Windswept Foal

[avezan]

I had a filly born Wednesday night that is windswept. She is fully mature, but her hocks both point to the right. I always thought the term windswept was for pre-mature or dysmature foals. But my vet told me she was windswept when she came to do the IgG. Her front legs are perfect. Her left hind pastern was very low when she was born, but the right pastern is fine. In the 3 days since she has been born, the right hock is much more stable now, and the left pastern has come up quite a bit so that she is walking correctly on that little hoof. The left hock is still pretty wobbly, and when she stands still for long enough (she doesn’t stand still much!) both hocks will eventually swing to the right.

So, how do you handle windswept foals? I had mare and foal in a 12x36 “stall” (boy, that’s fun to clean!) for the first 24 hours. Friday evening I turned them out in a 60’ roundpen with grass in the middle for about 1.5 hours. Saturday morning I turned them out again for another 1.5 hours. Saturday evening it was raining and this morning it is raining, so they will stay in their large stall.

What are your experiences? I’m hoping this will resolve with “theraputic neglect” but my vet had mentioned splits and special shoes. (This is my farm vet and not a repro vet, so I would not do anything so drastic without consulting specialists) I know there are 2 schools of thought, one says keep them confined to not stress the joints and the other says turn them out to strengthen the joints. The filly can get plenty of exercise in her big stall, and loves to run around in the round pen. I’m not ready to turn them out in the pasture yet, because I don’t want her to get too tired.

By the way, her legs are super long. When standing straight, her hocks are higher than her dam’s. The vet said the windswept condition is from lying funny in the womb.

I would love to hear your experiences. Thanks!

[not_again]

Not to worry! I’ve had a couple and they grew up to be perfect. In my experience we limit turnout to avoid damaging the growth plates when the little one gets tired, just like you are doing. We also get busy with the farrier checking and rasping uneven wear on the hind hoofs very soon and frequently to avoid joint damage. You are observant and pro-active–all will turn out fine!

Oh! And my super good massage person has a hands-on check every couple of weeks too!

[Laurierace]

I would keep doing as you are doing and add Foal Aide or Rejuvenade drench to make sure she gets the vitamins and minerals that she need.

[Horsecrazy27]

Sounds like your doing things perfect. I had 2 that were windswept–all turned out perfect with no special shoes or surgerys.

[Overo]

We have a filly this year who was born windswept to the left. She’s 2 weeks old and already much straighter with no special treatment.

[amdfarm]

My stallion was a windswept baby and he grew up perfectly fine. He was raised on pasture and this left no ill effects. It took a month or two before he was completely straightened up and had no problems getting up and down or running and playing.

I’m sure she’ll be fine.

[cherham]

I would not worry…these foals can look just aweful as if their legs will never straighten up but with a little time nature seems to take care of it. They just need moderate excercise at this early stage and time to let their legs get stronger. In a years time you will never know there was anything wrong

[avezan]

Thanks!

Thanks for all the reassurance! Here are a few pics.
How long do you think she should have restricted turnout? How long does it usually take to straighten up? I realize there is probably a huge variance here. She LOVES to run, and does it in her stall as well as the round pen. Her legs are not slowing her down a bit.

Laurierace, I use Progressive Nutrition. When I talked to my sales rep, she suggested putting the filly on rejuvenade at day 5. I’m just wondering why extra supplementation is necessary if this is not a nutritional issue? (It had better not be or PN has some explaining to do!) I don’t want to overcorrect anything, but if it will help, I could give it a try.

Thanks again!

[inca]

My now yearling filly has nice straight legs. She was a MESS when she was born. Windswept AND a terribly crooked front leg. We kept her in a 12x24 stall for 3 or 4 weeks and I also did put her on Rejuvenaide. Had the farrier start looking at her feet much earlier than normal. You would never, ever guess she was born with anything other than straight legs.

My vet actually wanted to keep her in longer but I just couldn’t stand it. But, we did really monitor her after putting her on full turnout to make sure her legs were not getitng worse.

My vet also wanted me to have the stripping surgery on the front leg at 3 months but I am so glad I got other opinions and opted to wait. Her leg was 90% better at that point and now it is perfectly straight.

Cute foal, by the way! Try not to worry and let mother nature take care of it.

[Laurierace]

[QUOTE=avezan;3158423]
Thanks for all the reassurance! Here are a few pics.
How long do you think she should have restricted turnout? How long does it usually take to straighten up? I realize there is probably a huge variance here. She LOVES to run, and does it in her stall as well as the round pen. Her legs are not slowing her down a bit.

Laurierace, I use Progressive Nutrition. When I talked to my sales rep, she suggested putting the filly on rejuvenade at day 5. I’m just wondering why extra supplementation is necessary if this is not a nutritional issue? (It had better not be or PN has some explaining to do!) I don’t want to overcorrect anything, but if it will help, I could give it a try.

Thanks again![/QUOTE]

I don’t know the science behind it, but I will never have a foal without supplementation again. That stuff works miracles.

[Sugarbrook]

I had one. He turned out just fine. He was full term and looked like a normal large pony foal. My vet had me give him as much turnout as possible.

[fish]

[QUOTE=avezan;3158423]
Thanks for all the reassurance! Here are a few pics.
How long do you think she should have restricted turnout? How long does it usually take to straighten up? I realize there is probably a huge variance here. She LOVES to run, and does it in her stall as well as the round pen. Her legs are not slowing her down a bit.

