One of the most important factors for your newborn foal is the intake of colostrum shortly after birth. Colostrum is the "milk" produced by the mare in the last two to four weeks of pregnancy. It contains the immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, and IgM, which help build up the immune system in your foal. Good quality colostrum will be yellow, thick, an "sticky" in appearance. These immunoglobulins help your foal fight off disease and infections. The foal does not start to manufacture these immunoglobulins himself until he is at least thirty days old. Therefore, he needs to ingest this "first" milk and adequately "cover" his system in the meantime.

The colostrum is absorbed through pores of the small intestine up to the first twenty-four hours of life. The most effective time to absorb these immunoglobulin proteins is within the first eight hours of life. After twenty-four hours, these pores in the small intestine close down and absorption is blocked.

We can measure the level of the IgG immunoglobulin with a blood test taken from the foal. Typically we draw the sample after the foal is twenty-four hours old. We want the levels to be above 800mg/dl for adequate amounts of protection. Levels below 200mg/dl are consistent with total failure of passive transfer of immunity. These foals are at a very high risk of acquiring an infection, and being unable to fight it.

Levels between 200 and 400mg/dl are also at risk of disease and levels between 400 and 800 mg/dl can be acceptable with foals that appear clinically healthy and normal.

What can we do to insure our foal has adequate protection? To start with, we need to look at several factors in the mare. We must check to see if she has lost or "dripped" out any milk (colostrum) prior to foaling. If so, you may want to try and collect this and freeze it until your foal’s birth. With a gentle thawing in hot water of this frozen milk, it can be supplemented to your foal in the first few hours of life. There are also "colostrum banks" around the country with stores of frozen equine colostrum for such an event as loss of the mare during foaling; or a maiden mare who has not produced any milk, or a mare who will not let the foal nurse.

If your foal is slow to get up and nurse, or is sick at birth we would definitely supplement him with an oral equine colostrum source prior to the twenty-four hour time limit.

Okay, let say your foal is up and appears normal, nurses well and we are past the twenty-four hour time frame. If the testing is now done and the levels are below 400mg/dl we can supplement the IgG levels by transfusing the foal with hyperimmune plasma creating high levels of IgG through the bloodstream. These will be protective throughout the period at which time the foal develops his own immunoglobulins and starts on vaccinations to aid his defense system.

One can see how important it is for every foal to be checked over at least by his second day of life. We do a newborn foal exam which looks at many parameters of normal functions including IgG levels. The mare is also examined for any problems related to birth, nursing, ect. It is so much easier to prevent your foal from becoming ill than trying to save him from a potentially life threatening disease.