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  Discussion on 3 week old foal with contracted tendons
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New Member:
Huntfox

Posted on Monday, Jul 4, 2005 - 11:04 am:

Hello group. I have joined in desperation. I have a 3 week old foal with contracted front tendons. He is growing but doesn't seem to be getting stronger in the legs. He is straighter from the casting we have done but still very weak. His rear fetlocks are on the ground as they have been since birth. They are swollen and raw even though they have been wrapped and padded. I need some suggestions from others who have had this problem before I go insane and get more depressed. He has a good attitude and eats well. Supplementing with goats milk often through out the day until 10 or 11 at night. He gets up to nurse but the stress of his anguish is taking it's toll on me. He has such a strong will to live. We have castrated the left side to fix a hernia and operated on the umbilical cord stump to stop that leakage. He is getting daily enema, 1 cc bantamine oral, 1 turn of paste Tribressen and 110 lb dose of gastro-guard once daily with the Tribressen given at night as well. I was wondering if swimming would help the tendons strengthen. And how much exercise he needs if any. Please help. Thanks so much. Dene Masengill, TN
Member:
Eoeo

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005 - 12:04 pm:

We had the down pasterns in the back with our orphan this year. We gave him 2 ccs of selenium, we are very deficient in that. Selenium should help get the pasterns up. Keep him confined. I believe wrapping the pasterns themselves to support them are counter productive. Do try to keep his feet and pasterns, if they are raw too, wrapped for protection. It took our colt 6 weeks to get up enough to finally not have his heels bleed. It was very discouraging along the way. I will try to get a picture of him now, he was born in March and we had to go through 3 nurse mares before we got the right one for him. That didn't help his nutrition situation. Just hang in there, it will come about. You say he has contracted tendons, are those in the knees or where? Tetracycline helps those relax. You have to give gastrogaard to keep his stomach from getting ulcerated if you use that. EO
Member:
Redalert

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005 - 2:57 pm:

Hey Dene
I also know about the use of Tetracycline for the relaxation of contracted tendons, however, in your current situation of pasterns on the ground in back, the use of Tetracycline might make those worse. Your vet will know, AND there is a small window of opportunity of the use of this drug, and I fear your foal is beyond that. I bet this is a very frustrating problem for you ... as keeping the youngster confined is best for the relaxed pasterns, and, yet, being out for free movement is best for contracted tendons! I guess you go with taking care of the worst one at first, and then addressing the second worst! HOWEVER, I have had some really contracted tendons in foals that got better with time, and some, that when the Tetracycline was administered, became so relaxed that the foal then had to be kept up for a week or two. SO GLAD to hear that you are also covering this foal with Gastrogard, too. I'll be following your posts, with best wishes on all your efforts!
Nancy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005 - 3:00 pm:

Hello Dene,
The place to start is with, Equine Diseases » Lameness » Muscle & Tendon Diseases » Tendon Laxity and Contracture. Here you will find an article and many already existing discussions. You can repost your history and other questions there. No, swimming will not strengthen the lax flexor tendons, only weight bearing will do that, but considering the limits on this foals mobility it might be good exercise all things considered. If you are getting sores despite wrapping you are not wrapping well enough and you must use much more padding and he is not on soft enough bedding.
DrO
New Member:
Huntfox

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005 - 3:51 pm:

Hello group. Thank you so much for you advice. Since I posted yesterday I talked to my friend Dr. Steve Adair from the UT Vet school about this. He suggested that I put an acrylic shoe on the baby with a 3 inch trailer out the back and 1" side stabilizers for the support of the pasterns sideways. I spent yesterday at the band saw shaping a show out of an old walking horse pad. I strapped it on with vet wrap and the colt seemed to like that a lot. The back legs will need 6" trailers I imagine but at least I'm on to some track. Ideally the farrier will put some kind of acrylic shoe and trailer on. The problem I see with this is when the colt lays down the trailer stick in to him. Dr. Oglesby how do you suggest I wrap his pasterns? I have him wrapped in Kling wrap and then vet-wrap. He is on rubber mats and 4" of shavings. His joints have raw spots and they are full of fluid and swollen. I take the bandages off and massage the joints and that seems to help with the fluid. We are doing physical therapy on him by flexing his knee joint for a count of 10 and then relaxing doing this 5 or 6 reps each leg as often as we are in the stall. What about selenium? How do you give it. Shot or oral and is 2 cc's the dose and how often. I did try the Tetrecycline at birth and 2 more times afterwards. I feel better and I'm not nearly as depressed as I was yesterday. Thank you all again for your advice and support. Dene
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 6, 2005 - 7:59 am:

I don't think the selenium would be of much help Dene. Certainly supplement if your think vet believes the horse is deficient but this is not a common presentation nor is it likely to be responsive to it, for more see Care for Horses » Nutrition » Selenium in Horses.

