Get Ready for Foaling

The best preparation for foaling is to start reading your foaling books about six months ahead of time. You don’t want to be frantically flipping through pages, with a flashlight between your teeth, trying to find out how to deal with complications when they are suddenly in front of you. Choose a helper who is willing to wait for and attend the birth with you and make sure he or she has also read and re-read the chapters on foaling.

Preparing the Foaling Stall

The foaling stall should be at least 12’x12’, but larger if possible. It should be well ventilated, but free from drafts. Prepare the stall by first stripping it completely and removing all projections, such as hay mangers, hooks, nail heads, bucket hangers, etc. All surfaces should be smooth. Next, disinfect the walls, ceiling and floor, ideally with a pressure sprayer and a disinfectant formulated for livestock housing (ask your vet or local farm supply store manager). It is important that the stall be thoroughly disinfected - navel-ill is a common cause of death in foals and can result from bacteria in the foaling stall. Do a second application of disinfectant in the stall one week later and don’t let people or other animals enter it. Use clean, high quality straw to make a double deep bed in the stall. Make sure there isn’t a gap under the stall door when it is closed.

Preparing the Paddock/Pasture

Most mares foal between 7 p.m. and 12 a.m., so it is likely that she will be in her stall when the event occurs, but you should prepare your paddock/pasture just in case. (Note: Owners who plan on foaling the mare in the pasture should still have a foaling stall prepared in case of bad weather or medical complications.) Areas fenced with V-wire (manufactured specifically for horses) are safest. Post and rail fencing is good, but check the space between the bottom rail and the ground. If the mare foals up against the fence, the foal could end up on the other side of it. Also check the water level in any creeks, drainage ditches, ponds, etc., in the pasture. Mares have been known to try to cool themselves while in labor by lying down near a water source, then delivering the foal directly into the water.

If the footing in the pasture is at all slippery due to mud or ice, do not turn the mare out.

Foaling Kit

Get your foaling kit assembled well ahead of time and keep it all together in a hold-all, so that bits and pieces don’t get used for other purposes and go missing. Use Ziploc bags to keep small items together and sterilized items clean. Your kit should include:

• Flashlight with new batteries

• Sterilized stainless steel bucket or new, unused plastic bucket and Ivory or castile soap

• Sterilized surgical scissors

• Surgical gloves

• Clean cotton or linen towels

• Iodine solution and small, sterile jar for dipping the umbilical stump

• Roll of cotton gauze, clean bandages and Vetrap (or similar bandage)

• Oxygen cylinder

• Obstetrical cord

• Enema can with 4 to 5 inch long tube, 3/8 inch in diameter

• Wide mouth bowl and sterilized funnel (the mare can be milked into the bowl if necessary, and the milk funneled into a bottle)

• Baby bottle or sterilized bottle with fitted lamb nipple (test the flow from the nipple and enlarge the hole if not adequate)

• consult with your veterinarian for other supplies that might be necessary, if your vet will be unable to attend the mare and foal at short notice (such as antibiotics, tetanus toxoid, syringes)