90 THE HOESE BOOK. 



ful every hour at first. It is a bothersome chore, 

 but it must be done. If scours supervene, give a 

 dose of two ounces of castor oil and discontinue 

 the milk for a couple of feeds, giving the sugar 

 and limewater as before, but substituting plain 

 water for the milk, or feed nothing at all. Foals 

 reared by hand will scour more or less, but the 

 castor oil will generally fix them up all right. 



As the foal grows older day by day the quan- 

 tity of milk fed may be increased and the num- 

 ber of feeds decreased until according to his 

 thrift he may be fed first six times a day and 

 then four times. If he is carried along nicely he 

 may at the end of three weeks be fed the milk 

 and limewater or milk alone from a bucket, 

 eliminating the' sugar, but he should never be 

 given all the milk he will drink at that age. 

 Watch closely for signs of scouring, which are 

 a sure sign of indigestion, and cut down on the 

 quantity of milk fed for a day. Give castor oil 

 as before only in three or four-ounce doses. 

 Always have fresh water so the foal may drink 

 if he is thirsty. 



A foal should begin to nibble at grain when he 

 is around a month old, sometimes earlier. His 

 first food should be oatmeal. He should be al- 

 lowed such trifling quantity of this as he will 

 eat. It will only be a very little at first. When 

 he is six weeks old a little bran may be added. 

 At two months old some sweet skimmilk may be 

 substituted for part of the new milk and so on 



