11/03/2026
Baby and mama update
Dr Waldridge called this morning and as we feared, the babies IgG level is “around 400” which means he will need plasma.
Now I’m going to try to say all I want to say in the nicest way possible, and it doesn’t apply to 95 percent of people but I also think this will educate on WHY we try to step in when we can for a foal literally born at auction.
Colostrum is not something that is created equally. Some mares have great colostrum and some have inadequate. This can be based on age, health, diet, etc. Just because a foal nurses does not mean it got the colostrum needed or that the colostrum it took in was adequate.
The only way to know for sure, it to test the IgG level within 24 hours. After that window of time, the foal cannot receive any further antibodies from colostrum. In the simplest way I can explain, over 800 is great. Less than 400 is critical and the foal then has “failure of passive transfer”. This is a problem because the foal is born with zero immunity to anything, and can become septic and die within 72 hours usually without intervention.
And if born at home, and exposed to normal bacteria that they encounter in daily life, maybe they can pull through by starting on antibiotics immediately, although plasma is recommended.
But take the same foal, born at auction where multiple different species have been dropping their bacteria on the ground and floating in the air, and add in zero immunity. A mess. Even if they are lucky to get good colostrum, did you know that they body starts utilizing it immediately to fight off all these things and they can blow through it quickly, also resulting in sepsis.
Also, did you know that the first protein to hit the foals stomach is your only chance to get immunity across the blood brain barrier? So this applies to giving a foal milk replacer etc in an emergency situation without ensuring they have had colostrum first. Also it takes 1-2 LITERS to be enough, which rarely you are able to provide just by milking the mare.
This is a topic I have tried to learn to the best of my ability in order to understand and help compromised foals which we are often asked to help, but never in place of a veterinary team. So while some want to say it was silly for us to pay what we did for this pair, it doesn’t look so silly this morning when he’s in the hospital receiving the care he needs vs at a traders barn with death looming or we could have just let a trader get them and then call us for help with he started to crash right? We had a reason, and it was valid. Thank you for those that know that and helped us help them ❤️.
