![]() The first thing is to either catch the foal when it is lying down as in the photo below, or you will have to lay the foal down. Our goal here is to show you just how easy it really is to do! Indeed, I often end up doing it by myself – so the photos that accompany this Blog will show me doing exactly that! But, both do require being able to pull blood a small amount of blood from the foal and is where many become a bit uncomfortable – attaining that sample of blood. The tests come with complete instructions, so I’m not going to go into detail on the entire process. Two of the most common are the Idexx Snap test and the Immuno-Chek G. They can be purchased singly or in kits of 10 – obviously the more you buy, the lower the cost. There are several stall side tests available that cost as low as about $10. If at 24 hours, the reading is still low or passive transfer has failed, one can then address the problem with a transfusion. We will then test again at 24 hours to insure that we have sufficient immune coverage. If you know that a foal is low or has failed passive transfer at 9 to 12 hours post foaling, you still have approximately a 12 hour window to address the problem orally with another mare’s colostrum that is known to be good quality, or with a commercial product such as Seramune. In order to be proactive, rather than reactive, one can easily pull an IgG test. But if the foal is slow to nurse, the mare has poor quality colostrum or has streamed milk for days prior to foaling, or if the foal is unable to absorb those antibodies, you may have a foal that has failed passive transfer. The main immunoglobulin (antibody) produced in the colostrum is gamma globulin (IgG) and the foal must receive that within the first 24 hours of life. Foals are born with a functioning immune system, but it has not developed any antibodies. One of the things that we always do with our foals at 9 to 12 hours after birth, is an IgG test. So today’s blog will start with pulling blood for IgG tests on foals! Hopefully, you will find these informational, helpful, insightful, entertaining, funny, and as is sometimes the case when dealing with animals, sad. We thought it might be fun and interesting to see what we do here from different perspectives. Me - Kathy St.Martin my husband and partner in the business, Jos Mottershead and our wonderful farm manager and right hand man, Josh Milledge. We've finally started one, but have decided we’re going to do things a bit differently! While we will definitely be blogging, there will be three of us doing the blogging here. ![]() ![]() As many of you know, we also own, LLC and are big on educating breeders, horse people and health professionals in the equine industry! We have been asked repeatedly, to start a blog here on the website but for one reason or another, haven't been able to sit down and get to it. First of all, Welcome to Avalon Equine! We are thrilled that you have come to visit us and check out all we have available.
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