4-6 week old foal won't suck a bottle and won't drink milk from a bucket, could he have weaned himself?

Question

Found a the mom dead in the wilderness no owner and we brought baby home with us could we sprinkle the Foal-lac powder on his grain with manna?

Answer 1

If this foal was found out in the wild it should first be reported....if the mare was dead and depending on how long, the foal may have just not been nursing for a long time, I do bottle feed my youngsters. I would never leave a 4-6 week old baby without proper milk intake, yes Foal-Lac and Manna Pro are great, see if you can get the Foal-Lac pellets to mix in but also mix the powder, and see if you can really get him to bottle feed, if he simply will not, put the mix into the bucket with grain, we have a colt whose mother died from complications after 3 weeks of her foaling him and he wouldnt suckle, he did like this method tho and grew up to be a big fantastic show hunter. Hope this little fella is okay, was he looked over by a vertrinarian?

Answer 2

i would call a vet and ask their opinion, even if its just your small animal vet. so you can be 100% sure the foal gets the nutrients it needs.

p.s. you should probably also check with local authorities to make sure the dead horse (and foal) dont belong to some one. a lot of escaped horses go unfound.

Answer 3

he could be depressed or if he's from the wilderness may be kinda shocked from the change try a seregant mother

Answer 4

Some foals don't like the taste of Foal lac...but will accept Land O'Lakes or...Buckeye...

Sprinkling is a good idea...but that young, I'd be really concerned about him getting all the nutrition he needs.  Can you try one of the other brands?

Answer 5

I would take him to the vet-hospital-thing (sorry my brain isn't working right now!). I think that they can feed them through a tube if they won't eat. Good luck.

Answer 6

that could be a good idea - he probably thinks replacement milk is gross compared with his mum's.

but if u were you i would talk to the vet - they can give you much more accurate and better information than any1 on yahoo answers. !

(we havent seen the foal and dont have many details so the vet is the way to go!!! theyre smarter than us too... :-))

hope that this helps :-)

Answer 7

He probably hates replacement milk compared to mother's.  Sprinkling the Foal-lac powder is a good idea or try to mix in Foal-lac pellets.  It's going to be hard to keep enough food in him until he is older, just keep trying.