Foals with contracted tendons?

[stolensilver]

Can any experienced breeders share their experiences of foals with contracted tendons? My mare foaled an enormous foal 36 hours ago. The estimated weight of the foal is a whopping 150kg!!! This is out of a middleweight 16.2 sports horse by an event stallion. She looks as if she’s at least a month old.

Possibly unsurprisingly she’s got contracted tendons in front. She isn’t knuckling over but she is on tip toe and can’t fully straighten her knees. The vet has seen her and doesn’t think its bad enough to need Tetracycline.

What I want to ask is how was your foal when they were walking around? Mine gets up and down OK but after she’s been on her legs for 2-3 minutes her legs start to tremble and her breathing rate is very fast, as if she’s panting, and she becomes sweaty with her coat getting wet over her sides and quarters.

Is this usual with contracted tendons? As I said the vet has seen her and isn’t worried about the tendons, has taken a blood test for white blood cells and has put her on antibiotics, just in case she’s got an infection. She’s not got any swollen joints at the moment and is bright and suckling well and, as far as you can tell with her poor bent legs, she isn’t lame.

Any feedback would be wonderful.

[aquafarms]

I would limit her exercise for a few days maybe longer and monitor her progress.

[Sunnydays]

I would wrap her legs for support - the trembling and panting indicates that standing straight is difficult/stressful. As suggested above, limit her exercise (stall rest - maybe a few minutes outdoors tomorrow). If she were not much improved in 48 hours I’d get a 2nd opinion, or insist on trying the tetracyclene, which is most effective if done early.
Hope things go well.

[horsetales]

I had one a few years back. I don’t remember any panting. Activity was limited. All turned out fine. good luck

[Kerole]

I had one of these this past season. A massive filly that came out big enough to ride! The 3 vets and 2 farriers that saw her have never seen such a big foal.

She was on tip toe in front and had one hind quite badly contracted with the fetlock knuckling forward. Although healthy and very strong, she found it very difficult to stand still enough to suckle and she was so tall that she had to bend down to reach the udder. She was bottle fed initially until she could work it all out for herself. She definitely shivered and trembled everytime she stood and her knees would often look like they were going to give out. I don’t recall her sweating but I did notice the effort it took to drink and the resulting flared nostrils/big breaths/heaving ribs.

Over the next few days she was given antibiotics and 2 shots of tetracycline. She had the heels of all feet scraped with a file every 10 days or so to help lower the fetlock. It took a month or more for her front legs to relax sufficiently and for her knees to straighten. Her hind limb took longer. At 2 months old she had an acrylic side clip added to her hind hoof to correct a minor deviation in the pastern/fetlock alignment.

On the advice of 2 vets (plus the farrier) I weaned the filly at 3 months in order to better manage her feed intake and growth. This was not something I did lightly but her mother had a udder like a cow and the filly was gaining weight at an alarming rate. I was advised to take some of the weight off her ribs and to keep her fairly light while her limbs were straightening. She lived in a small flat grassed area next to the mare - big enough for a bit of a trot but not enough for a full scale hoon. I noticed she would sometimes sneak drinks from the mare through the post and rail!

She is 5 months old now and her legs are the same length and size as my adult TB! Heaven knows how big she will finish. She is still marginally upright in the front pasterns but this may be attributed to the stallion as it is a trait he sometimes throws. It is not enough to be considered a conformation fault. The hind limb deviation is totally corrected and both rear pastern angles match perfectly.

I have noted that she is VERY prone to breaking the toes of her front hooves away, leaving them steep and dumpy in front. It suggests that she is still weight bearing a little too much over the toe and is something my farrier is working on.

I have some photos somewhere which I could send you. I hope this helps - I know how beneficial it is to hear similar stories!

[Foxtrot_s]

I had one.

She knuckled over and could not reach high enough to nurse. The vet splinted her within hours. Splint had to be changed often (forget how often) to minimize risk of a bandage bow. Vet used paint can stirrers for the splints!
My husband had some pvc pipe of appropriate dimension and cut it in half lengthwise. He carved out a little area for the fetlock joint to fit and lined them with neoprene. She was kept in, but had an area on the hard surface to stand that was not bedded and her own weight brought her heels down in a couple of days or so - we donated the splints to the vet.

This needs to be considered an emergency situation since the tissues are so gel-like at birth.

Little thing turned out fine.

[farrier]

Tetracycline is a charm and works if used in the small window of opportunity (3-4ays) I have used 3x in 24years of foaling. Have seen permanent contractions when it wasn’t recognized at birthing as many are bed deep in straw and did not notice in time.

[stolensilver]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It does really help to hear from people who have been through the same thing. She is on limited exercise. At the moment she’s in a stable 12’ x 12’ and isn’t going outside in the forseeable future. She isn’t knuckling over on her front legs and she can get up to nurse fairly easily.

Latest update is that her breathing is a bit more settled although its still faster than normal and she isn’t as sweaty.

Maybe this is all from the contractions? I hope so. That seems less worrying than a foal so young having an infection.

This is what she looked like at an hour old. I don’t know if you can see how huge she is. Most foals can walk under their dam’s belly if they duck their heads. This filly is 8" too tall to do that! And she was born at 11 months and 1 day so she wasn’t overcooked, thank goodness. :eek: You can see the contractions on her front legs. Those are slightly less marked today. Its the panting and sweating that’s worrying me the most.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh71/pirie/IMG_0577.jpg

[rodawn]

Well, I would think contracted tendons would hurt as they’re stretching under her weight so that could explain some of the sweating. Similar if you had strained your Achilles and it had stiffened up, thus walking on it would hurt quite a bit.

