Pneumonia in foals, any experience?

My April 2010 colt, Cody, has been hospitalized with pneumonia. The vets are baffled because he’s gone downhill so fast (normal bloods friday night, disaster yesterdat morning). One lung has abcesses, the other is full of fluid, and there is fluid around his lungs as well.

They’ve never seen pleuropneumonia in a foal his age (6 weeks). We are waiting on cultures (probably tomorrow night od Wed morning) to see what bacteria it is, but for now he is on large spectrum antibiotics. They don’t feel that is it rhodococcus by what they’ve seen so far.

They cannot give me a prognosis, because they have no idea what is going on. Would love to hear any experiences. He is still nursing, eating hay, sampling mom’s grain.

Thanks!

Not a foal but I did have a horse with pleuritis. They gave me a 50/50 chance that she would make it. I think the key is to hit upon the right antibiotic asap which is sounds like you are doing. My mare recovery fully. Jingling for a good outcome.

Search for a thread by LMH on her foal’s pneumonia ordeal.

He is the right age for rhodococcus and the lung abcesses are consistent. If you do a google search for pleurisy and rhodococcus you will find many papers in which pleurisy was found with rhodococcus. If it were my foal, I would insist that ANY antibiotic they choose will also treat rhodococcus. Just in case. Rifampin and azithromax together was the usual (and expensive) choice when my foal had it (and was INITIALLY MISDIAGNOSED) . I was lucky she didn’t die because that vet, too, didn’t feel it was rhodococcus.

What she said AND insist they test for Lawsonia. Extremely similar symptoms - especially the lesions.

GracefulHano - it might also help if you provide some info re: this broodmare’s history… I know you think this is unrelated but it might not be.

This same mare had a foal in 2006 who got suspected rhodococus about 6 weeks post weaning. Very different presentation, he had the ‘intestinal’ version of it. Diarrhea, weight loss, anorexia, etc. It took over a week for the meds to be changed from Penicillin to Erythromycin and rifampin. He died approx 9 weeks after he was weaned. Foaled and raised on a different farm. The same farm had a confirm rhodococcus foal in 2008.

In 2008, the same mare lost her colt at 2 weeks of age to suspected clostridia. Fever started around 8pm, and he passed away about 18 hours later despite metronidazole, IV fluids, etc.

Yes, we HAVE gotten a live foal out of her. She lives in the US. I think it is just pure bad luck.

We will have cultures back tomorrow. They are really not convinced it is rhodococcus, but they are considering it. His nasal discharge is what seems to have them stumped. It’s very watery and brown with blood clots in it

I have had one. Two years ago. When we shipped the mare and foal to the equine facility (Thank you Dr. Cory Miller and Dr. Barry David) it was bad. They did not bother to do tests, they immediately started treating him for Rhodococcus. Thank God they were correct. “Foal” is now two and just perfect thanks to my vet jumping onboard and the Equine Facility Of Ocala knowing what they were doing. Time is of the essence.

[QUOTE=GracefulHano;4911261]
His nasal discharge is what seems to have them stumped. It’s very watery and brown with blood clots in it[/QUOTE]

:cry: Poor little man…!

Sending all kinds of jingles and good thoughts/strength to you and Allie. I hope he pulls through. A friends yearling has Lawsonia last year and ended up at UC Davis. He revocered just fine. Another friend had has rhodococous at her place and they pulled though…so think positive!

Please keep us posted. I can only imagine how stressed out you must be.

{{{HUGS}}} and jingles as well

Hopefully you have caught it in time and he is well on the road to recovery already …

OMG…good luck. A simple ultrasound should confirm or rule out rhodococcus…
I’ve had it and beaten it twice…but caught it early both times…went straight to the azithromyzian/rifampin protocol with supportive probiotics and air conditioning here in hot FL.
Never had a straght pneumonia…nor any nasal discharge. Our fever never topped 103…I just heard a slight "rumbling’ in his throat and immediately called thre vet and INSISTED on an ultrasound…which confirmed it.
Thank God I’ve never had clostridium, but have had friends loose foals to it…it’s horrible, epecially when you realize a tube of biosponge early on may have saved them!!!
I’m so sorry…hope he pulls through.

Many many JINGLES from our farm to your little one.

I had one last year. Foal began coughing, and got worse quickly. We took her to UC Davis immediately. She had very rough lung sounds, nasal discharge, and was essentially in respiratory distress. She was 30 days old.

She was put on antibiotics, and treated aggressively. Long story short, after about 7 days in ICU, she came home. It was a LONG road. She had good and bad days for about a month, and I tried to stay realistic about her chance of survival. Thankfully she pulled through. It was probably four months until she could exercise, and breathe normally. The cause of her pneumonia ended up being a congenital defect (not cleft palate) that caused her to aspirate. I would be perfectly happy if I NEVER had to go through that nightmare again.

My advice is NOT to cut corners, treat it right, the first time… foals go downhill fast, and pneumonia is not something to mess around with. Good luck, and sending jingles!

[QUOTE=GracefulHano;4911261]
This same mare had a foal in 2006 who got suspected rhodococus about 6 weeks post weaning. His nasal discharge is what seems to have them stumped. It’s very watery and brown with blood clots in it[/QUOTE]
Poor little guy. I hope you get to the bottom of his illness.

FYI
There has been research that indicates a mare who has one foal with rhodococcus has a higher chance of having another with it. If I remember correctly this was regardless of whether the mare was at the same facility or not. In our case, we gave at birth an IV to create rhodococcus immunity to the next foals from the mare that had the foal with rhodococcus. The mare was foaling living in a totally different situation.

clostridium, lawsonia and rhodococcus are extremely difficult to tell apart without cultures.

Here’s jingling for him.

Would love an update on your baby.

He’s on the road to recovery! The vet is very pleased with his progress. He is starting to try and play with the techs, and the fluid around his lungs and heart is gone. No fever for 24 hrs!

They isolated the bacteria, it’s streptococcus. Sensitive to a lot of different antibiotics. They will switch his anitbiotics to something I can give at home. Xrays will be repeated on Monday, and if there is improvement, they will begin to think about when he can go home. 10 days-2weeks she figures.

We also spoke at length about the mare’s foal history, and she feels it is totally unrelated. It’s still the end of her breeding career. I’m not that adventurous!

I’ll be going to visit him this weekend!

Oh HAPPY dance!!!

It’s so heartbreaking to hear of the wee ones being sick!

chants pictures…pictures…pictures!!!

Another happy dance from up north. What a worry when the youngsters are sick. You have to be so vigilant to notice changes quickly. So glad things are clearing up.

So glad you caught it quickly! :slight_smile: