Picture
Cut the insemination pipette to about 8 inches.  This makes it easy to place it on the back of the foal's tongue when feeding it the colostrum.
collecting colostrum in the mare
Expressing the colostrum into the baby bottle.
Feeding a foal colostrum
Using a 30 ml syringes is easier to handle and depress the plunger when feeding the foal.  
Frozen horse colostrum
All of the above - the navel dipping, tying up the placenta, feeding the foal, giving the enema, etc., should take around 30 minutes. Express another 150 mls of colostrum for freezing.  If the IgG test shows that the foal has adequate passive transfer, you then know that the colostrum is good!  Store that colostrum in the freezer and make sure you mark the bag with the date and the name of the mare.  You can store it for up to two years.

By the time you've completed everything, hopefully the mare has dropped her placenta.   Once you have done everything, get out of the stall and leave the mare and foal to bond.  And the best part?  Go get some sleep! When we check back in a couple hours what do we usually find?  The foal is nursing quite well.   We will then pull an IgG at around 12 hours.  If that comes back above 800, unless there is an indication that the foal has an issue - lethargic, mare has a large, tight udder, foal is running a fever - we don't do anything further with the pair until it's time to start checking the mare to be rebred!

mare and newborn foal after foaling
1 Comment

Drawing Blood on the Newborn Foal

3/14/2017

3 Comments

 
​First of all, Welcome to Avalon Equine!  We are thrilled that you have come to visit us and check out all we have available.  As many of you know, we also own Equine-Reproduction.com, LLC and are big on educating breeders, horse people and health professionals in the equine industry!  We have been asked repeatedly, to start a blog here on the website but for one reason or another, haven't been able to sit down and get to it.  We've finally started one, but have decided we’re going to do things a bit differently! While we will definitely be blogging, there will be three of us doing the blogging here.  Me - Kathy St.Martin; my husband and partner in the business, Jos Mottershead; and our wonderful farm manager and right hand man, Josh Milledge.  We thought it might be fun and interesting to see what we do here from different perspectives.  Hopefully, you will find these informational, helpful, insightful, entertaining, funny, and as is sometimes the case when dealing with animals, sad. 

So today’s blog will start with pulling blood for IgG tests on foals!

One of the things that we always do with our foals at 9 to 12 hours after birth, is an IgG test.  Foals are born with a functioning immune system, but it has not developed any antibodies.  The main immunoglobulin (antibody) produced in the colostrum is gamma globulin (IgG) and the foal must receive that within the first 24 hours of life.  But if the foal is slow to nurse, the mare has poor quality colostrum or has streamed milk for days prior to foaling, or if the foal is unable to absorb those antibodies, you may have a foal that has failed passive transfer.  In order to be proactive, rather than reactive, one can easily pull an IgG test.  If you know that a foal is low or has failed passive transfer at 9 to 12 hours post foaling, you still have approximately a 12 hour window to address the problem orally with another mare’s colostrum that is known to be good quality, or with a commercial product such as Seramune.  We will then test again at 24 hours to insure that we have sufficient immune coverage.  If at 24 hours, the reading is still low or passive transfer has failed, one can then address the problem with a transfusion. 

There are several stall side tests available that cost as low as about $10.  They can be purchased singly or in kits of 10 – obviously the more you buy, the lower the cost.  Two of the most common are the Idexx Snap test and the Immuno-Chek G.  The tests come with complete instructions, so I’m not going to go into detail on the entire process.  But, both do require being able to pull blood a small amount of blood from the foal and is where many become a bit uncomfortable – attaining that sample of blood.  Our goal here is to show you just how easy it really is to do!  Indeed, I often end up doing it by myself – so the photos that accompany this Blog will show me doing exactly that!  ​

The first thing is to either catch the foal when it is lying down as in the photo below, or you will have to lay the foal down.  You "can" pull blood with the foal standing, but we have just found it much easier to do with the foal lying down and definitely easier to do if you are having to do this procedure by yourself!​
Newborn Foal | IgG test
A resting newborn foal, by Cremello Thoroughbred Stallion Goldmaker
Not all foals will be so cooperative and be lying down when you are ready to pull blood.  With those that are standing, the easiest way we have found, is to wrap our arms around the foal as seen in the first picture below.  Slide your hands down the legs opposite to your body - in this case, the foals left front and back legs - and gently lift the foal up while "rotating" it sideways, and gently laying it down, as in the second picture below. 
Drawing blood on a foal for an IgG test
Wrap your arms around the foals chest and rear, grabbing a hind leg.
Laying a foal down for an IgG test
Gently lay the foal down.
Next, straddle the foal and apply pressure to keep it lying down.  They might initially struggle, but usually stop fairly quickly.  You "will" have to hold them down somewhat with your body, but as you can see in these photos, you don't need to put much, if any, weight on them. Straighten the neck out as shown in the first photo below, and raise the jugular vein as you would for any other blood draw.  Please note that I am using a 1cc Insulin syringe with a 28 gauge 1/2 inch needle. The needle is very, very fine and indeed, we use them for as many applications when giving injections as possible, in order to inflict as little discomfort as is possible.  
Drawing blood for a foal IgG test
Straddle the foal, be sure not to put too much weight on them. Straighten their neck to gain access to the jugular.
IgG test - blood draw for foals
Use a small needle for comfort when drawing blood for an IgG test
We use a 1cc Insulin syringe with a 28 gauge 1/2 inch needle to make the process as pain free as possible.
You need very little blood for this test - typically we pull around 2/10ths cc.  We then decant that blood into the needle cap.  
Follow the IgG kit instructions to test the blood.
Next, using the 10 µL (ten microliter) pipettor pull up the blood and decant it into the dilution solution as per the kit instructions.  Mix well and follow the rest of the test's instructions according to the one you will use.  In this particular test, we were using the Immuno-Chek G.  
Foal IgG test, determining whether more colostrum is needed.
Immuno-Chek G - a foaling IgG test kit
Picture
Picture

And of course, when you are done taking the blood, make sure you give the foal lots of scratches! 

Imprinting a foal
3 Comments

    Authors

    We're a little different here at Avalon Equine.  We have THREE bloggers managing this page. Josh Milledge - Farm Manager, Right Hand Man, Builder Extraordinare AND a fabulous writer as you will see here, as well. Avalon Equine wouldn't run as smoothly, look as good or accomplish as much as we do without him.  If you come visit us, chances are good, Josh's smiling face will be the first one to greet you!
    Jos Mottershead - Many of you will have met Jos at one of our short courses, or when he is out freezing stallions on the road.  Jos is an expert on all things equine reproduction! He is also a very good photographer, as you will get to see! 
    Kathy St.Martin - If you have ever called here, chances are good you have spoken with Kathy.  She is does a little bit of everything and keeps the cogs running relatively smoothly around here.  She also does most of the graphic work and creates the ads here, as well as the graphic work on the children's book she and Jos are working on!

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