The Treatment of Foals. 69 



but it is certain it can have done her no good. The great 

 advantage of having a straw-yard available is that both 

 mare and foal may safely be let loose much sooner after foal- 

 ing, and on the day when the foal is to make its first 

 acquaintance with an open paddock, an hour's preliminary 

 gambolling in the straw-yard will have taken all the " gas " 

 and reckless spirits out of it, and prevent it coming to grief 

 in the more roomy paddock. 



During January, February, and March the stud groom 

 must use judgment in regulating the out-of-door exercise of 

 foals. Advantage should be taken of every spell of fine 

 weather. Till the foal is a month old, one hour in the morn- 

 ing and another in the afternoon should be the maximum, 

 unless the weather is sunny and the ground exceptionally 

 dry. High-strung mares that gallop a lot the first few 

 times they are given their liberty, and thus get their foals 

 sweating and tired, should be brought back to their boxes, 

 lest the foal should lie down in its heated state on the cold 

 wet ground, or take a chill from the prevailing cold wind. 



The mare usually comes " in season " about the ninth 

 day after foaling, and a frequent result of this condition is 

 " wetting " or diarrho3a on the part of the foal, caused by 

 the mare's milk becoming temporarily fermented and acid. 

 Keeping the mare rather short of food and water, and giving 

 her twice daily an ounce of bi-carbonate of soda in her mash 

 will diminish the volume and correct the acidity of the 

 milk. This form of diarrhoea is not a serious matter, and 

 generally passes off as the oestrum or "heat" of the mare 

 terminates. A more serious form is that in which acute 

 purging of a brownish watery fluid is accompanied by 

 extreme debility and refusal to suck the mare. This type of 

 the ailment is the result of infection through the navel, and 