Everyone gave the good advice. Very limited activity, but I would strongly consider the tetracycline if she is not showing significant improvement by day 3.

You can also vigorously rub her tendons to encourage greater circulation of blood (thus nutrients to the ligaments), plus it feels good for them.

[jenbrin]

I had one who had constracted tendons and I consulted a number of vets.
We did Tetracycline and wrapped her legs and limited excercise as much as possible. But after two months they were not really improving so one of the vets recommended just letting her be a horse. I figured I had nothing to lose so I moved mare & foal out to pasture 24/7 and sure enough within a few weeks her legs started straighten out.
Sometimes the simplest plan is the best.

[Carol_Ames]

TAKE HEART

wE HAD A b i G FILLY, RACE HORSE BORN ONE YEAR; had 17 handers for dad and grandad; She, herself ended up 17 hands s a 2 year old:eek:; It was weeks before she could lift her head and look behind herself; another foal watcher started flexing the pasterns; I took it a bit further, and did muscle releases on the large muscles of the shoulder and forearm , and chest; then tellington Touch , also on the muscles of her rump and hind legs i.e. “python lifts”, down the whole leg to the floor; I did these with her lieing down, added “leg circles” from each of the joints; so, each joint would know, experience, the possibilities it had for motion, finishing off with long integrating strokes down the whole leg, ending with patting the bottom of each foot; the farm manager who, had despaired :(of her ever being able to stand and run with the others, actually admitted that her tendons ran down the backs of her legs straight and functional;); she won her first race by 25:eek: lengths, several others after:) that;:lol: also produced her own;) filly foal, with normal functional tendons;)

[risingstarfarm]

One of mine presented like this. We did eventually end up using tetracycline, but first:

We wrapped both knees and kept the foal in for 3 days. We wrapped with cotton shipping quilts covered in vetrap. Elasticon was applied on the top of the wrap. It was important that the knees were in the center of the wrap to receive even pressure. I did have to reappy the wraps over the course of the 3 days.

After the 3 days, we saw improvement - so, we repeated the 3 day wrap. Again, we saw improvement, but not enough. So, the vet administered tetracycline and we wrapped again and kept him up for several days.

He’s perfect now

edited to add - as Carol points out, massage is very helpful too

[HyperionStudLLC]

Contracted tendons in warmbloods in normal. Usually big foals with long legs. What has worked for us… Turn them out. Let them get a few hours out in a small paddock to stretch their legs each day. As they gain weight and move around, their tendons should release. I would be more worried about weak knees, bowing of the lower legs and soft pasterns before I worry about contracted tendons.
if they dont resolve within 4-6 weeks you may want to look at other helpful measures.

I agree with another post… Let horses be horses.

Cheers

[JackieBlue]

Doesn’t look to me like you have much to worry about with those legs and I have more experience than most with contracted tendons. As for the sweating and labored breathing, have you taken her temp? While it would seem to make sense that her legs could be causing her some distress, legs like that usually don’t bother foals too much.
Is she still on her tippy toes, ballerina-style, when she stands?

[VirginiaBred]

I too was told by an excellent Vet to turn them out.

[PremiumWarmbloods]

[QUOTE=HyperionStudLLC;6306770]
Contracted tendons in warmbloods in normal. Usually big foals with long legs. What has worked for us… Turn them out. Let them get a few hours out in a small paddock to stretch their legs each day. As they gain weight and move around, their tendons should release. I would be more worried about weak knees, bowing of the lower legs and soft pasterns before I worry about contracted tendons.
if they dont resolve within 4-6 weeks you may want to look at other helpful measures.

I agree with another post… Let horses be horses.

Cheers[/QUOTE]

I completely agree with Hyperion. My filly born last year was 3 weeks late and a complete monster when born. She was contracted in the front and knuckled over quite bad for the first week. With turnout each day you will see improvements. The problem with Tetracycline is that it isn’t only going to relax the tendons in the front…it is going to relax them on all 4’s… I wouldn’t want to be dealing with the soft pastern aftermath. Let mother nature do its work

[Sportpony]

I’ve had several over the years, working with two different vets and on the advice of both vets, they were treated with tetracycline, wrapped but were turned out, not kept up.

[FatCatFarm]

Get your vet involved but I’ve dealt with this from mild to severe and the mild cases my vet always recommends, reducing mom’s protein intake so the baby doesn’t grow too fast, watching and re-evaluate in a month’s time. It’s amazing how much they change in just that amount of time. They’re like butterflies unfolding. I would limit turn out to maybe a small paddock for the first week or so, but do get your filly out some and into the sunshine. She really doesn’t look that bad to me. I had a colt born in 2007 who was the same way and by the one month point, he was fine.

In the severe case where all four legs were affected, at 1 month of age we took the colt to Auburn for periosteal stripping and he was fine thereafter. No other treatment. Congratulations and good luck.

[Valentina_32926]

Had one - glued 1/2 shoes on front feet to prevent toe breakage while allowing heels to stretch, would file heels LIGHTLY every other day.

Was told to keep her light and put mats in the stall. No alfalfa, no high protein feeds.

Good luck.

[EquusMagnificus]

I was told… Contraction, turn out; loose tendons, keep in.

I would turn her out… and definately give tetracycline. Perhaps even a tad of bute if she’s really uncomfortable. That’s what I was told last year by my orthopedic specialist. Makes sense to me… But I don’t qualify for the “experienced breeder” part of your question though! :lol: