When foals come before their time, they lack the finishing touch in the work of development, although every organ may be fully represented in all its parts and relations. The prospect of rearing these immature youngsters will depend upon the period of gestation which has been reached when they are born, and the strength and vitality they display at the time.

In all cases they require the greatest attention and care, and in some, however anxious we may be to preserve life, the task is hopeless from the first. This is especially so when birth takes place four or five weeks before the natural period.

Foals prematurely born are, from their ill-developed condition, small, and, being too weak to stand, are unable to feed themselves. They display a great desire for sleep, and it is of the first importance that every encouragement be given to its restorative influence. For some time the breathing will be more or less quick, and to the uninitiated may give the idea of some grave lung disease, but under judicious management a gradual subsidence will take place as time goes on, until the normal standard of breathing is reached.

Being helpless, a foal prematurely born should be removed from the presence of the mare as soon as it has been thoroughly cleansed, and conveyed into a warm, dry apartment, where, if necessary, artificial heat must be supplied.

Laid on a soft bed of hay, and covered by a couple of blankets, it should be left undisturbed for half to three-quarters of an hour, when the mare must be milked, and the produce given to the foal out of a feeding-bottle. This must be repeated every half-hour, with the precaution that the vessel used for receiving milk from the mare and the one employed in feeding the foal should be thoroughly scalded, drained, and dried in the oven each time after being used. Before the mare is milked, the teats and udder must be cleansed, and sponged over with a solution of carbolic acid.

Unless these precautions are strictly observed, and the milk conveyed fresh to the foal directly it leaves the dam, it will be impossible to guard against diarrhoea, and when this disease is once established in these imperfectly developed youngsters, a fatal termination is mostly the result.

Hand-feeding will require to be continued night and day until the foal is strong enough to feed itself, but after the first thirty-six hours the period between meals may be gradually extended.

When it has acquired sufficient strength to support itself, it may be returned to the dam. How it will be received by her is a question which must not be overlooked, and the attendant should stand by until the mare has settled down to her offspring and shows a desire to nurse it.

If, as is most likely to be the case, the dam is short of milk, the deficiency must be made up by milk from the cow, prepared as directed below.