Had a maiden mare pop a baby out in the pasture two weeks ago. Got them inside, naval dipped, mare milked and foal got colostrum. Did Igg test which was good. Baby never really “took off” and got spunky in the first week. He’s deaf and I attributed it partially to that (I’ve had a few deaf ones that are incredibly laid back). Day 10 he gets foal scours which don’t really worry me but day 11 we get a yellow snotty nose, a little chest rattle and some eye discharge. Temp of 102 so high side of normal. Start 6cc of Naxel and probiotics and he perks up within 24 hours. Continue Naxel and probiotics. This morning is shivering (he’s been inside and has been fine in colder mornings in days prior). Take temp, 100.3. Put a blanket on him and warm him up, he’s fine in an hour. Tonight he’s bouncy and fighting me when I check him and take temp but go back down to feed and he’s eating his mothers tail.
Has anyone ever had a two week old colt eat their moms tail? Never had one and just seemed strange with all the other things stacked up. He has 3 more days of Naxel to go, I’ll give my vet a call in the morning to pick her brain again but wondering if anyone else has had experience. TIA!
Maybe have your vet run some bloodwork and see if there’s an infection.
I agree, at minimum I’d want to pull a CBC to ensure he is responding to antibiotics.
I’ll also recommend getting his blood tests done asap so you’ll find out if there is any infection in his blood.
You didn’t say what breed he is . . . is there any possibility that he’s LWO?
He is a quarter horse but no, no chance of lethal white and a LWO would never had lived this long.
I knew LWO usually doesn’t survive this long, but figured there’s always an exception to the rule. And with this foal being deaf and you having other deaf foals I felt it was better to bring up just in case.
Good luck with the little guy, sending jingles his way.
If he was LWO he’d be white. And dead because the gut isn’t fully formed.
I missed in the OP where he wasn’t white, sorry. I knew of someone in the past who had a LWO that lasted 2 days before being euthanized. Since that’s the only experience I’ve had with it I wasn’t sure if there were more mutations within the gene now. My apologies.
Bloodwork came back normal and he seems to be back 100% today. No answer on the tail chewing, aside from maybe teething? He’s starting to get teeth and is trying to chew on everything today.
He’s definitely a sweet guy, crossing my fingers we are moving in the right direction.
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Glad to hear bloodwork was normal and he is doing better!
Antibiotics can make a horse cold even when they “shouldn’t” be, so that shivering part sounds pretty normal. Maybe just some random passing virus? Not that antibiotics could take care of that, but preemptive abx in the face of a virus that could allow an opportunistic bacterial infection to take hold, especially in a compromised horse (foal, old, etc) isn’t a bad idea
Tail chewing is very normal Do everything you can to make the mare’s tail as unpalatable as possible. I tried ALL the usual tricks with mine, and finally resorted to coating her tail on Dawn dish soap to do the trick.
