It's a sad thing when a foal is orphaned...I counsel folks with orphans...but sadder still when a foal is intentionally ripped from it's mom. I've raised some myself; orphans, not the PMU foals.
Visualize this; It's night time, pitch dark and black outside. The coyotes are howling and this howling is slowly getting louder as the coyotes approach the property. The crickets, owls, dogs, and other animals making their nightly noises. You are a foal. Alone in the world. Instinctually you know you need a protector. You can't fend for yourself. You have a babies body, mind, soul, and spirit. You need warmth, comfort, protection, safety. You are a lucky little foal because a nice person rescued you from the slaughter man and brought you to their house. Your human family plays with you all day, nurtures you, loves on you, feeds you buckets of soothing warm milk. About 7:00 at night you begin feeling nervous...you've just had your last comforting bucket of warm milk...maybe you've been taken into the barn and locked up for safety, maybe you are left outside in your stall, maybe you even have the company of a goat, sheep, pig, or another horse.... The noises getting louder are frightening you more and more...your instincts tell you to find mama and seek the comfort and warmth of her udder...take a few comforting slurps of warm milk...nuzzle with her to abate your fear...There is no mama for you...it's you and the darkeness and a handful of other animals who butt you away from them. In response to your fear, you develop habits as a means of self-soothing...you chew on the wood rail, you chew the hair on the other horse's tail, you sway your head back and forth like an elephant at the zoo, you eat, and eat and eat,....or maybe you have no hay at night, you whinny and cry...or maybe fear prevents this instinctually knowing that the predators will pinpoint your location...I could give you countless scenarios...you are chastised gently by your adopters...it's not your fault...you are an infant. You need your mom's comfort. If you can't satisy your needs, this leads to frustration which can lead to all sorts of behaviors...you know the story. It can be da ngerous for the owners depending upon the habits the foal relies on for self soothing.
Anyway, just thought I'd put a plug in for the PMU foals who need us. They are really very sweet. My heart goes out to every one of them. There are also horses bred here in our country on a large scale, just for their milk...their foals are taken away at birth and the mare is sent off to nurse an expensive horse; for instance a thoroughbred destined for a racing career. I have the numbers somewhere. These foals can have a real rough start if they survive and if they are offered up for adoption...There are many physical and psychological as well as social problems for these little guys.
There have always been alternatives to premarin. Recently one of the drug companies came out with a replacement that I believe is based on vegetable products. This is from a pharmaceutical company and requires a script. There are also product in the health food stores as well. I've used several of them. They even have a substitute for cycrin=progesterone.