Help-urgent

[follygirl]

Having lost a foal in early February, I was excited to write in to tell you of a lovely colt born Sunday evening...didn't have time. Well he looked and acted perfectly and his bloodwork was normal yesterday and he got his plasma. Thru the night he became increasingly spastic and neurologically dysfunctional. The vet was out this morning, gave steroids and antibiotics but he is still getting worse. He cannot stand but he will nurse if you pick him up. But he is so big--a big beautiful boy from a big mare. He is gonig in the wrong direction and the working diagnoses--cerebral/spinal edema and sepsis have been treated.

The sad thing is, he is strong--he fights the needles/restraining. he is not a dummy, he just doesn't have control of his body.

Anyone seen this before? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Cathy

[Rick]

Bladder rupture?

[madelyn]

How did you lose the other one at the beginning of the month?

What exactly is meant by "he got his plasma"? Certainly not a transfusion? Hopefully you mean colostrum. The next thing is the mare's diet, since it is her milk that could be making him "worse"... no fescue, no clover.. timothy or alfalfa only.. what kind of bedding are you using? Hopefully it is straw, corn or oat. If not, scrape every bit of wood product out and bed in hay. Could be something in the sawdust. You could also give him a vitamin B shot. Next thing is to ful full spectrum bloodwork for minerals (deficiencies), etc. You don't have much time by the sound of it.

[follygirl]

They are on straw, and mom gets only alfalfa. Ironically, this is the best looking alfalfa I have ever seen. He got intravenous colostral IgG to ensure passive immunity.

The stall was cleaned and bedded for foaling, and another mare had an uneventful foaling a week ago there.

My foal last year had NMS after a red bag delivery and was affected from birth but turned around after each dose of steroids and in about 36 hours was up and normal. She is now a healthy yearling.

From what I have read about herpes, foals are born weak and get worse. This little one was completely normal and then deteriorated.

thanks for your thoughts.

[follygirl]

Oh forgot...no abdominal distention. Peeing okay, too...don't think it is bladder rupture

[Nijinsky]

Madelyn...sometimes foals get plasma's done if the mare is going to be sent out to be breed at a farm that is known for having Rodocacous (not sure how you spell that) It is done within a few days of birth than I believe 4 to 6 weeks later, so they do not get the disease.
Maybe that is what she meant

Follygirl....Maybe this site can help...praying for a healthy recovery

http://www.scottcreek.com/Foal_Health.htm

[sccmxg]

Tetanus is caused by an exotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani it can infect the foal through the umbilicus or wounds, it produce spams and nervous signs.

[madelyn]

Dang, yup, forgot, did the foal get a tetanus shot when it hit the ground? Umbilical dipped in betadine and then powdered with medicated powder? Also, how is the poop? Meconium pass okay? Now nice little green golf balls?

[follygirl]

Thanks for all the thoughts. He is gone. I made the decision to put him down. Despite everything this morning, he continued to decline and could not even suck.

My mares are better cared for than me...regular, timely vetting, vaccinations, dental, farrier. We are in NJ and with the herpes outbreak in MD, we REvaccinated everyone. If anything, I was starting to worry about too many vaccinations.

I am just having a bad year.
Thanks for your help.
Cathy

[Karie]

Cathy,
I am soo sorry for your 2 losses... Are you having a Necropsy (sp?) done on this one? I really would so that you can rest and not worry about the rest of the foals that you are expecting..
Again... sorry for your loss.. Losing a foal is the hardest thing.. believe me I have lost 2 of the first 4 I have bred. Both freak things too nothing that was in any way my fault.
- Karie

[Mahubah]

So sorry to hear of your losses.

[Shammy Davis]

So sorry for your loss.

[follygirl]

Being able to share these things on this forum is a great help in shouldering the losses. You all know how hard this business is.

The necropsy on the first foal showed nothing, but they requested to do more tests and those showed herpes. I asked the vet today if this could be herpes, but he said that usually those foals are born weak and deteriorate. He did say that there is more than the usual this year. It is good to talk about this because despite adequate and even more than adequate care/vaccination, I have experienced these losses! I saw teh necropsy today and every organ looked normal. We will see what the further testing shows. What is frustrating is that mares have excellent care and are regularly immunized. But evidently, like with influenza, you can't immunize effectively against every strain. The vet even called the pharmaceutical manufacturer to check if there were any problems with the batches he got!

My vet says that things like herpres, rotacoccus, etc are everywhere, but more latent in some places and they see cyclical outbreaks over time.

I cannot imagine what it was like to experience MRLS!

I have only one more mare expecting...she is in foal to Slew City Slew, so keep your fingers crossed!

I was thinking today of the owners of Afleet Alex. They wanted a horse and went out and got him! Imagine. My yearling had NMS and my next two breedings are gone. If I ever win a race-no get a horse in the gate--I see now that the joy will be at once tempered and ehanced by all that has gone before.

Thanks for all the kind messages
Cathy

[summerhorse]

I'm so sorry Cathy. Breeding can be a tough business for sure. Big farms get these losses too but they have enough horses that it isn't such a HUGE loss. I don't know, maybe arrange for the next mare to deliver at the vet clinic if there is a large one nearby that has a neonate clinic? But probably this is just an unusual run of bad luck for you. I might use a different foaling stall next time, have it throughly disinfected and maybe run tests on any bedding you put in and the soil of the floor for organisms before the foal is born. Good luck.

[rascal]

I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your two foals. Hope the last foal expected is perfect in every way for you and all goes well.
Rascal