Fionn again unsound - any other foal owners having this happen??

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no_no_nanette

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Fionn is constantly going unsound, and we are getting a bit desperate about it! I wonder if anyone else has had a foal who does this all the time?
He's 4 months now, and a very tall boy, (almost 13 hh and still growing fast!) - he first had some heat in the fetlock joint of his front leg about a month ago ... there was some heat there, but he was standing on it quite happily. So we cold hosed and put Vetlin on it, and kept him and his mum in the stable courtyard, and after a few days all seemed to be well. So he was turned out again - cautiously! - all well, until a week ago, when he came in with a large lump on the front of his cannon bone on a hind leg. Vet comes, X-rays, says that he has two very tiny bone chips, and there's no treatment, it won't affect the growth of the bone platelets, and will end up being just a very small bump on the front of his leg. BUT we obviously have to survey him very carefully for the next few weeks. Vet said he could be turned out, so he was .... and today he has come in with heat again in that front fetlock. What IS going on??? We don't see him hooleying around alot, so it doesn't seem to be that he is just going bonkers in the field .... I'm really puzzled, and a bit at the end of my tether, 'cos if its not him then its his mum!!!

Has anyone else had these sorts of problems with a foal? Or any thoughts about what he is doing/what's going on???
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did the vet mention if he should be fed any differently?if he is fast growing he could have ocd,although you would have thought the vet would have picked up on that if that was the case.
i would talk to the vet explain he keeps going lame.he may suggest controlled exercise for a while or only turning out for shorter times..?hard with lively foals to make them rest.
 
About 15 years ago, we had a foal do this and we nearly lost him! Long story - my mare leant to someone, tested in foal, then tested December, not in foal; turned out on the banks, no extra feed (big cob mare, fat on air!) brought back to stud - actually in foal! Came back home to foal, everything went well though foal very small compared to normal ones. Month later, starts bunny hopping, cantering on 3 legs, vet checks, thinks sore soles (very hard hot summer) A/Bs just in case; better for a week, then comes up in lump on fetlock; did like you, hosed etc, next day had moved to knee - fetlock back to normal! This happened for a week, each day, different area swollen but no heat anywhere and not particularly lame; vet said just keep an eye and hose. He checked it again several times, couldn't put his finger on it at all. 3 weeks later it had settled on his hock so he drained it off; where he should have got 10 ml, he had 4 times as much! It was tested and came back as joint ill and by this time foal was 8 weeks old! He had to have a course of jabs and (forgive spelling!) a course of raspberry and banana flavour Eurythmycin syringed down his throat; for months we had an arc shaped red and yellow lines across the wall where I had missed the target!
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Within a month he was completely sound and has never had another problem, has never been lame ever since. It's a mystery how the joint ill stayed in his system for so long, the cord had been drowned in blue spray, the complete bed was changed as always while the mare had her bran mash after birth, the fields he was turned out in were dry and clean having been rested since the autumn; to this day, the vet has put it down to 'one of those things unexplainable', we couldn't have done more to keep him clean but I still feel guilty!
I'm not saying this could be the cause of your lameness but you did ask for experiences so it might be worth your vet taking blood samples if they haven't already, to see just what you are fighting.
Good luck and keep us posted.
 
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