An acquaintance of mine had a fancy pony born with this, though it sounds like hers was minor compared to some here. Was bottle fed, never ridden, but is alive and doing well now at around age 10 (guessing?).
Best wishes.
I have a friend with a WB mare with this deformity. Maybe hers isn’t as bad, but she’s led a full life in the hunter/jumper world, jumps 4’ courses with ease and last I heard her mom was doing some basic dressage work with her. She’s not the easiest horse in the contact, but wears a bit/bridle just fine.
Thanks everyone for the replies. Have been too busy and too tired to post till now. I’m happy to report that after 3 days of bottle feeding the filly this morning finally figured out how to nurse. Very relieved as I wouldn’t be able to do much more around the clock duty!
This has been a tough call and it could still go either way. However with the support and advice of our vet we decided to give her a few days to see how things progressed. Thankfully he’s seen several cases of this so was quite familiar with the problem whereas I think most would have wanted to immediately euthanize. All the cases he’s worked with did turn out fine without the surgery, so he was optimistic that even though this filly is quite bad that it might turn out OK. He said they do straighten out a bit over the first couple of weeks, probably as the bones are still soft and whatever pressure they were facing in the uterus to make this happen is now gone. And they learn to control their tongue and keep it in their mouth. He also said they learn so suckle at the side of their mouth rather than the front and sure enough that’s what she’s done this morning.
She does not have a cleft palate thankfully. I got over 5 liters (1.25 gallons) of milk into her yesterday, she’s got quite an appetite and was bucking and frolicing around the stall in the middle of the night, so definitely improving. We will re-assess in a few days when we see if she straightens out a bit (it might be my mind playing tricks on me, probably is, but the nose does look a bit better to me than at birth). Also teeth are a big issue to consider as well, though our vet says the ones he’s had in his practice graze etc just fine, even though looking at them you wouldn’t think they could.
She’s sweet as pie and we are all pretty attached to her, even though she has a face only a mother could love 
Kinda looks like a squashed up rhinocerous! It will be hard to let her go if it comes to that but I’m cautiously optimistic at this point. And for those that are concerned, she would have a home for life here so no worries there 
Her dam actually fractured her shoulder as a yearling in a pasture accident and most would have put her down as well, but she healed with a lot of TLC and you would barely know today that she’d ever had an issue, just a very slight gait deficit. So we’re used to hard luck cases here!
[QUOTE=TrueColours;6413963]
Brenda - check out this thread on HGS
http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/wry-nose-in-foals-475367.html
might be a few links and suggestions there for you as well[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that Donna, some useful info there. As a side note, this is a cremello filly out of our GG mare, small world huh?!
She’s sweet as pie and we are all pretty attached to her, even though she has a face only a mother could love Kinda looks like a squashed up rhinocerous!
Awww … :sadsmile:
As a side note, this is a cremello filly out of our GG mare, small world huh?!
When you mentioned the fractured shoulder, I figured it was her
We’re all pulling for you / her Brenda. So glad to hear she has the nursing bit firgured out - at least that gives you a break and some breathing room as well
Are you taking some before, during and after pics so you can really assess how she is / isnt coming along?
Great update though!
Good luck with your filly Brenda. I hope she pulls through for you.
Best wishes for you and your filly. Glad that things are looking up - and that the filly has such a dedicated owner.
I couldn’t say it better. Best of luck with your little one!
It is an incredible deformity and very sad to see, but maybe we are lucky? The foal I have nurses to beat the band, eats hay, interested in everything, no neurological signs, so of all the things to check off the list and determine euthanasia, I feel we are lucky with this filly. She is five weeks old now. Although I am partners with another on this foal, we both agreed that any things on the list that would prove her life quality was compromised, putting her down was definitely the option. The filly is now at the surgeon to see if things can improve.
If it can’t nurse or has a cleft palate, cant breathe, etc. I think the decision is made.
The owner of the stallion researched extensively and found some link to vaccines, particularly West Nile Virus, to pregnant mares, but I dont know how this could be a factor if placement in the uterus is the culprit.
The dentist I use has seen a few cases of this, and knew right away about it, just mentioned that regular care was clearly in order, so we have yet to see if that may be a factor to life quality in a few months. What makes it the hardest is that she is just about flawless with her conformation and temperament.
