Ask your vets about selenium deficiency. I had a colt w/ similar issues who ended up passing away and post mortem it was discovered he had a selenium deficiency (although that wasn’t the only reason he ended up passing away)
Hi DW. Nice to see you posting but sorry that it is for an issue.
Another voice saying tincture of time will help! I had a non-septic filly that took a couple of months to straighten up to her normal stance. Also, I’d love to know what antibiotics she was on. Would you be willing to post them?
Well, DW, it sounds like you’ve been through a lot. In my experience (and I’ve rehabbed SO many of these), they usually correct really well. I’ve splinted and devised other correctional devices for babies with varying degrees of fetlock laxity; many that literally stood on the backs of their fetlocks with their pasterns and feet off the ground, toes pointing to the sky and even more with lesser degrees of hyperextension. And the crazy thing is, once these babies are properly supported, they correct in literally days. I have pictures somewhere, but since I only do this part time right now, I don’t keep them on my main laptop. I’ll try to dig up pics for you, DW.
And, speaking of pics, if you have any of your baby they would be so helpful in giving you some advice and/or reassurance. The cheapest and quickest soft tissue hyperextension or lax tendon fix I ever employed involved a pair of wedge soled flip flops and some duct tape (with a little Elasticon). I’ve also used Lily Pads (the frog support pads for laminitic horses) with some adhesive foam. Sometimes even just a really firm bandage with or without taping the toe and creating a bandage wedge under the heel can make all the difference. I like to buy memory foam mattress padding and cut it into custom bandages. You can make a really bulky bandage and apply it fairly tightly (while the foal is laying down, with the fetlock and pastern flexed) with little to no risk of tissue damage and you’ll get more support from memory foam and vet rap than from regular cotton. I’ve seen miraculous results with little investment.
I’ve also used Dynasplints for the really severe cases and they do work where other supportive devices like static splints and casts would not. Dynasplints can prop a foal up physically with hinged tension, still allowing for joint movement in the correct direction. The key to helping these cases is getting them “up” so that their body weight isn’t applying destructive and unnatural forces to a deformed joint without immobilizing them. The tissues strengthen best when used in as near a normal fashion as possible and may weaken more if not allowed to move and function. Also, I believe that creating slack in the hyperextended tissues allows the body to more quickly find its correct collagen equilibrium and it does this best under weight bearing and motion.
Unfortunately, Dynasplint no longer has a veterinary division. And even if they did, there’s no rep in your area and the laxity splints are not at all simple to fit. But, if you need them, I can try to get them for you, set them up myself and then ship them on to you with photos and instructions. Honestly, the splint I used to use on severely lax foals was a human elbow splint, so those are still available. I’ve played around over the years with the idea of doing my own thing in equine dynamic splinting. Maybe that time has come.
I’ll go look for those pictures and in the meantime, if you have any of your baby maybe I can walk you through applying something temporary and supportive. Really, the flip flop and lily pad applications are too good to be true. The sooner you get the bodyweight properly distributed, the sooner the problem can correct itself.
You asked whether it’s too soon to say that she will have longterm soundness issues. My gut says yes, it’s too soon, but I’m not there. Have they mentioned crushing of the sesamoids or other injury as a result of her laxity? A big concern with these is foot/P3 loading, which is essential to normal, healthy bone structure and foot function later on. If she has yet to bear weight on the sole of her hoof, her hoof walls haven’t expanded, her soles and frog and sensitive lamina aren’t perfusing properly, she probably still has a pointy little brand new baby toe…they just need to weight bear on the sole of the foot ASAP, but at 8 days or so, IME, you’re still okay as long as there aren’t devastating bone or soft tissue injuries.
They have looked at her sesamoids, hocks, suspensories and all seem fine. The kinesiologist fitted her with some elastikon/theraband yesterday but it didnt help much. I think she’s a tiny bit less floppy but it will just take time. Let me see if I can link a picture, not sure if I am premium member any more
Oh, Deltawave, I have no helpful info for you just jingles. I forget what thread it was a long time ago that several of us were accused of being your “minions.” I added that to my siggy line because I was proud to be a Minion 'O Deltawave!
