Released August 4, 2010
URBANA, Ill. - The loss of a mother: a tragic event for any species. Likewise, the loss of an infant: devastating. At the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Urbana this spring, both of these events occurred, leaving a mare without her baby and a foal without a mother.
To Dr. Kate McGovern, a resident in equine internal medicine at the hospital, this tragedy presented an opportunity to learn something new while helping this pair of horses by having the mare act as a foster mother for the orphaned foal.
Several methods are available for the procedure, and doctors first tried a traditional approach: the foal was covered in some of the mare's bedding and manure so that the foal would smell familiar to the mare. Then the mare was sedated, and attempts were made to allow the foal to nurse from her (hopefully) new mother.
--continued on University of Illinois Extension news
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