Laurierace, I use Progressive Nutrition. When I talked to my sales rep, she suggested putting the filly on rejuvenade at day 5. I’m just wondering why extra supplementation is necessary if this is not a nutritional issue? (It had better not be or PN has some explaining to do!) I don’t want to overcorrect anything, but if it will help, I could give it a try.

Thanks again![/QUOTE]

If you check the NRC requirements for foals, you will see that whenever there is a growth spurt, demands for certain vitamins and minerals rise disproportionately to other basic requirements (e.g., calories). Rejuvenade is designed to meet these perfectly normal but fluctuating demands. In addition, the composition of mares’ milk and forage can vary dramatically from mare to mare, field to field, year to year, etc. Consequently, nutritional issues can arise despite the best designed commercial program, with the only way to be close to certain of foals’ nutritional status being to analyze all the components of the diet. E.g. this year I had my mare’s milk analyzed and sent to Progressive Nutrition because my colt was going over at the knee. The analysis showed 50% below normal levels of Cu and Zn, 20% below normal Ca and Mg. My colt’s supplements (and turn out) have been adjusted accordingly, including a doubling of the usual Rejuvenade.

[Horsecrazy27]

Any link to some info on this rejuvenade? I just found bass tournament stuff…would love to read about it.

[fish]

[QUOTE=Horsecrazy27;3158812]
Any link to some info on this rejuvenade? I just found bass tournament stuff…would love to read about it. :)[/QUOTE]

Sorry-- we’ve been misspelling it. It’s RejuvenaIde.
Here’s a link to the Progressive Nutrition site. Scroll down and you’ll find it under the product for foals: www.prognutrition.com/EquineProducts.htm

[avezan]

Rejuvenaide is definitely good stuff. It is how I found PN in the first place. I had a foal with mild physitis last year and people on this board recommended rejuvenaide and it worked! The PN rep recommended analyzing the mare’s milk too. Thanks for all the suggestions!

[ljshorses]

Definitely in favor of Rejuvenaide. Have begun using it this year. As for turnout, it really depends on the severity of the windsweptness. I have a slightly windswept one, who I kept in a small paddock attached to stall with mom for almost a week. Within that time he is now almost all the way straight. He now goes out with mom with regular turnout during the day with rest of herd (other mares and foals) but still in a small “quiet area” at night. I think turnout is very important but it has to be appropiate for the condition and severity. Moving helps strengthen the tendons and ligaments, but since they are babies and have to work harder at everything when they are windswept, you really have to watch they don’t get overly tired out.

So depending on your turnout situation (whether mom can make sure he gets adequate rest breaks without running him ragged), severity of condition (mild cases actually benefit with exercise more quickly than restricting), and careful monitoring of foals overall condition are very important. We have also over the years for these guys, rasped hooves as needed to assure straightness. Since I am a farrier, it makes it easy for me to do it as often as needed, but it can sometimes be hard to get a farrier out to do work on a very young one. Make sure if you need this extra help, that you use a farrier familiar with trimming and correcting babies. You’d be surprised how many are not familiar with it nor do they feel comfortable about doing it. Best wishes and gorgeous foal!

[Rocky_XVI]

We had a dysmature foal born last year that was much, much worse than what I see in your pictures, Avezan. He spent 10 days in intesive care at the equine hospital, then was outside at least 12 hours a day (we have coyotes and wild dogs in the area, so I don’t leave the babies out at night).

At first I thought, “what a mess!” but gradually he began to straighten up and became more and more “normal” with each passing month.

[system]

Windswept Foal

Hi everyone,

I also had a foal born this year that was diagnose as severly windswept. She is now 6 days old and is still very bad. she has straightened up a lot but my vet (and I also had 2 other vets out for 2nd and 3rd opinions) is referring her to the surgery department of the Equine hospital. They have seen the pics and are not even sure they can save her. Has anyone had a surgical success?(of the hip) thanks in advance.

[system]

I just had a belgian foal born Sunday (big baby) who is windswept. I’ve never had a “windswept”. He was down in front legs and very windswept in back. His front legs are getting stronger and have straightened pretty well but his back legs are still really wobbly. He still can’t get up by himself. I have been getting him up every two hours to nurse. He tries and it gets better each time but I’m concerned about his inability to get up on his own. How long will it take for him to get up unassisted?

[amdfarm]

@RockingBRBelgians;3276246

I just had a belgian foal born Sunday (big baby) who is windswept. I’ve never had a “windswept”. He was down in front legs and very windswept in back. His front legs are getting stronger and have straightened pretty well but his back legs are still really wobbly. He still can’t get up by himself. I have been getting him up every two hours to nurse. He tries and it gets better each time but I’m concerned about his inability to get up on his own. How long will it take for him to get up unassisted?

I would give him a few days to figure things out and get stronger on those wobbly legs. If he’s able to walk around some after he’s up and nursing, it should help him out. He can’t get stronger if he’s down all of the time. If he’s not improved by the end of the week, a call to the vet probably wouldn’t hurt. Ours, Percherons, have always managed to get up and down after that first initial standing and wandering (looking for the milk bar) sessions.

Good luck!