New Money Honey is one of the mares on Foal Patrol.
I was just reading the blog for New Money Honey and she tested positive for Neonatal Isoerythrolysis (NI). They explained a bit about it.
After they milk out all the colostrum and New Money Honey is producing regular milk, the foal will be okay to nurse, or will they get a nurse mare? Is NI rare?
She looks a bit uncomfortable this evening. Was just rolling.
Another lifetime ago, I used to work in the ICU/NICU of a large animal hospital. We’d always have an NI foal or two admitted every season. It’s rare, but definitely more prevalent in TBs than some other breeds.
She will be fine to nurse from her dam in a few days once all the colostrum is stripped. They will probably keep her with her dam, but muzzled until then. Usually you find compatible donor colostrum or do a compatible plasma infusion for the foal in the interim. But the main thing is supportive care for the foal; with good supportive care, prognosis is quite good.
It’s not unlike Rh incompatibility in human births; very similar, but slightly different mechanism of transmission and factors at play.
We had a mare test positive for NI last year and were told that false positives were common. We tested again a week later and got a negative result. Our foal was born and nursed with no issues. New Money Honey’s foal should be able to go back on her dam after a few days (assuming all goes well.)
On March 2, the farm wrote:
"New Money Honey continues to progress as the staff at Indian Creek Farm monitor her. Prior to foaling, the farm did a blood screening to check if her foal will be predisposed to developing Neonatal Isoerythrolysis (NI) after delivery. NI happens when the foal ingests colostrum or first milk that has antibodies directed towards the red blood cells of the foal.
Update New Money Honey came back with a negative (not positive) result for this test which is a relief."
I was a little confused as I believe New Money Honey is a maiden? And NI rarely affects maiden mares (although not out of the realm of possibility…)
We had a Shetland maiden mare (or more correctly, we were told she was a maiden) here with NI - her colt was born and we kept him with his mom and hand fed him. Fortunately there was an experienced compatible TB mare foaling at the same time and he was able to benefit from her colostrum. He wore a muzzle for 4 (?) days and then was able to nurse from his mom - which he did with great enthusiasm…
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