Your Advice??? Foals legs not straighting out.....

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heidi123

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Just wonderd if I could pick your brains!
My friends mare foaled 2 weeks ago and little foalie had some trouble standing orginally..but soon found his feet and canters around feild like no tomorrow!

She is slightly worried as she feels his front legs have not straightend out completely!
Its does not effect his mobilty in any way! We know that it can be quite common in foals...however how soon should they straighten out?

How long should be leave it untill we take action??

Many thanks

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xx
 
'Gumpatrump' has a 2008 foal and her front leg looked similar to your pic and she didnt straighten out till she was at least 6 months, now its the best leg shes got!! PM her if you want any more info on hers she will be more than happy to help.
 
I would speak to your vets. From the looks of it he has a very common condition known as Carpus Valgus which means that the knee has not yet straightend and leans inwards. Our little boy this year has it as well and the main priority is rest and very very restricted exercise.

For the first 6 weeks he was on box rest and only allowed out onto our concrete yard with mum for 15 minutes twice a day. The bed also has to be quite thin in order to encourage standing correctly on the leg. He is now 3 months old and is remarkably better...now gets to go out in the field for up to 2 hours at a time. The legs is almost straight now...just a little bit left to go....hence the restricted turnout is sooo important as they get to go out and exercise it but then come in and rest it completely.

There are many other things that can be done as well such as extensions put onto the hoof by the farrier or even having the vets do something called periostial stripping, which involves aggravating the growth plates on the outside of the leg below the knee, in order to stimulate strengthening.

I would definitley talk to your vets as the sooner you can get onto it the better as the growth plates for straightening up start to slow down at about the 3 months old mark. Don't want to scare you at all but it is best to get on top of these things asap.
 
Dont panic all will be well. Take vets advice but delay action as it rarely ends up as Ballerina syndrome.
 
Thanks al for fab advice! I'll let her know, she said this morning about getting the vet out! His turnout is not resticted atm as not sure what was the best thing to do! However will pass on all info and hopefully can get on the right road!

Thanks once again!
 
My last foal looked like that, she was a full tb. I let her stay with her mum in the field didnt restrict her in anyway and it straightened out beautifully.

She is now 6 and very successfully eventing.

Get the vets involved and see the pounds light up lol!
 
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My last foal looked like that, she was a full tb. I let her stay with her mum in the field didnt restrict her in anyway and it straightened out beautifully.

She is now 6 and very successfully eventing.

Get the vets involved and see the pounds light up lol!

[/ QUOTE ]

You were lucky - and because you were, you should not be advising others to hope they will be as lucky. Some do straighten up on their own without any form of tretment - others get worse!!

Restricted exercise and some help from the farrier to ensure the hoof stays level is usually all that's required - but it takes much more careful (and informed) inspection of the foal, how it moves, how 'slack' the leg is under pressure etc. etc. etc. before ANYONE can advise on the best treatment.

I certainly wouldn't be rushing towards surgical intervention at this stage - but I sure wouldn't be crossing my fingers and hoping for the best either!!
 
I echo JG - where foals and growth related complications are involved it is definately worth involving a vet. Even if it is just to montitor the condition. Restricted exercise is also a must! when will people realise growing foals NEED very special care when compared to an adult horse!!?
 
Hi

This happened to my filly. After vets and farrier visits it was thought that surgery would be the only way forward as the degree of the leg was so severe.

My vet took photo's and e-mailed them to an orthopedic surgeon who said that foal definately needed surgery.

I travelled mare and foal to my neaerest vet school (6 hours drive away) and foal was having the operation this morning.

I'm just waiting for them to phone me and let me know how it went.

I agree with JG, vet and farrier must have a look the sooner the better.

Best wishes
 
Thank you Competitiondiva,

Vet phoned about an hour ago to say all went well. Foal up and sucking and causing chaos again!! Hoping to collect them on Saturday.

