Foal Not Right - thoughts please.

[Tia]

This is just a quickie as I am heading out the door for the evening.

One of my 6 month old foals was not too great yesterday; little bit colicy. Vet was here anyway to give all the foals their shots so had him take a look at her. Her temperature was normal but heart-rate was a little off. There was really nothing you could put your finger on and he didn't even think there was anything wrong when I first pointed her out to him.

Anyway, ended up giving her her tet vaccination and leaving out the rabies one. He gave her a shot of banamine and penicillin to ease any discomfort and suggested I put her on some penicillin which I will go out and buy tomorrow.

Now today she has seemed fine and back to normal, however this afternoon I was watching her as she wandered up for a cuddle. Both of her hind legs at the fetlock joint appear to be slightly locking (can't really describe it correctly). Anyway I cuddled her for a while and then I went off out of the field. On leaving the field, I watched her make her way back down to the hay feeder where all the others were and same thing - almost like she was walking on tip-toes and not wanting to straighten her pastern joints.

So I hung around a bit longer and watched her at the feeder; she straightened them both our perfectly.....and then sort of locked them up again a few minutes later.

Any ideas from you folks who have foals? Many thanks.

 

[mostfunintown]

Don't Know if its the same but it sounds like it, I have a fallabella who had this problem develop at about 4 months. The vets wont do anything about it until she is atleast 6 years as it is a development problem and they normally just grow out of it. Sometimes she seemed ok but other times her hind legs look as stiff as broom handles. She did outgrow it though at about 6 months there was a major improvment and by 12 mnths she only had it very occasionally but by 18mnths it was completely gone

 

[Honeypots]

Wierd..a bit like locking stifle but at the fetlock?..

 

[Tia]

Thank you for that. Did it come on suddenly with your foal? This foal of mine was perfect until that afternoon - I've never seen anything like it.

HP - I can't really describe it; it isn't really locking up because she will "unlock" with no problems. That was probably a bad description of what she started doing. It is far more like her walking/standing on tip-toes.

However when I was watching her yesterday she didn't do it quite so much (although it was still there??).

I am starting to think that maybe it is something to do with the ice and snow? That's the only thing I can think that has changed. We have about 6 inches of snow here (and another foot coming in the next couple of days) and the temperatures have been down to -15, so am wondering whether the cold could be having an effect on her?

This is the biggest problem for me and this immigrating lark - I've never seen things like this before and maybe it is just down to the freezing weather or ice in their feet?

 

[Enfys]

Tia,
How is your baby now?
Recently I read a thread describing very similar symptoms, I just can't recall which Forum it was on.......have been trawling through about 5 sites looking for it. No good, can't find it.
Unless.......it was you asking the same question somewhere else!

 

[Anastasia]

Hi Tia, sorry only came across this post this morning. Very strange indeed, to me it would sound like some growthy problems, what else if your foal getting feed wise.....just thinking of the nutrient values?? Has she taken a growth spurt at all recently??

 

[liet1]

A friend of mine had similar horse. Possibly it is due to growing very bottom high and the tendons not streching with the growth. IMHO make sure the horse has plenty of room to run around in and streach the tendons and they should catch up.

Sorry not sure about the colic.

 

[Tia]

QR-

Gosh I completely forgot about this post

. Sorry.

Now this little filly is a strange one - the colic proved to be pretty much nothing and she was right as rain in no time. As for the fetlocks, well she is fed on the correct amount of Grow'n'Win for her age/size etc. and she has the same as all others on this farm, ad-lib top quality hay.

She is a very very stocky QH filly and is by far bigger than the rest of our foals. Yes she is bum high also. The weird part is that until the other day, she didn't do this; it just happened all of a sudden.

I guess we are about a week on from when I made this thread and most of the time now, she is walking perfectly normally, but once in a while she will do it. I do spend an awful lot of time in with the foals so I notice these things as soon as they start, and any changes are duly noted too.

She isn't in any discomfort by the looks of her and she is perfectly happy to canter around the field. She isn't unlevel or unsound in any way, not even when she walks like this on her tiptoes....oh and she only ever does it in walk. Every other gait is fine.

The vet will be back next week so will have him take a look at her, even if she has stopped doing it by then. I don't know, the ice and snow here, combined with the sub-zero temperatures are still having me wonder whether it is this that could be causing this because, particularly yesterday when we (believe it or not) went into plus figures, and the ground went soft again, she looked like she was absolutely normal. Bizarre - will let you know what the vet says though.

Thank you for all your replies and thoughts and advice.