Operating on foals legs

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chevs

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Hi everyone,

My 15 day old foals front legs were nice and straight at birth. Over the past 5 days they have started to turn out at the knees. My vet took pictures yesterday and e-mailed then to a surgeon at the Glasgow vet school who said that they needed surgery to correct it.

Has anyone had experience of this?? Vet said that the inside of the bone is growing faster than the outside and that they would insert a pin to stop growth on one side.

The vet school is about a 5 hour drive from me, and some of you may remember that my mare came down with laminitis at foaling time. So it'll be a very stressful time for my mare too.

Has anyone else been so unlucky??? I now know why some-one once said to me, "buy a foal don't breed one".

Help

Thanks
 
Weeeeell, MY vet said the Little Cigar was toeing out, and that I should have his feet rasped lightly on the outside edge and also rub iodine (the real stuff, not pevidone) on the outside of cannon bone to encourage growth on that side (or perhaps it was the other side... I wasn't paying much attention
blush.gif
) Another vet said to leave alone as they'd straighten up by themselves. Honestly, I think surgery is a pretty dramatic option as foal is so young!!
 
I wouldn't rush into surgery yet it seems very early to be making that decision. Could you get a 2nd opinion? Have you got a good farrier who could work with the vet and maybe put plastic extentions on? It may be that he will require surgery and as he is a colt (and possibly will be gelded) and presumably will be a competition horse then you do want to get the best result you can for his potential soundness.
 
Mmm ... having seen a lot of foals with legs going in ALL directions that ALL corrected themselves given time and regular trimming - I wouldn't consider surgery at this age!

What I WOULD do is try to slow foalie's growth rate down a bit. If mare is on good pasture, restrict her to a small patch; if she's getting stud mix, cut it out and give just a modest amount of balancer.

Plastic extensions are a possibility - but have never had to resort to them. If you can slow growth down a bit, chances are foalie will be MUCH straighter in a couple of weeks.
 
Friend had a foal how was wonky at the knee up untill she was approx 6 months. Farrier, 2x vets all said she needed operating on to do the same proceedure. Friend chose not to and her leg is now perfectly straight at 1yr old. Ditto above try and slow down the growing as much as possible.
 
It is something we see quite a bit of in thoroughbred foals, I agree extensions put on by your farrier will help. We boxrest ours as it is important they dont get tired on their legs as this will only agreivate the problem. It can sometimes mean they are shut in for up to two months but it is worth the wait to have a correct foal. We would only operate (periostal strip) on extreme cases and our vet is able to do this on the farm for us but this is coupled with extensions and box rest.
 
chevs, our foal has slight carpal valgus on his right fore, and we have talked at length about it to our vet, who is one of the leading repro vets in the south-east, and has lots of experience of working with developing youngsters .... his advice was very restricted exercise, and keeping a close watch to see if the angle of the limb improved. It has done so significantly on this regime, and the decision shortly will be whether we trust that it will continue to right itself (and many friends who work in large studs say that they see quite a lot of this, and on the whole, if the youngster is kept on restricted exercise, the condition very frequently self-adjusts) - OR to go for periosteal stripping, which is quite a minor operation to delay growth on one side of the bone and allow the other to catch up. Our vet has said that if we leave the decison until later then it might require a more invasive operation involving pinning, which has cosmetic consequences as well, which the minor op does not .... Its a really difficult decision to make! But there's quite a lot on the 'net if you google the condition - much of it a bit technical, but this is quite a good introduction -
http://www.books.google.co.uk/books?id=_...resnum=5#PPA757,M1

It seems as though there is no "ideal" solution, but that its a good idea to have x-rays done to understand what's going on inside the leg before making a final decision about intervention. We're also coming up to decision time - do we hope that the leg will continue to improve by itself, or go for intervention? Any operation, even if minor, is obviously not great for a young foal .... so I really sympathise with your problem. Keep us posted on your decision, and good luck!
 
Chevs when you say "turned out at the knee" do you mean the foal is starting to look bow legged??

Many years ago we had this problem in a foal in the hind legs. Basically the growth plates were allowing more growth on the outer side of the leg than the inner side, thus causing a "bow legged" effect if you looked at the foal from behind.

She was sent down to the Dick Vets in Edinburgh who did as the Glasgow Vets are suggesting and they pinned her legs. She came home and all seemed fine, however, it started happening again and when she was sent down to Edinburgh a second time she never came home again because they could do no more for her.

Hers came on suddenly.

Is it the Professor Christoph that you are dealing with at Glasgow?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Chevs when you say "turned out at the knee" do you mean the foal is starting to look bow legged??

Many years ago we had this problem in a foal in the hind legs. Basically the growth plates were allowing more growth on the outer side of the leg than the inner side, thus causing a "bow legged" effect if you looked at the foal from behind.

She was sent down to the Dick Vets in Edinburgh who did as the Glasgow Vets are suggesting and they pinned her legs. She came home and all seemed fine, however, it started happening again and when she was sent down to Edinburgh a second time she never came home again because they could do no more for her.

Hers came on suddenly.

Is it the Professor Christoph that you are dealing with at Glasgow?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Anastasia

It is Patrick Pollock that has looked at her photos and that would be doing the operation.

My filly is growing too fast on the inside of the legs making her knock kneed. My farrier is coming out on friday to have a look before a final decision is made. It's such a horrible thing to be dealt with. Foals mother took laminitis the day she foaled so thay have been inside ever since. It's all been very stressful.

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated
 
I would first perhaps try restricted food for the mare (just old hay was my vet's recommendation) and restricted excercise for the foal.
The foal we had last year was really quite bad and I had both vet and farrier look at him.
They both agreed try the above first, it's hard seeing your mare lose weight but it does appear to slow the growth rate of the foal down.
That foal is now perfectly normal looking so I wouldn't be too keen to do too much just yet. We massaged ours a lot hoping to encourage a better position and I think what helped too.
 
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