Like with all our foals I inspected Bobby to check that all was OK after he was born. He seemed to be fine, and was suckling, pooing and weeing as expected. However he was very docile right from birth and I was worried that he was not quite normal. At 11am in the morning he was running round the paddock with his dam but to me was still unusually quite for a foal, and I rang my vet to seek advice. He said that there was probably nothing wrong if he was still doing all the things I mentioned above.Also that some foals just are quite. I was not convinced.....
He continued to behave normally all of the 2nd of Sept with the exception of being very easy to handle, and it was on this day I noted he had a slightly paralyzed lower lip and milk was dribbling from his mouth because of it.
On the 3rd of Sept all was definately not well. I noticed at 9am the foal looked depressed and alarm bells started to ring. I continued to monitor him in case at the time I had looked he was simply sleepy. However he was not getting any less sleepy looking and I rang the vet at 11am to ask to come out as the foal looked off color. Again the vet asked if he was still suckling. I said he would if I forced him up to the mare but he was very depressed, the vet then said he would be unable to get out to my farm that day. He thought if the foal was still able to suck he should be OK. At 2pm he was getting sicker, when I took his temperature it was at 39 degrees. I rang the vet and told him this, and he said if I was worried to come and pick up some broad sectrum anti-biotic and give him some of it to tie him over until he could get out the following day. Needless to day I went straight away and got the Nyomycin to give the foal! The vet advised a 5ml dose which I gave him. Things went rapidly downhill from this point and I was sure Bobby would die. By 5pm he would not stand and was lying on the ground almost comatose. He did not move at all when you walked up to him, and his tail was limp. His fever had elevated up to 39.8. I ended up, staying up all night with him and rubbing him to keep him warm as he was shivering so badly, every half hour I would catch the mare and pick him up and place him on her teats, luckily Yasmina was very co-operative in this regard and the foal would have one or two sucks and then give up. Good thing this foal was small or I would not have been able to lift him. This continued all the next day also. The vet came at 12pm the following day, he was shocked at how sick this baby was. He listened to his heart and looked him over and said the foal had "Patent Ductus Arteoisus" basically an immature heart and, that he had gotten a generalised infection and pnuemonia because of it. He gave him some more medicines, an antihestamien type drug to dry the muscus off his chest, a cortisonal type drug to help the heart mature and some multi vitamins to help him recover. He also said he doubted the foal would survive the night and gave him a 10% survival rate. He mentioned that the foal would have a less than 5% chance of making it though the next 3 days. I did a lot of crying that day and night.....
On the 5th of September I dared to think that Bobby might have been getting better. He began to stand on his own to feed and also began to wag his tail! From this point on he began to get better and better.
Since that point we have had other problems with Bobby due to the reduced blood flow in his body at the time he was sick. All these problems have pertained to his feet.
I noticed within 3 weeks of birth that Bobby had a crinkly line at the top of his hooves, it did not much worry me at the time as I have seen similar lines on sick horses before. But two weeks later it became more serious as it became apparent that the hoof wall was separting on all four feet. I consulted the vet about this problem and he said it was very unusual but not uncommen in this situation. As most foals with this problem die prior to it occuring he said there was little that could be done for him other than hot/cold treatments. ie Spraying the legs with warm saline water and then with hosing them cold two to three times a day. He said that the feet would probably not come off but if they did prior to them growing to at least 3/4 the way down he would probably need to be euthanised. I did the hot/cold washes for about 5 days. The feet at this time were very loose, as time went on they seemed to set a bit. Probably due to the flesh beneath scabbing over. The vet had also advised not to cover the feet with any dressing as this would not allow them to heal under the crack so well.
In mid-September I trimmed Bobbys feet as they were getting long and he seemed to be in a lot of pain, and was often holding each foot up in turn (as pictured on the next page).
Well at the beginning of Novemember Bobby cast the off hind hoof it had grown down to within 2cm of the bottom of the hoof. On the 14th of November he cast the other hind foot. We are now waiting for the front feet to shed and the remainder of the damage on his feet to grow out. Hopefully this little mans future is now looking bright as he is now bounding round the paddock unhindered and seems quite happy and healthy in himself.
At the start of December Bobby cast the front two feet and only had about 2cm to go until his feet were fully grown out.
It is now mid January and Bobby is basically a normal foal now! You would never know he was ever sick he is growing into a big lad!!