Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ9KpOSN6iU
(Human intervention about 4 minutes in)
The technique explained - http://www.equineneonatalmanual.com/#!foalsqueezing/c1r2z
What does it do? Or how does it work? Restrict blood to the hind so more is concentrated toward the brain or ??
Apparently, they think it might mimic passage through the birth canal and trigger a decrease in the neurosteroids that keep a foal quiet in the womb. They have found elevated levels of these hormones in dummy foals and postulate that it is this, rather than oxygen deprivation brain damage, that causes many cases of dummy syndrome. It seems to be based in pretty hard science.
(thank you Heather Tinnery for that info)
Very interesting. Never heard of it before. But good to know about.
I will be interested to investigate how many of the equine facilities that do foals will be using this technique. I am going to google more info on this. Amazing!!
I saw that video a few days ago. It is simple enough that it is worth a try.
Well that is pretty neat isn’t it?
Dr Madigan has developed a lot of the things we commonly do and use in foals. He certainly has the experience behind him
Very interesting!
Thanks for posting.
Interesting information!
Just saw this a few minutes ago and it references the technique I posted in the original post!
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/35290/newborn-foals-could-offer-clues-about-autism
Just thought I’d bump this and add that my mare foaled yesterday and the baby has Dummy Foal Syndrome. After two hours of trying to help the colt nurse waiting for the vet to come, we had only successfully gotten him to nurse a little bit. The vet came out and did this technique and he was nursing on his own about 10 minutes later and continued to nurse on his own without assistance. It really did help.
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;7993895]
Just saw this a few minutes ago and it references the technique I posted in the original post!
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/35290/newborn-foals-could-offer-clues-about-autism[/QUOTE]
If you write Temple Grandin’s “Lost in Translation” she talks about building herself a squeeze box for times when she was stressed. The pressure apparently quieted her mentally & emotionally.
Interesting stuff.
This is so important for us breeders to know about!!!
This doesn’t work on real hypoxic cases, red bag etc…
[QUOTE=back in the saddle;8069670]
This doesn’t work on real hypoxic cases, red bag etc…[/QUOTE]
How do you know?
[QUOTE=Laurierace;8069868]
How do you know?[/QUOTE]
I was at my vet’s facility and they had a dummy foal due to a red bag delivery in ICU. I asked if they tried the new technique and she said yes, but this foal was a red bag and his placenta was a mess. The vet said it only worked with chemical type of maladjustment syndrome and not real hypoxia (oxygen deprevation) cases.
Brain chemical imbalance is not the same as oxygen deprivation.
It works!!!
I would like to add to this thread as someone that was forced to use this technique last night. I read the article and watched the video this spring about the Madigan foal squeeze technique and was fascinated by the break through and commented that I hoped I would never need to use it! Famous last words. 
We had a big, beautiful Welsh Cob/Dutch Warmblood foal born at midnight. Birthing was record speed and he shot out of that mare like a cannonball! It quickly became apparent that he wasn’t quite right. No real desire to get up, weak, lazy, no desire to suck, drink or find the udder. He walked around in a daze once we got him up, didn’t seem to even acknowledge he had a mother and was getting himself stuck in corners, etc. No vocal sounds from him, no trying to sneeze fluid out of his nose, etc. We milked the mare and fed the foal, hoping it would “wake him up” and it just didn’t happen. So I ran in the house and watched the videos on how to tie the rope and what to do.
At 2 hours old, we squeezed him for 20 minutes with the ropes and we got an immediate response after untying the ropes. He at least now had the desire to get up and stay up…but still no desire to eat. At the recommendation of other breeders who said they had to repeat the squeeze every two hours, and that not all foals jump up and run a marathon on the first squeeze, we repeated the squeeze again 2 hours later. Again, another immediate reaction, which included his desire to suck but still no interest in following the mare or finding where the udder was. We still continued to bottle feed to make sure he was getting adequate colostrum.
Two hours later, we did one more 20 minute squeeze, the little bugger jumped up and quickly walked over to the mare, poked around a bit and latched on to her teats with all he had. After he was finished, he was glued to her side and followed wherever she went. It was quite amazing to see the results after doing the Madigan squeeze! I have no doubt that we would have been in dire straits without using this technique on our foal.
So just a heads up that doing the Madigan squeeze only once may not necessarily result in the 100% desired affect and it may need to be repeated several times. As mentioned above, several other breeders stated their vets recommended repeating the technique once every two hours and to keep doing it until…
Very interesting! Thank you for posting!
