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Discussion on Various degrees of maladjustment synDrOme?
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Member:
lbystrom
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Posted on Tuesday, Jul 10, 2007 - 5:54 pm:
Hi Dr. O:
When our vet was out today, we had him check 'Elliott'...a 4 month old, quarter horse colt, who to me, seems like he's deaf. We did witness his uneventful birth back in March...the mare cleaned fine, and placenta was delivered intact....they've bonded well, however, I've never heard this colt nicker or whinny. His dam is 24 years old. He's been slow to grow, and just over the past couple weeks has been interested in hay....no grain interest as of yet. He's out with other weanlings, and is pretty much treated like the skinny kid at the beach, getting sand kicked at him. Elliott's dentation is currently that of maybe a one month old.
The other day, I took the clippers out, and trimmed his bridle path, without a halter (this was a first trim)....he didn't offer to move away. Even trimmed long ear hairs with the clippers, and that didn't bother him either.
When the vet observed him today, I clapped my hands loudly over his poll area, and the vet said, 'Hmmmmmmmm.....I don't know....I do know that most breeders would give their right arm for a colt this quiet though!' Special needs or not, he's a keeper, but our vet had not heard of nor ever seen a case of deafness in a quarter horse. Have you? In reading about maladjustment synDrOme, some pieces fit. Maybe I should quit questioning it, and just enjoy an extremely quiet colt!
Lynn
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 6:54 am:
No Lynn,
I cannot remember having diagnosed deafness in a horse but your horse sounds like a candidate.
DrO
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Member:
canter
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 7:50 am:
I'm just curious, Lynn. Do you ever see your colt's ears turn and swivel as things go on around him? If his ears are consistently still, I wonder if that doesn't help confirm your thoughts that he may be deaf?
Just a thought. I hope he's fine and just a wonderfully calm little guy.
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Member:
amara
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 8:24 am:
we had an older draft horse that was deaf... tho i dont know if he had it all his life or if it was a more recent synDrOme... it was never fully diagnosed till i met him when he was about 17.. the vet didnt have any true scientific testing procedures but when we shook the grain can just out of his sight he made absolutely no response... guess that was good enough for him to label him deaf!
good luck with your boy.. we had absolutely no problems with the deaf horse, as long as we made sure he could see us as we approached... he was a great street horse!
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Member:
lbystrom
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 8:27 am:
Thank you for your reply Dr. O.
As for ear swiveling, yes, they do move, but it doesn't appear purposeful as to noises that should alert a youngster. I guess I thought if he was hearing impaired, that he'd be flighty, as opposed to so calm. Who knows? I appreciate your input, Fran. Thank you.
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Member:
canyon28
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 1:01 pm:
There are some crop out quarter horses that were born deaf, the most famous of these is Gunner an NRHA world champion. He has an apron face marking, with the white coming over almost all of his entire head. He was originally registered as APHA, but now is also AQHA since the white rule was done away with. I understand that this unusual amount of white on the head is diagnostic for deafness.
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Member:
canyon28
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 1:26 pm:
I also have a foal this year that is somewhat malajusted and very quiet, but he has been diagnosed as a partial dummy foal. I now have him and his dam seperated from the other mares and foals because he was being beat up on and was not getting enough nursing time or other time to eat and was somewhat thin and not thriving as well as he could. He is about 6 weeks old and is a little small for his age(which may be normal for him, his sire was a small horse and his full brother is also pretty small, since they are all cutting breeding) and a little thin, but seems to be coming out of it as time passes. He is very quiet and laid back, nothing bothers him, and I can do anything with him. We recently did a blood work up on him and found really nothing wrong with the blood, and I had also had a igg snap test done about 12 hours after he was born, and it was greater than 800. My vet did another one with blood this weekend and I havent gotten the results back yet. I did have to bottle feed him that first night, because he was pretty unsteady on his feet and couldnot seem to latch on to the teat for more than a couple of seconds. I just bottle fed him the mares colostrum until the next morning, when I saw that he was strong enough at that time to be nursing on his own. I was right there at the birth and every thing seemed very normal, it went quickly, and the mare is a young mare. I will try the clapping test, I think he will not do much. We checked his eyes and all his reflexes and he is just a little slow. I am giving him buckeye foal vitamins, also ulcer guard right now for the next couple of weeks, and I wormed him with panacur just to cover all the bases with his weight. He had a DrOopy lower lip for a while, but this is no longer evident, which I think means he is starting to recover, and he also has had a little problem nursing, his face has dried milk on it, but he does nurse and doesnt seem to have any problem anymore, although he seems to not nurse as often as I would like. I also gave his dam domperidone or what ever that is to cover all the bases and make sure she has plenty of milk. I am supplementing him with some Mares match foal milk, about a qt per day, and also buckeye foal pellets and nutrena youth pellets mixed together. I hold the pellet bucket for him for 10 to 15 minutes 3 times a day. I have not been seen him eating out of the foal feeder I have installed for him, but if I put his head there, he will eat from it. Sometimes he seems a little unsteady on his feet, but I think this will pass in a few more weeks. I have tried to massage him some to get his system stimulated, and this is seeming to help. He is starting to become more interested in what is going on around him, and most of the time he seems pretty normal. the main thing I have noticed is the unsteadiness at times and him being very quiet. He has never fallen and he can run very well when he wants to, he lost his mom in the pasture a couple of weeks ago and ran all over the place trying to find her. Finally she whinnyed at him and he was able to find her. would like to know what the prognosis is for foals like this to lead a fairly normal life. He has very valuable old bloodlines so he is going to stay a stallion, although I dont know if he will ever be coordinated enough to be a show horse. One other thing, he never did exhibit classic dummy foal symptoms such as wandering around aimlessly in the stall or sucking the walls,etc, and he has a good sucking reflex, its almost as if he is just lazy.
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Member:
lbystrom
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 7:58 pm:
Wow......thanks for sharing, Christine, and Melissa. Christine, your colt and Elliott sound very similar in description. Elliott, also, didn't fit the definition of dummy foal/maladjustment synDrOme entirely, but something just didn't seem right. We could probably be second guessing ourselves til the cows come home, but I wondered if a kick in the flank, which produced a large hematoma when Elliott's dam was at the end of her third month of pregnancy had anything to do with what we're seeing in Elliott now. It doesn't change anything, and we no longer have the mare who kicked in the same pasture, but it does make me wonder. Regardless, we love him dearly, and will continue to watch him. Was just wondering if there was anyone who experienced such a thing, and it looks like there is, to varying degrees. Thank you all, for your input.
Lynn & Elliott
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 8:13 pm:
Sure does not look like a dummy there.. 
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
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Member:
amara
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007 - 8:13 pm:
wanted to mention we also had this quarter horse that i knew that was just sooooo laid back... i didnt meet this horse till he was about 5, but man, even sharp spurs werent enough to get this guy to move his feet...he just had absolutely no desire to do anything that he didnt want to do...he was dead broke the first day he was ridden, which from what i heard was about the day after they put the saddle and bridle on...he didnt pay attention to nuthin!
he was however, the most compulsive cribber i have ever seen.. if put in an area with no fencing that he could grab onto he would find rocks, or even another horse...we couldnt keep weight on him no matter how much we fed him... tests all came back healthy.... (this was before the days of regularly checking for ulcers)..no signs of deafness either... he could definately hear the feed can! (maybe selective deafness as he never did hear us calling him in the pasture! *LOL*)
he unfortunately died of massive colic a few years after that...
great picture! good luck with your boy!
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