Will post some before and after pictures for referance once the leg heals.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My last foal looked like that, she was a full tb. I let her stay with her mum in the field didnt restrict her in anyway and it straightened out beautifully.

She is now 6 and very successfully eventing.

Get the vets involved and see the pounds light up lol!

[/ QUOTE ]

You were lucky - and because you were, you should not be advising others to hope they will be as lucky. Some do straighten up on their own without any form of tretment - others get worse!!

Restricted exercise and some help from the farrier to ensure the hoof stays level is usually all that's required - but it takes much more careful (and informed) inspection of the foal, how it moves, how 'slack' the leg is under pressure etc. etc. etc. before ANYONE can advise on the best treatment.

I certainly wouldn't be rushing towards surgical intervention at this stage - but I sure wouldn't be crossing my fingers and hoping for the best either!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Well said Janet, I completely agree, this foals leg has an alarming angle to me and looks a little more serious than just big foal bendy legs!
 
Of course it is everyones choice what they do with their animals, this is actually an incredibly common occurance especially in tb's.

This foal is only 2 weeks old, it will be awhile before his growth plates close, nature will definately sort this one out.

The more you interfere, often the worse you make things.

I am only saying what i would do.

When my last foal was born, at her vet check surgery was mentioned almost immediately, but its one of those things if you have the surgery, you never know wether time would have put it right anyhow.... as in my case it did...
 
daisychain - I cannot see how restricting turnout is interefering too much - all it does is allow the foal time to strengthen up as when they are out 24/7 or a majority of the time they will invariably allow themselves to rest a lot less than if they are stabled/restricted. Surgery does not have to be done, I was just stating that it is one of the ways in which it is corrected.

It is indeed a very common occurrence in TB's however you will find that in 99.9% of the cases the TB studs will instantly put the foals on box rest or very very limited turnout and will also use hoof extensions in order to correct things. they rarely resort to surgery for it in this country (however on talking to my stud vet about this just yesterday, the surgery is used a lot on TB stud in Australia as their foals live out more than UK ones and as such need the problem fixed quicker).

Yes in many cases time will indeed sort things, however, helping him along will not hurt and may well indeed help prevent vet bills in the future. At the end of the day, we on here are only seeing a photo of the leg and it is at an angle at that! None of us are vets and so the best advice would be to get your friend to speak to the vet and get expert advice on what to do.
 
This may be a common problem but that is not a good thing!
The growth plates I am afraid close all to quickly and time is of the essence. In this case you are talking of several plates being affected the cannon bone who's plate closes between 8 months and 1.5 years the small bones in the knee which close somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 years AND the lower part of the radius-ulna which closes between 2 and 2.5 years. Not a lot of time to suck it and see!

This foal has a problem NOW and confinement and a few pounds spent on a vet and farrier NOW may well avoid the necessity for surgery (WHICH MIGHT BE UNSUCCESSFUL) in the future.

Allow a foal to leap and run around too much on a leg like that and it WILL damage the growth plates in that leg because the load is uneven to start with. Further damage will result in uneven growth and more damage needing more aggressive treatment and possibly result in a crippled horse with a very uncertain future.

I am happy that your foal made a full recovery, but I would never recommend inaction to anyone else in those circumstances even if I chose to do nothing but cross my fingers myself. Nature deals with this sort of thing in the wild very definitely usually with teeth and claws sorting the problem permanently!

Unless you are a vet with a lot of experience and are good enough to predict a positive prognosis from one picture then like Janet so rightly pointed out you really should not be making such sweeping statements, unless of course you are willing to fund the future vets bills if this foal is not as fortunate as the one instance you are making the predictions based upon?

Personally if I was not seeing a rapid and sustained improvement with confinement in a foal born with limb abnormalities in the first couple of days I would get the farrier and vet in as soon as possible. To be honest with this particular one I probably would have consulted on the day of birth with an email or two!
 
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