Full Foaling Video: Surprise’s Foal Arrives!

Watch the entire birth process unfold—from water breaking to the foal standing and nursing—in this time-lapse video (8.5x speed) covering approximately 5:00 AM to just past 7:00 AM.

Key Moments in the Video:

🔹 Surprise struggling with contractions and needing assistance to help deliver the foal
🔹 First heartbeat and respiration checks to ensure the foal was adjusting well to life outside the womb
🔹 Temperature monitoring to confirm the foal was maintaining normal body heat
🔹 Collecting a few drops of colostrum to check quality using a Brix refractometer—her colostrum tested above 25%, meaning it was high-quality and packed with antibodies
🔹 Surprise passing the placenta and a full postpartum evaluation of the placenta
🔹 Administering anti-inflammatories and Yunnan Baiyao to Surprise for pain management, clotting support, and post-foaling recovery

By 10:00 AM, our veterinarian arrived onsite for a thorough foal exam and additional post-foaling care:
✔️ Plasma transfusion—We do this as a standard protocol instead of waiting for IgG results, ensuring the foal gets extra immune support immediately.
✔️ Foal bloodwork drawn—Results came back very good, confirming strong early health.
✔️ Full physical exam of the foal—Everything checked out perfectly, and no broken ribs were detected (a relief, as rib fractures are a common concern in newborn foals).
✔️ Surprise’s post-foaling checkup—No signs of complications, and she recovered well from delivery.

This foaling required a little extra help, but thanks to close monitoring and proactive care, both mare and foal are doing great! 💛