HELP! Foal has navel ill and joint ill

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trishmcd86

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I need some advice.
I recently purchased a foal from someone. It is still at her place since he is only 16 days old. He was diagnosed with navel ill and joint ill today. He had an egg test done when he was first born and the vet said he was registering above 800 and that was good.

The problem is that his back left stifle is swollen and has heat and he will not bear weight on it. He just started limping today, and the vet said that we caught it in really good time. The vet flushed the joint, and administrated massive doses of antibiotics.

He is on shots of penicillin 2x daily as well as two other antibiotics and bute for the pain. The vet will be back out tomorrow to give more fluids to my colt, and will be back out on Saturday to flush the fluids out again. This is going to be one expensive vet bill, but this little colt is worth it.

My question is, has anyone else dealt with joint ill in a foal before, and what were your results? From the research i have done, it all depends who you talk to. Some say give up he is not gonna make it, and others make it out to be like with treatment its not a big deal in the long run.
 
Amongst other happy stories on here, the one that comes straight to mind is Henry Horn, they had a colt with this several years ago, he's now a strapping great lad and just started getting out and about.

Perhaps pm HH ?

Good Luck.
 
one of ours had infected navel for ages , he was only 400, he's now all grown up, if you've started treatment early that's the main thing with the joint ill

hang on in there, you will come through this.
 
My friends miniature horse foal had this due to a rough birth and the cord breaking too early. luckily her going lame on the hind hock was a god send as they did tests and found out that she also had fluid on her lungs. She sent them both to clinic and they stayed there for 2 weeks as the foal couldn't regulate her temperature and was running a high fever. Finally they came home and had to continue her meds and box rest for over a month which was rough on the mare as she wanted to go back to the herd. They are slowly getting back to a normal routine but it has taken a lot of time and dedication. She put them up on Marestare so that her friends could help with the night shift.
I wish you all the best but I am sure that all will work out just fine (maybe expensive though:mad:)
 
*Update*
On day 2 the vet did a check up and said the colt was looking well, that alot of the swelling had gone down, but he still had a fever of 101.7.

On day 3 the vet came out to possibly have to flush the stifle joint again. When she checked the joint it was clear and did not require further flushing, but there was some minor swelling in the back right hock. The vet flushed that joint and gave more antibiotics in addition to the daily antibiotics. The vet is optimistic now. By the afternoon he no longer had a fever. He is being put on 2 weeks stall rest as well as antibiotics for that time.

It is day 4. I havnt heard from either the vet or the mare owner because i worked a double today, but we decided that the foal would stand the best chances of a full and speedy recovery if we went ahead and gave him a plazma transfusion. I will find out tomorrow if this was done today or if it will be done tomorrow.
 
We had a foal with this years ago (19), we caught it early and he was on anti-biotics for a while, it all cleared up.
 
We had one we suspected was starting with joint ill 5/6 years ago at about 4 days old, she is fine, and was only treated with anti-biotics by jab.

I have seen one who never made a full recovery but was kept on as a broodmare.... her joints were enlarged and became arthritic eventually.

I believe the treatment can turn out very expensive.

We now jab all our foals with antibiotic at 24hrs old or thereabouts regardless and I suspect so do many other breeders.
 
We are still waiting on the plazma so we can give that to him, other than that i dont know. I spoke to the mare owner yesterday and she said he was doing okay. She said he has lots of spunk and is eating well.

As soon as i know more i will post. I hope to hear from the mare owner sometime tomorrow. I am doing my best to not call 10 times a day :)
It is very hard...
 
Well, spoke to the vet this morning. Dante is in high spirits, but the infection is getting worse. They administered the plazma yesterday so we will find out if that helped today, but i cant afford any more vet bills, so unless i get a miracle then i expect to loose him. it really sucks when the only thing that is stopping you is the lack of finances.
 
well, that reply did not work...

I have decided to go ahead and continue with the treatments as the vet thinks he will pull through this fine with some more treatments. What the mare owner is doing for me to help me raise funds for the rest of the vet bills is offering a 2012 breeding to her perlino AQHA stallion Sierra Sandstone for raffle. The tickets are $10 each. Every dollar from the tickets will go toward the vet bills. He is an amazing stallion that produces gorgeous babies!

The stallion is owned by April Lowry at Creekside Farm in North Carolina.
http://www.creeksidehorsesnc.com/index.html

If anyone is interested in purchasing a raffle ticket to help with the vet expenses you can call me at 843-819-9986.
Thank you ahead of time for anyone that is able to help in any way :)
 
I find it odd that the foal is only just born but you are responsible for all it's bills, despite it still being on the mare and with it's breeder. Is this how it's done it USA?
 
I'm afraid there is no clear cut answer.
We've had two both from the same mare and as a result have her IGG tested now after foaling .
The problem is getting the anti biotics to the joints which are so deep inside, and often the infection takes hold and spreads rapidly.
The first one we had we had him him flushed and on the a-b which were I seem to recall £9 a day. He then got ecoli 125 and the toal cost in the end was £3400.
He however survived and if you look in my post entitled William in video vault you can see how he looks now.
The other Jethro was probably the best looking foal we'd ever had; he started with a mild limp in front, was treated but it was an incredibly hot summer and I don't think the temperatures helped, after three weeks he seemed better so we turned him out for an hour. Within a short time a horrible grinding noise was coming from his shoulder and the vet came and phts. I had a pm done and inside the poor chap's shoulder was green pus. Never seen anything like it in my life.
So really it depends on luck I'm afraid, if you caught it right away, if the a-b reach the problem and on how tough the foal is.
All I can do is send you good wishes for his recovery, you sound to have good vets who are doing everything right, we did our own fluids etc which kept the costs down, and looked after him ourselves when he was in the vet clinic.
If you use facebook pm me for my name and you can see plenty of pics of him when he was so ill..(and plenty as herecovered including losing loads of his hair)
 
I cant say the same for everyone in the US, but when i bought the foal i was told that if there were minor vet bills the mare owner would pay for them, but if there were major vet bills i would be responsible for paying for them. This is the first time i have ever bought a foal, so i assumed this is how it was done everywhere.