Rather than Kling I would use thicker pieces of roll cotton, which is a bit softer, and held in place with cotton gauze holding it in place, and then the vet wrap. It is hard to beat soft pine shavings but be sure they are clean and not packed tight.
DrO
New Member:
Huntfox

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 6, 2005 - 12:12 pm:

Thank you Dr. for the advice. I will switch to the cotton roll and gauze with the vet wrap. If you don't feel the selenium is of benefit I won't use it. Actually he seems to be making progress in the pastern area (front) still down behind. Now I have a left knee that is buckling out to the left as well as forward from the contraction. Would it be of help to you if I sent pictures over? And if so what address the one here? Thanks again for your help. Dene
Member:
Eoeo

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 6, 2005 - 1:38 pm:

Dr. O, if the selenium wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't it be alright for him to give him 2 ccs?
Who knows, it just might help. They are looking for something to turn this around and it just might. We have given this amount to ours before with no adverse effects. EO
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jul 7, 2005 - 6:45 am:

It really depends LKR, selenium in excess can be quite toxic and the total selenium intake would be the amount the foal is getting from the milk plus the amount from the injection. What is the concentration of the injection you are using? The main thing is that tendon contracture is not a symptom of selenium deficiency nor is it responsive to selenium administration. When you consider the thousands of things you could do that "would not do harm" I don't see a good reason to pick this one.

Yes I think photos would give us a better idea of what is going on Dene and you can post them directly into this discussion using the "Upload Attachment" button. The photos need to be on your computer, either jpeg or gif format, and less than 64K in size.
DrO
Member:
botchi

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 7:47 am:

Can you treat a 2 week foal with moderate contracture with Oxytetrocycline? If so what is the dose for that?
New Member:
babychop

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 10:28 am:

Yes, you can effectively, my yearling is proof. I'll attempt to upload some photos of him at birth & again more recent. He had one dose when he was about that age, I'm a believer. [URL=https://pets.webshots.com/photo/2885868400033444488CgqBxU][IMG]https://inlinethumb13.webshots.com/11468/2885868400033444488S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
And here he is last October [URL=https://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2891319340033444488KjnZqo][IMG]https://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/18264/2891319340033444488S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Member:
botchi

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 11:17 am:

Nice baby!

That is about exactly where my colt is. He was treated with Oxytet but I questioned the dose. It (to me was a different (diluted color)). The vet (new vet) said "well it sometimes does that if the bottle is exposed to sunlight". That means - to me - that the medication is deactivated and not as strong. Especially if it is in a sunresistant bottle and has since changed color.
Here is his page after one shot. Scroll to bottom.
https://bryantfarm.com/Rouczar.htm
Member:
babychop

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 1:09 pm:

My vet tells me that when the foal is a tad older several treatments may be necessary. The quicker you get on it the better. He also had me wrap his legs with polo wraps which helped support the tendons & keep him at stall rest for about a month. Oh, and thank you, my "bubba" has my heart ~ I think he's a cracking colt. Good luck, I think the key here is to act quickly.
Member:
babychop

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 1:35 pm:

Just noticed the link ~ he's a cutie! He doesn't look as bad as my guy was but is a bit over at the knee? Bubba was straight up & down & very over at the knee. In any case, if you're not completely satisfied with your vet's opinioin get a second opinion, it may be that your vet isn't as familiar with the treatment as another may be. A friend of mine has this issue with her vet who has gone holistic & refuses to treat in this fashion. I love my vets, I'm very fortunate to have them, give Dr. Grove a buzz at https://www.creeksidevets.net/index-3.html He can take a look at your photos & give you his thoughts on it. I've always been thrilled with his care.
Member:
babychop

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 1:36 pm:

Ahem, excuse me, I meant opinion. Shame on me - where's spell check when you need it
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 8:40 pm:

Welcome back Denise,
We have an article on assessing and treating contracted tendons in foal including an explanation of the tetracycline treatment. You can check it our at Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Muscle & Tendon Diseases » Tendon Laxity and Contracture.
DrO
PS, Denise instead of interrupting other discussions you should start your own by using the "Start a New Discussion" button of each list of discussions. For more on this see, Help & Information on Using This Site » Posting Guidelines or where did my post go?.
Member:
botchi

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 8:52 pm:

The last post on the thread was 2005 so I didn't think I was "interrupting". Their scenario was similar to mine and so I thought to just add to that one - especially that it was 3 years old.
Won't happen again.....
New Member:
wowise

Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 1:49 pm:

We have a two week old foal with fluid on both front knees. We turned the mare and foal out with more mares and foals, when the foal was three days old and he ran more than we wanted. As a result he has fluid on his knees. How can we treat him?
Thank you,
Mary Wiseman
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jun 1, 2008 - 11:52 am:

Hello Mary and welcome,
There are many conditions that could present as fluid on the knees expecially in a new born colt. The fluid could be in the joints themselves, represent an out-pouching of the joint capsule, or be outside the joints in the tissues between the joint capsule and the skin. Each of these might have a different treatment as no only the location significant but the cause of the swelling in each location might effect the particular therapy. Certainly a first step might be rest and pressure wrapping but this should be done with the approval and possibly supervision of your veterinarian.

There is one condition that your situation does resemble, bilateral common digital extensor rupture a fairly common problem that presents with acute swelling on the front of the knees of foals. For more on this and other conditions of the knees see, Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Diseases of the Upper Front Limb » Overview of Lameness of the Knee (Carpus).
DrO
PS Mary in the future you should post questions about your horses in a New Discussion rather than at the bottom of someone else's discussion. You will find the New Discussion button for each topic at the bottom of the list of already existing discussions.
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