Spotsnchrome, you wouldn’t happen to have any photos of yours would you? It would be really helpful for me to see what one looks like that is functioning well. Could yours nurse right from the start or did it have trouble? Not sure how bad mine is compared to ones that have made it. It’s so hard to find almost anything about this on the internet as it appears almost all are just euthanized at birth. PM if you wouldn’t mind. I will try to get some pics of our filly tomorrow too.
Still supplementing our filly with a few bottles and am going to fill her up good before bedtime as it’s worrisome when you don’t know how much they are getting from the nursing. She looks like she’s doing decently but I’d hate for her to get dehydrated after how far we’ve come so far. I must say I’m looking forward to an entire night’s sleep tonight though
Thanks for the encouragement everyone!
I have no helpful information, but want to thank you for the wonderful updates and for all you are doing for this filly!! I am So happy to hear she is making progress!! {{{fingers crossed}}} she keeps up with it.
Murph, I sent you a PM
SnC - I was thinking of you when I read this and hoped you would see it!!
I just found this link looks like her foal got the surgery done at 4 months for $5000 not $20000 like some were quoting. Maybe something to look into.
http://www.freewebs.com/spfaridah/
Quick update
Just wanted to post a quick update. Vet was out today and everything is encouraging!
I was concerned with last night being the first night I didn’t go out to bottle feed that she was actually getting enough milk and was hydrated enough and also she’d had some milk out her nose after some feedings and I was worried about aspiration pneumonia. But lungs are clear and her hydration is good. He’s shocked at how well she’s doing
Vet says it’s the most extreme case he’s ever seen but he’s going to send photos to a couple of surgeons for quotes and opinions. He feels the surgery might not be too bad because the deviation is very low, specific and radical (probably pushing 90 degrees), almost like the nose was broken in utero and fixated that way, you can actually feel the crease in the bone, whereas with wry nose typically it’s the whole bone bending all the way down the face. So he thinks they’ll just have to break it there and put a plate in and expects a very successful result and not a high cost. But we’ll see once he gets the quotes in. He’d like it done before she’s 4 weeks old for the best chance of a good result.
It’s extremely hot and humid and buggy here right now (yesterday was 41C/106 F plus almost 100% humidity) so my husband rigged up a huge fan for the stall, it’s like standing in a hurricane LOL. I’ve got the stall on foal cam in the house and often see the filly standing straight on head first to the fan with her little mane blowing and her ears flat out sideways, looks like a plane about to take off 
Not sure I want to horrify anyone with photos just yet, it is a bit shocking to look at, but if the surgery looks like a go I will post before and after pics. Hopefully this might help others in the future that encounter this problem. I’ve been breeding for nearly 30 yrs and had never even heard of this, let alone seen it, and there’s precious little info on the internet.
Oh and we named her Phantom…as in Phantom of the Opera LOL. She’s the color of a ghost and she’s kinda scary to look at but we love her just the same.
Jingling…
Jingling! I am cheering for you and Phantom to make this work.
Oh my goodness. Sounds like the little filly has a great team behind her! Wishing you some good sleep – sounds like it’s been quite the event. Lucky filly to have you!
Jingling and best wishes!
Oh… i am so sorry for you. Jingling from Michigan for you and foal.
I’m late jumping in here, but I have a lovely 3 yr.old gelding named Sidon who we nicknamed Smurf. He was the first foal of my mare and I was shocked when I saw his profile, he was stlll lying down. I was certain that he hadn’t nursed yet, she hadn’t yet bagged and didn’t have any milk. We were uncertain that he would be able to nurse and my vet offered to come out and put him down. Well he was able to nurse even with the deformity, he was healthy and otherwise a beautiful foal.
I went on to the internet since I had never seen nor heard of ‘wry nose’. I contacted Dr. Jim Schumacher http://www.vet.utk.edu/faculty/schumacher_james.php
who has developed a one surgery procedure to repair/remodel the nose. He flew here from TN and along with Dr. Larry Galuppo at UC Davis, they worked on my little guy. There were complications unfortunately, but he is now started under saddle, is carrying a Happy Mouth bit and will be fully rideable.
Please feel free to PM me and call if you would like the details. I’m so happy that I did’t let this lovely guy leave this world 3 yrs. ago.
Top Kat (and any others too) - would you post before and afters for us? I know it isn’t pretty, but as many have just discovered, wry nose is more common than you might imagine and it would be extremely beneficial to see what modern surgery can do to rectify it.