In defense of the mare owner she did let me have the foal at half price to help with the vet bills, and she donated the breeding to her stallion to help as well.
 
I'm sorry you're having so much trouble with him.

Over here, usually, any foal vet bills are the responsibility of the mare owner until it is weaned even if you have paid a part deposit on the foal, as let's face it, until weaning, they are a pair and the responsibility of the breeder. Most people too, only pay a deposit on a foal, the balance to be paid at weaning because as you've found out, things can and do go wrong sometimes through no fault of anyone.

On a positive note, I had one here a long time ago that developed navel ill at 6 weeks old; swellings would come up in various joints on his body, he would bunny hop instead of cantering properly too although he was never lame as such. The swelling finally settled on his hock so it was drained and a serious amount of fluid removed; after that and a course of strong ABs he never looked back and is still going strong at 23 so don't give up hope.
 
Well, haven't heard anything from vet or mare owner since yesterday, but the update was not very good. The vet said that the test of the fluid from the joints has skyrocketed from 46,000 to 80,000 to 300,000. Still awaiting the results from the fluid test after the plasma was administered, but now the foal has developed ringworm from having a weak immune system from fighting this infection.

I will call the vet tomorrow to hopefully get an update, if i can manage it, i will go visit Dante tomorrow. Im hesitant to become any more attached to him for fear i may loose him. The vet said Dante is still up and ready to go, that every time they go to give him the shots he is hard to catch in the stall and puts up a good fight(from having a sore bottom from the penicillin shots).

I am unsure what to do as i cannot see the foal on a regular basis and cannot tell exactly how he is doing. I do not want to put Dante down! I guess i will find out tomorrow what all is going on with him. It seems to me that if you have an infection that bad and your immune system is down so much that you got ringworm that you would be going downhill. I am very frustrated with this whole thing. I can only pray that he makes a full recovery.

I will post tomorrow after i find out how he is doing
 
So sorry foal is still having such a tough time. Though he probably has got the ringworm because of his ill health our milking cows have got it at the moment and they are in very good health and milking really well so it does not nessersary mean he is feeling worse. Glad he still has fight to say NOT another injection! Good luck.
 
My foal got a similar infection, if you go to www.narramorehorses.blogspot.com and search through the archives (try 4 years ago around June) you will see all his fur fellout and his bum was very sore. Get the stud to put any good baby cream on him like drapolene as it helps the burning from any scouring.
Don't give up, go and look at those photos then at the vid on here, and remember there is always hope...
 
I actually checked out all of the blogs on William, and i am impressed that he turned out so nice looking of a horse considering all the trouble you had with him.

I spoke with the mare owner today. She said Dante is doing much, much better! His fever is down to 100.9, the ringworm is clearing up, and he shows no signs of limping. He is still on his antibiotics, but i think the plasma transfusion/injection(?) is what helped him turn around. We are by no means in the clear, but he is getting better, and on his own. The vet has ceased joint flushings and we are just on the antibiotics and stall rest now. :)

Things are starting to look up!
 
*Update*
Spoke to the vet this evening. She said Dante is doing much better! She said that the fluid from the stifle is looking much much clearer. The fluid from the hock is a little bloody, so she is sending another sample to be tested to see if we need to flush one more time, but most of the swelling has gone down.

The vet said that he is covered in ringworm, but she is treating that as well. She said that she tried a new antibiotic (sub Q) on him that has recently come out that is supposed to last for four days instead of one, but Dante abscessed at the injection site and the vet had to cut it open and clean it out. He now has a 1 1/2in wound on his neck that has to be cleaned out twice a day.

I will say that even though he has ringworm, and a large gash, and may still need to be flushed again, i am happy with the direction things are going. The vet said that she believes we have finally turned the corner with the illness, and it was because we decided to treat it so aggressively and administer the plasma.

I asked if his growth has been stunted and if it will affect him in the long run. She said that he is a little under size for his age, but he should catch up after weaning. As far as long term, she said that he may be a little smaller than what his potential would have been had he not contracted the illness. I guess only time will tell. :)
 
Fingers still crossed for you lovely to hear the update, I had to smile at the even though this,that and the other i,m pleased with him! I hope you have some photo,s so when he is a big strapping 3 year old you can look back and think it was all worth it. Lots of good luck for him.
 
William has made more than the expected height so I wouldn't worry about that.
We have however taken extra care since being a foal to ensure he had adequate nutrition plus minerals .
I do hope your foal has now turned a corner, and the news continues to be good.
 
When i get him i was gonna put him on ultium growth, alfalfa cubes, and free choice coastal bermuda hay (that is the only hay available here). Do you have any suggestions for nutrition to ensure he grows up and stays sound? Also, the vet said something about having his joints that were infected injected with something???(bad connection... sounded like "something acid"...) when he becomes a yearling, did you have to do this with william?
 
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