She’s 5 days old and has been on 2 ‘clicks’ of ulcerguard since tuesday (when the vet saw her). It is helping but hasn’t been the dramatic cure all I had hoped. Is there anything else I can give her? Peptobismal or something? She’s clearly not a happy camper and I’m worried about her.
Make sure she is getting the correct dose by weight, that can be hard to judge with a foal. Sucralfate doesn’t heal but can help make her feel better. Jingles!
ooo I’ve got some Suralfate! brilliant - thanks!
Have you been giving her any Probiotics? That really helped mine.
Im still treating my colt for ulcers. He was a nurse mare foal…so wasnt nursed by his dam at all and developed ulcers. He is a little older (7 months this month) but he has been being treated for a little over a month now. I did the Ulcerguard method also and then we put him on a prevenative (from SmartPak) and he is about 2/3 the way through that now. Im not sure for a foal at the age yours is but thought Id share what I did 
The sucralfate seems to be helping for sure. I’ve also been recommended a product called Breathe Eze #2 which Oakridge Equine sends home with their ulcer patients for use after gastroguard. Of course she isn’t eating yet, so not sure when this would be appropriate to use. I didn’t think of probiotics, but will get some on monday - thanks!
Poor little filly! Jingles she is okay …
Are gastroguard and ulcerguard the same thing? My filly was on gastroguard and my vet said it would take a good 3 days before there would be any noticeable difference.
How did the vet diagnosis her ulcers?
[QUOTE=Kyzteke;6549066]
How did the vet diagnosis her ulcers?[/QUOTE]
Rolling onto her back, frequent nursing, being “uncomfortable” in her skin (itchy, bitey, rubby, licky), general colicyness (not a word) and… being the most overly. dramatic. foal. evah.
So it seemed prudent to treat for ulcers. She had no meconium impaction (soft stool in colon and in the bed) and the dam wasn’t on any drugs pre-foaling - placenta fine, good milk etc.
Any other Dx you can think of - I’m all ears. She’s definitely improved with the sufalcrate and now day 6 of gastroguard, but I wouldn’t say she’s comfortable in her skin yet either. Oh, and eating lots of dirt.
Could she be allergic to her dam?
Is she getting enough when she nurses?
[QUOTE=back in the saddle;6549089]
Is she getting enough when she nurses?[/QUOTE]
well that’s one of the symptoms of ulcers - they nurse for short periods for comfort - there is no doubt that the mare has enough milk to feed probably 2 or 3 foals - so she ought to be getting enough if she wants it. Does she want it though? I don’t know for sure - how can one tell?
[QUOTE=Molly Malone;6549085]
Rolling onto her back, frequent nursing, being “uncomfortable” in her skin (itchy, bitey, rubby, licky), general colicyness (not a word) and… being the most overly. dramatic. foal. evah.
So it seemed prudent to treat for ulcers. She had no meconium impaction (soft stool in colon and in the bed) and the dam wasn’t on any drugs pre-foaling - placenta fine, good milk etc.
Any other Dx you can think of - I’m all ears. She’s definitely improved with the sufalcrate and now day 6 of gastroguard, but I wouldn’t say she’s comfortable in her skin yet either. Oh, and eating lots of dirt.
Could she be allergic to her dam?[/QUOTE]
Actually this same thing happened to one of mine and we came very close to putting him down. They treated him for ulcers and lactose intolerance by giving lactaid. He wasn’t lying on his back but was doing everything else you described. The vet said take him to the hospital or put him down but I asked if we could give him a couple more days to see if the gastrogard helped and she said yes as long as he didn’t get more uncomfortable. There is a thread about it if you want to search but bottom line even though he had been passing normal manure, he passed some meconium like a week later and was immediately fine. Everyone was shocked. I will see if I can find the thread to see if it rings any bells.
Found it.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247244
She doesn’t sound anywhere near that bad Laurierace - goodness how awful for you - poor Joshua! - but I wonder about lactose intolerance. I’ll get some lactaid on Monday. I’ll be talking to the vet tomorrow and will ask about high impaction too.
I had one last year that had a lot of the same symptoms, she would nurse a very short time and then go lick the stall walls, I called it “drive by nursing”. She would circle the mom, she wanted to drink but every time she did it hurt her stomach. As a test we gave her a dose of banamine, she immediately went and nursed her fill. We put her on probiotics, a short course of antibiotics, and the ulcer meds and she was fine in a couple of days. Vet was guessing a bacterial infection was upsetting her digestive system. Good luck with yours!
Do not use Pepto on any foals - it has other side affects.
Is her poop a normal color? If it’s lighter color and she doesn’t nurse the mare down when she does eat - she may have Clostridia. Speak to your Vet about this because the only antibiotic that works is Metronidazol. When we’ve had foals with this the Vet also had us give Ranitidine at the same time. Clostridia is very serious so I do hope you will ask your Vet if this was ruled out.
I’ll talk to the vet about a short course of antibiotics - because yes, she’s licking at the walls etc.
Clostridium infection is usually associated with diahorrea, no? I’ll mention it to the vet but I would have thought she’d be going rapidly downhill if she had a clostridium infection?
I’ve never had a problem using Pepto, but I’ve used it strictly for diarrhea, and I wouldn’t use it on a foal that did NOT have the runs, because of the danger of constipation.
Has the foal had a fecal done to look for an infection? DId she have an enema done after foaling (some folks give them routinely)?
Ulcers can be basically just a “symptom” of stress in general, including pain. So I’d be in the camp that would advocate small doses of something for comfort (like Banamine) and see if that helps at all.
You might also try a thinned yogurt squirted down her throat, but check out the lactose intolerance thing first.
Also, I know this is a long shot, but I assume you’ve checked the MARE? Her milk is good? No signs of mastitis or such that would make the milk unpalatable?
Unlikely, but doesn’t hurt to take a peek. A foal this young needs to be CLOSELY monitored, because she could go south real fast…especially with foal heat scours coming up…
Best of luck to you!
I would also consider some Bio Sponge for this foal.
[QUOTE=Molly Malone;6549427]
Clostridium infection is usually associated with diahorrea, no? I’ll mention it to the vet but I would have thought she’d be going rapidly downhill if she had a clostridium infection?[/QUOTE]
Yes, Clostridia is associated with diarrhea (yellow diarrhea and lack of nursing). It doesn’t sound like that is what your foal has, but it’s worth a mention to the vet. I had a colt this year in the hospital for 5 days with it. Metronidazole is an effective treatment, but Naxcel or Penicillin can be as well. I used a combo on my colt on a presumptive diagnosis, because the fecal cultures took a week to come back. If I had waited that long to treat him for the known causal agent, he would have died.
I would be taking your foal’s temp twice a day and monitor nursing. A CBC (with fibrinogen) may be a good idea as well.
