Caring for Mares & Foals

Lesson 2: Caring for the Broodmare

Early Problems

As you observe your mare, you will able to detect any unusual occurrence. The most obvious would be an abortion or premature birth. A foal born more then a month early will probably not survive, but after ten months, it has a chance if you choose to rush it to a neonatal critical care center. Realize, before you rush into this, that it is often prodigiously expensive. In fact, it is best you decide what you would do before you are in the emotional state brought about by discovering your early foal.

Other changes you should be concerned with would be a nasty smell coming from your mare’s vagina, signaling a uterine infection or deceased foal, or a ruptured public tendon (which supports the pendulous belly), or early milk loss leaking away the precious colostrums. Any unusual observation should be reported to your veterinarian. He or she would much rather hear your questions than to be called after it’s too late to remedy a problem.

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