CPR for Newborn Foals

Neonatal equine CPR is a skill that you should learn but hope you never need. Most foals are born without any problems but those few minutes after birth can make a difference for any that do not breathe when they are born. If you can catch it in time, your foal may be able to get back to normal breathing and blood circulation.

A newborn foal may undergo respiratory and/or cardiac arrest for several reasons: foals deprived of oxygen due to a difficult birth, premature separation of the placenta, umbilical cord issues, or smothering by fetal membranes. Any of these call for immediate action on your part if you hope to save the foal.

If you start CPR as soon as possible your foal has a 50% chance of recovering, if you wait too long and start after the heart has "flatlined," that chance is dramatically reduced. Hard and rapid chest massages plus tempered breathing assistance should be given to the foal. Foals should receive assisted breaths at a rate of 10-20 breaths per minute.

If possible, be at every birth so that you can catch any warning signs early on and  know if the birth was a particularly long or difficult one. The pushing stage of labor should last around 16 minutes.

Some telltale signs that a foal is going into respiratory (and therefore cardiac) arrest include:

• Gasping for air longer than 30 seconds
• No respiratory movements or heartbeats
• Heart rate less than 50 beats per minute and dropping
• Obvious signs of shortness of breath

Time is critical so calling your veterinarian may be out of the question to perform CPR, it may be left up to you. 

Check out other resources for more information! http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/Learnfoals4-CPR-apr09.pdf   http://www.equineadvances.com/  

This article is adapted from "Foals and CPR: What You Should Know" published on thehorse.com on Sep 11, 2015. http://www.thehorse.com/articles/36396/foals-and-cpr-what-you-should-know