Mare and Foal Care

Mare Services:

At Blackstrap Hill Veterinary Clinic we provide high quality individualized care and attention to mares and foals. We feel that this is the best way to achieve reproductive success. Our reproductive services include readying your broodmare for breeding by performing breeding exams that include when necessary, uterine cultures and biopsies, vaginal exams, and a complete historical workup. We offer heat cycle management, artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis and monitoring, foal delivery and care and mare care.

Reproductive tracking of the broodmare can be difficult, especially when trying to breed artificially or with a foal by her side. Blackstrap Hill Veterinary Clinic offers limited mare boarding for repeat reproductive examination to reduce travel costs and improve accuracy in heat detection. Accurate heat detection is the key to a successful breeding season. There is a considerable amount of time and money invested in breeding your mare and ending up with a healthy foal. A consultation is recommended before the season starts. Please call us during regular office hours at 207-797-6000 with any questions about breeding your mare.

Foaling:

Here at Blackstrap Hill Veterinary Clinic we understand that breeding your mare and getting a healthy foal is not only a financial investment but an emotional one as well. When a mare goes into labor timing is everything. Therefore, broodmares that foal out at the clinic are never alone. We have a foal alert system as well as wi-fi cameras hooked up in foaling stalls so that our veterinarians have constant 24 hour monitoring of mares. The wi-fi cameras are linked directly to the smart phone of our foaling technician and the veterinarians enabling immediate response time when you mare goes into labor.

After a foal is born the first 12-24 hours of life are the most critical. Once the foal hits the ground, he or she is not left alone until they are able to stand and nurse on their own. At 24hrs we test their IgG level (foal immune system from passive transfer) to ensure that they received proper passive immunity from there mother. Early detection and treatment of failure of passive transfer is the best prevention for future problems and a better guarantee of a healthy foal. If there is evidence of failure of passive transfer we at BHVC are fully capable of treating it. We always have frozen colostrum on hand from mares that we know have a high level of antibodies in there first milk and we also provide plasma transfusion procedures if necessary.