Vaccinating surprise pregnant mare?

[Keg-A-Bacchus]

In October we bought my mother a little trail pony. We’re told she went through an auction in the spring, got purchased by a trail horse reseller, and we purchased her from the trail horse sales barn that fall. We thought she had a growing hay belly, but a few weeks ago it changed shape and we realized it wasn’t hay in there! LOL Now I’m scrambling to get ready for my first foal. I have very limited vet availability where I live, and the one I see doesn’t do a ton of foaling, so I’ve got some questions I would love to get answers to!

To start, the history. Peaches is a 9 year old 13hh paint pony. From the appearance of her udder, vet says she has likely foaled before. When we got her she had a serious cough/nasal discharge. We treated with antibiotics, but she gave it to my horse. My horse ended up with a 105 degree fever, extreme white nasal discharge, and severe cough. So Peaches had SOME illness while she was pregnant, but we aren’t sure what. She was at a busy sales barn when we got her, and definitely exposed to probably everything on the planet with dozens of horses coming and going each week, and they lived in big herds. At my house, it’s just her and my other pony. They have no contact with other horses. We don’t know when she’s due, but best guesses of vet and friends who have bred is late a March/early April. She was previously on free choice hay and a handful of alfalfa pellets with a multi-vitamin, but i switched her to Grow-N-Win after finding out she’s pregnant. So, with that in mind, here are my questions.

1. Should I vaccinate before the foal comes not knowing the due date? If so, with what? I’m getting really mixed reviews on this from my breeder friends, so curious what the COTH consensus is.

2. When should I deworm her, and with what, since we aren’t really sure when the little bugger is arriving.

3. My vet is over an hour away so I can’t rely on him in a foaling emergency. I’ve got a couple friends nearby who have bred before who can assist if there’s a problem, but anything special I should put in the “foaling kit” with this in mind?

4. I’m in Wisconsin, so there is a chance it will pop out before good weather. I have a 3-sided shelter for her that we are enclosing into a stall and bedding deep with straw. Is it safe for the foal to play outside if it’s snowy/cold or should I be keeping it inside more until the weather warms up? Both my ponies live out 24/7 and almost never go in the shelter, but this is a foal so I’m not sure how much I need to interfere with this based on snow/rain/mud.

Any other tips most welcome! At first I was horrified she was pregnant, but once I got over the shock, now I’m busting at the seams with excitement for the little ones arrival! What a wild adventure we’re going on!

[clint]

You don’t mention whether you have vaccinated and dewormed her since you got her. I would definitely vaccinate her now, and if, in a month, she hasn’t had her foal booster her. My mare was just vaccinated with her pre-foaling shots. She received Eastern/Western Enceph, Tetanus, Rabies, flu-rhino. I deworm my mares within 12 hours after foaling with Ivermectrin. It helps with foal scours. However, if you have an unknown deworming history I would give her a mild wormer now, ie, Anthelcide, and then deworm her again after she foals. Mares in the last few months of pregnancy definitely require a higher plane of nutrition.

I think this is a good article on foaling mares, and excellent suggestions for a foaling kit. Be sure you have chlorhexidine or similar for dipping the naval. https://www.selectbreeders.com/articles/how-to-prepare-for-foaling-season?utm_source=February+2020&utm_campaign=February+2020&utm_medium=email

I will let others comment on foal turnout, as I live in Northern CA.

[va2txrider]

You could purchase a foal blanket. Valley Vet has one that expands from 28-42" with velcro. Can you put heat lamps in the run-in shed? There are also inexpensive cameras you can purchase so you can monitor the stall from the comforts of home. I found the milk test kits helpful as well - they let you know when the mare is NOT going to foal.

[TKR]

I would definitely vaccinate your mare now. If she foals within the next 60 days, her titers will be up and the transfer of the protection to her foal will be strong. 30-45 days is ideal, but 60 will work, too. The ivermectin after foaling is a great idea to get rid of threadworms that come through the milk and cause the foal to scour (have diarrhea) which is dangerous for a foal as they can dehydrate so quickly. My advice is to find a good repro vet you can rely on and Google the Equine-Reproduction site (Kathy St Martin) and read and follow their advice. They are SUPER willing to help with questions and know everything about breeding, foaling and after care and a GREAT resource. Good luck – be sure to see what Kathy recommends for a foal kit and other preparations now.

[NancyM]

What vaccinations you need depend a lot on your area, your vet is best to advise you on this. When she starts to make a milk bag, you can guess that you might be a month away (more or less) from foaling. Give a tetanus vaccine at that point, and wormer too. The foal blanket is a great advantage, especially if this might happen when weather is still cool. Get a newborn foal halter too, I put one one before the foal has really woken up much, then it’s not an issue later. A newborn halter for a pony foal will be very tiny, and the foal will outgrow it soon, perhaps you can borrow one. It’s never going to be a halter that you are going to hook a lead rope onto, or do any “leading training” with, it’s just getting it on and getting accustomed to the feel of it that is the point of the exercise. Wearing the foal blanket right away too is helpful with later clothes.

Helpful early foal training involves taking the foal in your arms, hold him, walking him around the stall like that, halting, tickling him, touching him, finding where the itchy spots may be, talking to him. Be his friend, his little eyes should light up with glee when he sees you. That gets you off on the right foot with him and his future opinion of humans.

[lilyfears]

I would recommend researching the costs of supportive care and intervention that can be be necessary to save the life of a foal. What are you willing to spend to have a living foal? What are willing to spend to save the life of the mare?

Have a plan of what you will consider doing (at home treatment vs shipping to an equine hospital) and at what point you will pull the plug.

An acquaintance spent 20,000 on a foal last year, going into considerable debt to do so, because at first it was “just” a few thousand dollars to save his life, and by the time she spent 15k she felt that she had invested so much that she “might as well” keep trying to save him.

Happily he is healthy now, but she has remarked multiple times that if she had to do it again she would have capped the efforts at a much lower level, even if it meant losing the foal.

I’m a working student at a breeding farm and my boss has very specific limits on what she will do and what she will not-and she takes into consideration finances, potential ridability of the foal, mental wellbeing of the foal, stress to the mare, and her own experiences with previous medical interventions.

[Keg-A-Bacchus]

Thanks for the advice! She actually started bagging up yesterday, so now we have a good indication the foal should be here within the month, so that helps a lot with figuring out when to do stuff. They said she was vaccinated when we got her, but I’m going to treat her like an unvaccinated horse since we don’t have any proof they did. I’ll go ahead and vaccinate now, and deworm. We got a foal blanket, but since we have no idea what size foal to expect, we’re collecting dog blankets of various sizes in case it’s a wee pony thing. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and warm up, but I want to make sure we’ve got what we need to keep it warm. Appreciate the insight and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a happy, healthy foal!