“With strangles, about 10 percent of horses don’t fully recover from the disease and can then become persistent carriers.2 Unfortunately, persistent carrier horses don’t show the outward clinical signs that sick horses do.”

“Foals will show interest in feeds early on and, by about two months of age, their mother’s milk will no longer supply all the nutrients needed for optimum growth.” To support smooth, steady growth, suckling foals should be offered one pound of a properly-formulated foal feed per month of age per day, advises Pesta. For example, a 3-month-old would ideally be eating about three pounds of feed per day, in addition to milk and free-choice hay or pasture.