Desperately worried, advice please.

[ArsenalsPlayingAtHome]

Does anyone have any experience of this situation?

It's really not looking good for our beautiful mare and I don't think she's going to make it .

Her foal is only three weeks old this weekend.

What on earth do we do? Is it true that there is a foal milk bank? I can't believe she's going to lose her mum, but I can't see that there is any other way forward. (I don't want to go into all the details, sorry.)

I'm just so sad thinking of all the psychological trauma for her, not to mention how much pain andn discomfort our mare is in.

Do people search for other mares who have lost their foals in these situations and try and match them up? Can this even work?

Thanks for any advice you have.

Get on your local horsey fb Page. On mine there are always offers / requests for this situation (and the opposite). The posts get shared nationally and mares are transport accordingly. There must be a matching page / service too.

Thanks bonzo.

Get onto the National Foaling Bank now. They will give you best advice. We've a good friend who lost her foal yesterday and has offered her mare up. This happens every day and they will be able to pair your foal up. The good think is that if your foal is nearly 3 weeks old and has been suckling then it will have plenty of colostrum. However you still need to get specialist advice.

Our mare had surgical colic when Foal 1 was three weeks old. Part of the discussion with the vet about the op was him reassuring us that we wouldn't lose our foal because at 3 weeks he could be weaned. It wouldn't be easy, but wasn't unusual and he would be fine. Luckily our mare survived and went on to breed again. I hope you get the same outcome, but if I were you I would start researching how to wean your foal - it's better than the excruciating wait for a foster mother and to see whether they bond.

I think your foal has a good chance of surviving as he's had the colostrum and 3 weeks of milk. Get on facebook and ring the faoling bank and your local equine hospital to find foster mares. You may have to buy the mare but it's often cheaper than foal milk

Thanks everyone. I will look into this tonight once DCs are in bed. We've had the vet out again this afternoon. He doesn't think it's a done deal yet, he's said for us to give it a week to see if she improves any further. He was pleased this afternoon & is coming back tomorrow to check on her.

I hope it works out with your mare OP. However, if it doesn't, I have known foals orphaned much earlier who have pulled through with foster mums.

This sounds awful, and I don't mean it this way, but the longer your foal can feed from his dam the better his chances. It's much easier to place a newborn with a newly bereaved mare than to get an older foal to swap mothers. I hope your mare pulls through.

Thanks everyone. Things don't seem anywhere as desperate as when I first posted.

We're not sure what our mare's long term prospects are yet, but the situation has certainly improved in that we are no longer faced with losing her/having to PTS in the short term. With excellent treatment & guidance from the vets, the pain and condition are both being managed.

Thanks for all the reassurance about the foal - it really helped when it seemed that we were facing the worst case scenario head on.

Pleased to hear the situation’s looking up - all the best to DMare, DFoal and you

Brilliant news! Glad to read it xx