Ensure that the foal is attaching to the udder when feeding under the mare and not missing the teat.

They will spend a large part of the time feeding especially within the first week of life; feeding about seven times every hour. They drink 15 – 30% of their body weight each day i.e. 7.5 – 15L in frequent, small feeds.

Foals which don’t drink regularly or frequently from the mare may be showing early signs of trouble. Look for udder distension in the mare or foals which are sleeping excessively.

Foals receive all of their immunity from the mare through the milk (colostrum). This immunity protects the foal from disease. Within 12 hrs of birth foals need 200 – 250ml of good quality colostrum. Orphan foals can be given cows colostrum; however, this is not as ideal as what the mare produces.

A blood sample taken from the foal within 24 hrs of birth can measure the transfer of this immunity. Low levels of IgG (immunity) means that the foal will need plasma intravenously. Antibiotics alone do not suppress diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia in foals with inadequate immune levels.

Equine Rotavirus is one of the common causes of diarrhea in foals under the age of 6 months.

The disease can be spread via faecal-oral route, from infected foals or from non-clinical, healthy foals. The virus attaches the absorptive villi in the small intestine and prevents foals from properly absorbing the milk across the small intestine. The protein within the bowel then leads to an osmotic diarrhea, dragging fluid out of the foal leading to dehydration. The faeces can vary from loose cow pad type to profuse watery diarrhea.

Clinically, foal’s present dull, depressed, ‘off the suck’ and dehydrated. They will vary in age from 2 days to 6 months and will nearly always have a smelly, wet tail. Dehydration is the most urgent problem as the foals can become quite ill during the heat of summer.

The disease can become a management problem on horse studs and farms. Sick foals should be isolated from healthy horses and treated with proper medication whilst stalls and boxes need to be cleaned with appropriate disinfectants. Proper fly control program needs to be instituted. The single stranded RNA virus can survive in the environment for up to 9 months.

Treatment in the past has relied on the use of fluid replacement products, anti-diarrhoeal agents and sometimes antibiotics. More recently however a commercial vaccine against Rotavirus has been developed. The vaccine given to mares in the last few months of gestation produces antibodies against the virus in the mare’s colostrums. The antibodies consumed in the milk coat the lining of the foal’s small intestine and prevent the development of the disease.