Shetland pony foal..

momma_raven

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I am a new shetland pony owner and we have two mares.

One just had a colt and one is pregnant.

The colt was born last Friday night in between all the storms..

I put iodine on his umbilical stump and gave him a tetanus shot per my vet's instructions.

What do I need to do next?
 

dkluzier

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Hi how's the foal doing? Sorry you haven't gotten an answer yet. My sister-in-law says that horses pretty much take care of their own young without human assistance. I sure hope that's right since we are new to horses and ours is due any time now:) I don't think horses are a huge priority on this website yet. Congrats on your newborn and hope all is well.
 

goodhors

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Well the iodine was a good first step. Since he was born have you done much handling of the foal? You want him used to being touched all over his body, not allow kicking if "he doesn't feel like it" Being haltered and getting him to lead behind his mama is best when they are young, not so willing or ABLE to fight you. We make a big 9 with a soft rope. The circle part of the 9 goes around his rump, with the leg of 9 along his right side, thru halter chin into your hand. You may want a second rope on halter itself. You walk beside foal, pull on the rump rope to encourage FORWARD, but hold halter rope to prevent runaway. With a bit of practice most foals "get it" and walk along nicely. You don't want to just pull with halter rope, because you can injure the neck and spinal cord.

While he is getting brushed and rubbed, have him against a solid wall, and start picking up his hooves. Don't pick them up high, but keep repeating it so he gives hoof easily over time. The wall will help him keep his balance, not fall over. He may need a wall to lean on for a year or so, young horses just don't balance well, wall HELPS you.

We NEVER leave halters on outside, especially foals. They itch and rub, scratch head with hind hoof, could get caught on something.

Expect foal to get the runs when mama comes in heat at about 10days after foaling, lasts about 5 days. You will want to wash off any runny poop to prevent scalding his back end. Wash DAILY. We vasaline them heavily, rump cheeks, hocks, so loose poop doesn't stick well. If he is not cleaned, he can get scalded skin, hair comes off, may get open sores from rubbing.

With the next foal, do the iodine again. I often dip the navel cord a couple times over the first couple days. I use the small measure cup off cough syrup, just put cup up against cord and belly. Iodine dries it faster than other stuff, to close body opening to germs. A couple iodine applications dry cord FASTER! Foals seldom fight when I use the tiny cup, navel cord is well covered with iodine, but not belly skin that might be burned. Not sure if you were there for birth, but mare may chew on foal feet soles, which is a natural thing. Not sure if they get minerals back or for another reason. Doesn't happen with all foalings, but sometimes. You will want to find the afterbirth, lay it out to make sure all parts are there. Pieces left in the mare can cause serious infection.

An odd but useful piece of information is to save the sac in the freezer. You will want to wash it with COLD water, get any messy stuff off so you just have the tissue walls. Then cut it into pieces about 4"x4", wrap pieces indidually, freeze in a container and label. These pieces are EXCELLENT for wound treatment on big holes, just laying them over hole and bandaging it down. I have only heard of it being used on horses, not sure horse tissue would work for other species. They say the holes heal very well, often no scarring. Maybe you could sell the pieces if you don't need them yourself. Needs to be washed and frozen after checking for missing parts, pretty quickly to keep tissue from degenerating into rot stage.

We have had good luck with buying miniature horse halters, very adjustable for those tiny heads. Keep fitting much longer than buying a colt sized halter.

Congrats on the new foal. Sorry, this is the first I had seen this post.
 

danischi24

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Congrats on the new baby. Handle him, enjoy him & make him an good equine :)
 

GLENMAR

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I have never given a foal that young a vaccine. I am not sure the immune system is mature enough for that to have done any good. It is most important that they get immunity from the mothers milk.
 

suzeqf

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I second everyone, When my pony has an unexpect foal many years ago, He has a rough 2 weeks because he was 1/2 pony and 1/2 standbred race horse and walked on his ankles but he had great mom and she took care of everything and he finally grew into his legs and ended up being just a bit taller than mom. I had fun lots of with him. We couldn't find a halter to fit him so I made a rope halter and I tought him to lead at 4 weeks old and we would walk every where and his mom would let me take him and he would follow me around like a puppy
 

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