Skinny foals! Need suggestions.

[Mood Swings]

I have two foals that are very underweight. Both foals are on ulcer medication as a safeguard. The youngest foal picks away at grain but is obviously not eating enough as she looks dreadfull.
What can I give her to encourage her to eat? BTW she is six weeks old and is with a nurse mare and she is being offered Buckeye foal starter pellets.

The other foal will not eat grain. Her dam is very friendly but she has no interest, I have tried offering her grain by hand but no luck. Numerous bloods have not shown any abnormalities. She is 3 months.

ANy thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[madelyn]

You could try some electrolytes. You could also give some B-complex injectible. They probably also need some serious worming. You could stop the ulcer meds and do a five day fenbendazole worming (safeguard) which has a palliative effect on the gastric system, as well as very effective on worms. If they are doing that poor, the meds are probably not helping at all. Probios might help them get started. Ours are usually in Mom's grain by a week old, and getting a separate bucket with pellets, etc. at a month.

[Mood Swings]

Hi Madelyn,

The vet advised against deworming the youngest do in part to his deworming program (start at 8 weeks) and the fact that she is so debilitated. The older filly was given a five day power pack while she was in Kentucky (2 weeks ago).

I will try the B complex injectible and the electrolytes. I don't think that Probios is available around here, however have you heard of Acute Care or Equine 911 paste? I wonder if they are similar? Thanks for your suggestions

Both foals had more bloodwork done today, I'll post any abnormal results - if there are any. Thanks again.

[madelyn]

Hm. Maybe a blood builder, like red cell.

How were the iggy's on the foals?

[amanda1]

Probiotics come in a million different forms. We use one called FasTrack for all of our horses. It is very inexpensive (about $20 for a bag that lasts 3 months for one horse) and very effective. If you can spare the expense you may also want to think about Succeed, although that is VERY expensive. I have not used it but have heard good things about it. Anything with a live probiotic in it will be beneficial.

Another thing we have tried that is quite disgusting but works wonders is to take a few of the well-formed.....um......turds .....of a known healthy horse and mix them in with a bit of grain. If you can get your foals to eat this, I have had amazing results with this. Some horses are just missing some component of their hindgut and don't metabolize correctly.

Anybody else ever tried this????

[KamiBrooks]

I remember something about low thyroid being common in young foals. I don't remember how you test, but it is something to consider. Low thyroid symptoms of listless, not thrifty, rough coat. I think it was a transient foal thing, but does need to be treated.

Low vit E also gives weight loss/dull hair/uncoord - but eats okay

EXTREEME Vit A (more than 100,000 IU/day) listlessness/dull coat/enemia and eventually balding (hair falls out) and can't get up - Vit A is added to just about EVERY supplement and they get it naturally from forages.

I'm probably wrong on this, but I'm thinking excess iron (blood builders) are also bad and can cause some problems in young foals...it might be that they contained a lot of Vit A.. but I'm thinking there was something with the iron itself.

I'm working from memory from when I delt with a 7mo last winter that was in horrible shape and didn't put on weight no matter what I tried. Those stick out in my mind, may talk to your vet about them?

[Mood Swings]

Madelyn - I believe both fillies were normal. They are also given plasma before they ship out. I will inquire as well about the blood builder. Thanks.

Amanda 1 - The probiotics I will try, however I need something in a paste form as the powdered supplement will be too difficult to feed as they do not eat. The pastes that I have looked into are also rather expensive ($30/tube) and only contain a two day supply. Well worth it if they work. As for the manure .... I don't think I can do it

Kamibrooks - I'll get the blood results this afternoon so it will be interesting to note if there are any deficiencies or not. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

[madelyn]

This catalog has Probios oral for $3.75 and I believe they ship to Canada.
http://www.horse.com/products/sku-BWA95.html

I hope you figure it out. Good luck!

[CA Michael]

50 years ago Bull Hancock imported the near-great racehorse *TULYAR from Ireland. Not too long afterwards the horse showed symptoms much like your foals. In a short while, he lost ALL of his hair!! Hancock was desperate for a solution, so he fed the horse *Nasrullah's manure. Presto~! The new organisms did the trick and *Tulyar entered stud the following year. Unfortunately for Hancock, *Nasrullah's manure didn't work as well on *Tulyar's stallion record.

[Mood Swings]

Blood results show...
Foal 1) 6 wks of age - everything is in the normal range The vet is perturbed however at least we know what it isn't - an infection etc

Foal 2) 4 months of age - CBC is normal, however her protein levels are low, this could be the result of her not eating or from a disease that causes protein loss. The vet has started her on erythromycin in case she has Lawsonia.

Both foals have been started on a quality probiotic and an oral supplement and rice bran oil. It is almost a blessing that they are lethargic for all of the medications I have to shove into their little mouths Keep your fingers crossed! Thanks again!

CA Michael - I can just see a client walking into the barn while I am in the midst of shoving manure into a syringe

Madelyn - Thanks for the link, I am surprised at how inexpensive it is!

[Sunday Rider]

manure happens For real, let us know how it goes.

[Sunday Rider]

Has anyone suggested yea-sac and yogart? I gave the mare and foal 30 cc each twice a day, it takes a while but, it worked great for my mare and foal last year.

[LKR]

When you do the manure thing, and anyone with horses had better get over being squeamish , you need to be sure the manure you are using is from a very healthy, recently wormed, horse. Foals eat their mother's and others manure all the time. It looks disgusting but it does serve a purpose, it puts organisms in their systems that they need. This will probably help your situation, plus they have foal electrolytes that can be mixed in water and syringed into their mouth. For their first worming I would recommend strongid paste. Then follow up with ivermectin in about two weeks. If you do the manure thing, electrolytes and the worming, it should kick start them pretty good. With the worst one, give the electrolytes and manure, wait on the wormer for a couple of days and then give the probios paste dose at the same time you do the wormer. You are in a catch 22 with that one, if it is wormy, it isn't going to improve a lot until you do worm it. I would do it in the morning so you can observe the baby during the day. I doubt that it will colic but better to be able to observe it in case it does. Good luck.

[amanda1]

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who feeds my horses crap!

[LKR]

Actually, the way I get the stuff into them, I take a fresh road apple from a recently wormed and healthy horse as I said, put it in a quart jar of water and stir. Let stuff settle for a while and then suck about 60ccs into a syringe and squirt it into the foals mouth. I do that a couple of times the 1st day. Usually, I am treating foal diahrea so I do that plus give them a cup of water mixed with a box of jello powder. I do that for a couple of days and it usually clears it right up. Not for the squeamish.