[QUOTE=avezan;3157866]
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![/QUOTE]
I had this same problem, and it bothered me a lot, but the foal did just fine and grew up and won in hand classes on the line at BIG shows!! PM me and I’ll show you a pic of him a few hours old and windswept. Prepare yourself for a HUGE horse… windswept babies usually grow into very large horses (my experience) They have LONG legs that were folded up in the womb. Anyway, the more your baby can be let out with his mom the better off you are. She needs to get strength in those legs, but I wouldn’t put her out all night and day, and never in mud until she is not wobbling around anymore. I was scared to death to put my colt out, but once he was out daily and running around he improved very quickly. We put him and mommy in a smaller paddock alone for the first few weeks.
Don’t worry with the splints and braces. Give it a month outside and I bet you’ll be amazed how much better she is!
Is it possible for your vets at CSU to consult w/ a larger vet, like UC Davis that may have more experience w/ this problem.