Lameness in Newborn Foal

[Arzny]

Looking for thoughts:
3 week old colt foal is showing slight lameness in his left hind. Approximately 1 out of 5 steps is not normal. Foal also jumps together behind in canter.

No pain upon palpitation of entire limb. No obvious cuts. No effusion or swelling. Foal is bright and nurses normally. He does not spend more than a normal amount of time laying down.

Temperature has been completely normal since birth.

SSA was slightly elevated at birth and foal did a round of SMZs. SSA was normal at recheck and SMZs discontinued.

SSA is currently elevated (1800). CBC completely normal. Has been started on a course of doxy to address potential joint infections. Foal is also receiving gastroguard and probios.

Dam’s diet is free choice alfalfa, 10 lbs of Triple Crown Senior, and 2 lbs if rice bran a day.

Turnout is out during the day, in a night (approx 7pm to 5am).

I am going to x-ray the entire leg by Wednesday if it does not improve. Anything else that should be considered or someone has experienced?

[NancyM]

Did you check that he got the colostrum? Blood test? If not, I’d start there. Classic cause of lameness in foals.

[Arzny]

@NancyM

Did you check that he got the colostrum? Blood test? If not, I’d start there. Classic cause of lameness in foals.

Sorry, yes. IgG was good.

[Texarkana]

Last year my 3 week old filly developed a mystery lameness in her left shoulder.

She came in from the field slightly punky the first evening with a sudden onset low grade fever. Had the vet out on an emergency call, SAA was slightly elevated, so we started ceftiofur and equioxx.

By morning she was dead lame but with no heat and no swelling or injury. I wasn’t playing “eff around and find out,” so she went straight to the university.

She spent nearly a week there on IV antibiotics. Her SAA went through the roof but despite radiographs and ultrasound of everything, we never did find a lesion or source of the lameness. They wanted to do 4-d tomography or exploratory surgery, but thankfully she turned a corner on abx.

Would it have gotten better or worse treating it on the farm? Who knows. I worked in the NICU of a university vet school (same university) years ago so I don’t like messing around. I know how bad these things can turn quickly.

[Arzny]

Sounds like a similar situation. If I were the only owner the foal would already be at Purdue or in Lexington. .

There was considerable improvement this evenings after having his feet packed. We will see. I’m hoping for a turnaround like your filly!

[Texarkana]

I hope he turns around! It’s frustrating because in my case, we never did figure out the cause. Her only diagnosis was “LF lameness and increased inflammatory markers of unknown etiology.” I don’t know if what we did worked or if she would have improved without as intensive intervention.

But it does sound similar to your horse.

[Arzny]

What IV antibiotic was used? I’m going to bring your experience up with my vet tomorrow.

[Texarkana]

I just pulled up my discharge paperwork. She got ceftiofur on the farm, then was on PPG & amikacin in the hospital. They sent her home on oral azithromycin and rifampin.

Apart from looking dull the first night, she was never sick. She was bright and spunky and nursing well throughout the whole ordeal, just very lame. I forget exactly how many days it took for the lameness to go away entirely, but it wasn’t very long. A week maybe? She was on limited turnout in a small paddock for 2 weeks after discharge, then was cleared to go back to normal foal life. No problems since.

[Arzny]

Good/bad news is that we found a fracture upon imaging. At least we aren’t sick!

[skydy]

Where is the fracture?

[Arzny]

Hip

[Texarkana]

I’m glad you caught it! Good news is babies tend to heal really well. Hard part is convincing them they shouldn’t do zoomies in their stall until then.