In 2005 I was unlucky enough to experience every breeder’s nightmare – a dead broodmare and an orphan foal. The year started brilliantly with the birth of a stunning buckskin filly, Taraco Louisiana. I was so pleased with her that arrangements were swiftly made to return her dam to the same stallion. A month later my section D mare had a stunning buckskin colt and the day after Ringstead Charming Lass had a beautiful cremello filly. I could not have been happier. Then suddenly overnight everything changed. The stud called to say they were worried about my mare, and before I knew it, within 12 hours I had a dead mare and a 5 week old orphan foal. I cannot describe the emptiness and horror that fills you when you stand there looking at the dead body of a mare in one stable and a tiny orphan foal in another. Its not something you plan for, and suddenly I realised I had a vague idea of the theory but no idea about what I should do in practice. I had no emergency milk supply, no bottles, no teats, no nothing. In short, the reality was I did not know where to start.I know many people recommend the National Foaling Bank but I was unable to get hold of them so was left to make my own decisions and mistakes.

It sounds so easy when you read the books, national foaling bank, foster mares, replacement milk, get them on a bottle… bla…bla… bla… I was getting advice from every direction, all of it different, some helpful, some confusing. So I started at the beginning and tried to get a foster mare or foster mare figure for my filly Lulu. Fortunately, a local stud held an emergency Aintree Milk kit so I flew down there to collect that whilst my own supply was on order and in theory that should have been the end of the complications. But regrettably getting hold of the milk is the start of the fun – you try persuading a depressed and scared 5 week old foal to suckle from a black plastic teat. She’d had 5 weeks of the ‘real thing’ and my pathetic replacement just wasn’t cutting the mustard as far as Lulu was concerned. I tried every colour, shape, size and height of bucket available but she wouldn’t drink milk or water. Just as I was despairing, I tried something unorthodox and managed to get her drinking out of a bucket using sugar beet water. Then there was no looking back – every 4 hours or so she drank a bucket of foal milk and had a constant supply of hand picked grass, and fresh water and sugar beet water. It worked. She went from strength to strength. I even managed to get her eating hard feed – milk pellets and a small cereal based feed with sugar beet and she thrived.

Then suddenly I was taken ill and a friend had to take over, and everything went pear-shaped. Lulu went downhill over the space of a week – whether it was the change in routine, slight variations in how her milk was made up or what but she was incredibly poorly. She struggled with liquid diarrhoea, stopped eating, stopped drinking, had a very high temperature and was incredibly lethargic. The vets tried everything and nothing worked – even a week at the equine unit of the veterinary clinic showed no improvement. I spent every day with her and eventual had to accept that it wasn’t working so she came home again and I ploughed through the research articles, text books and websites. Everything pointed to some sort of gut imbalance and possible lactose intolerance because of it but the vets had administered probiotics on several occasions with no improvement at all, however, I was certain that the route of the problem lay with a flora and fauna imbalance in her gut, probably caused by change in diet when she lost her mum and the cereal based hard feed I had ‘successfully’ got her eating. Oh and lets not forget she had never had the chance to naturally eat her dam's pooh in order to naturally populate her gut bacteria herself!

In consultation with the vets I gave her a course of Vitamin B injections and after much research, I started her on two probiotics (NAF probiozyme and NAF pink powder) by suspended both in water I was able to syringe these orally into her on a daily basis. Gradually she started to pick up and I was able to introduce her to the foal milk again and in time to Baileys Foal Creep pellets. We had turned a corner. Now my attention turned to making sure she had equine company and I borrowed a friend’s yearling section A (Lippens Dabchick) to keep out with her. We had lift off and she went from strength to strength. After about a month I had run out of the Probiozyme and in the 2 days before I received my replacement supply she deteriorated rapidly again, re-affirming my belief that all her problems stemmed from this incredible and semi-permanent imbalance of the bacteria in her gut. She remained on the combination of probiotics for 6 months and I am pleased to say (touch wood) has never suffered any gastric problems since. I am now the proud owner of a delightful three year old welsh section A filly, and although every time I look at her I think of her beautiful dam, I would never be without her. What a steep learning curve she gave me that year.

There is no text book that can prepare you for looking after an orphan foal – they are all different and I dare say the age, size, tenacity and temperament of every orphan foal will impact on what may work and what may not. However, in my experience some background information and preparation can help avoid problems! I am no expert on orphan foals, but if anyone is struggling with an orphan foal and wants some support, advice or help please do not hesitate to email me at taracostud@hotmail.com or call on 07941-487616.

What not to do....