[QUOTE=deltawave;7554607]
They have looked at her sesamoids, hocks, suspensories and all seem fine. The kinesiologist fitted her with some elastikon/theraband yesterday but it didnt help much. I think she’s a tiny bit less floppy but it will just take time. Let me see if I can link a picture, not sure if I am premium member any more[/QUOTE]
You can email it to me if necessary. Laurierace@aol.com
[QUOTE=deltawave;7554607]
They have looked at her sesamoids, hocks, suspensories and all seem fine. The kinesiologist fitted her with some elastikon/theraband yesterday but it didnt help much. I think she’s a tiny bit less floppy but it will just take time. Let me see if I can link a picture, not sure if I am premium member any more[/QUOTE]
Even better, put the pics on a sharing site like Smile or Webshots or one of those. The problem with Premium COTH photos is that they are just thumbnails, so can be hard to see.
JACKIE BLUE…I don’t have foals this year, but if you could explain or illustrate what you are talking about with the Lily Pads/Flip Flops, that would be SO awesome…what a great education for all us breeders!
Kyzteke - I’d be happy to. I think pictures and/or diagrams would be the easiest way to explain how to apply the “cheap fixes”, so I’ll get to work on them. :yes:
imgur.com is good for quick and simple photo uploads.
How are things going, DW? Sending jingles for you all!
Hey, Jackie Blue, in case no one else has said it, you are loved in the max. :yes::yes::yes:
Hi Deltawave, hope your filly is doing ok … and you too 
[QUOTE=Home Again Farm;7555617]
Hey, Jackie Blue, in case no one else has said it, you are loved in the max. :yes::yes::yes:[/QUOTE]
You would love her even more if you met her in person! I wish I could find the pic she took of my colt with my Pom sitting on his back. We were entertaining ourselves while she slaved away in zillion degree heat splinting him.
Oh, HAF and Laurie, you’re just too sweet! Thanks so much for the kind words. I think the world of both of you, too!
I have nothing to add, but just wanted to say that I am wishing you all the best with your filly!!
All the best wishes to you Deltawave.
I’m sure JB can help. :yes:
A few pictures of hind limb laxity cases I’ve dealt with and 2 pictures of horses (one baby and one adult) in distal limb laxity splints.
The dark filly (AngloTrak) in the first link is a great example of what can happen when lower limb laxity is ignored and “wished better”. Sometimes they do come up on their own. Sometimes the tissues tighten up, but with the joints in very undesirable positions or alignments. This filly was initially very lax from the fetlock on down and as time went by the fetlocks just “froze” in a hyperflexed position while all joints below remained loose and unstable.
DWs baby is a Cybaby, so I’ve been following Sabrina closely on FB. I hesitate to post any pics, but the latest pics I saw, she most closely resembles the colt in Case A. I believe she’s 9 or 10 days old now, she was up when first born and I believe about 36-48 hrs. crashed and ended up at Mich. State and was down for a few days.
So, she’s just started feeling better enough to try to get up around the last couple of days.
His foals do tend to leggy and some have been born with some wonkiness (just not even room in-utero!) but up to now, all have straightened out on their own with no ill effects.
JB, what role would/could the antibiotics play in the laxity at this point? Obviously, you have to have a live foal before you can worry laxity, but could they have made it so it will take longer for her to come up?
Come on Sabrina, you clearly are a fighter!!
DWs baby is a Cybaby, so I’ve been following Sabrina closely on FB. I hesitate to post any pics, but the latest pics I saw, she most closely resembles the colt in Case A. I believe she’s 9 or 10 days old now, she was up when first born and I believe about 36-48 hrs. crashed and ended up at Mich. State and was down for a few days.
So, she’s just started feeling better enough to try to get up around the last couple of days.
His foals do tend to leggy and some have been born with some wonkiness (just not even room in-utero!) but up to now, all have straightened out on their own with no ill effects.
JB, what role would/could the antibiotics play in the laxity at this point? Obviously, you have to have a live foal before you can worry laxity, but could they have made it so it will take longer for her to come up?
Come on Sabrina, you clearly are a fighter!!
If the foal was given oxytetracycline (or anything in the tetracycline family, possibly), normal collagen organization could have been negatively impacted. Oxytetracycline is known to make the ligaments and tendons of foals more susceptible to elongation under weight bearing. That’s why it’s given to foals with the opposite abnormality - tendon and ligament contracture. IOW, Oxytet would more than likely exacerbate this filly’s condition.
