Foals are born with limited stores of glycogen and fat, and even short, periods of starvation can result in profound hypoglycemia, weakness, and hypothermia. Accordingly, nutritional support of the sick neonatal foal is critical for a successful outcome. The initial goal of nutritional support is to meet resting energy and nutrient requirements. Nutrition can be provided by the enteral route, the parenteral (IV) route, or a combination of the two. Enteral feeding of mare's milk through an indwellingnasogastric tube is the preferred mode of nutritional support, but it requires adequate gastrointestinal function. Mare milk replacers or partially skimmed (2% fat) cow milk supplemented with 20 g/1 dextrose can be used when mare milk is unavailable. Foals intolerant of enteral feeding should receive parenteral feeding in the form of a dextrose-amino acid or dextrose-lipid-amino acid mixture.
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