This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Joint, Bone, Ligament Diseases » Angular Limb Deformities in Foals »
  Discussion on Bow legged was it ALD
Author Message

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 27, 2000 - 2:10 pm:

I had a perfect filly born this year in march and in april we put her down. She was born windswept in the back and one bow in the front..in a bit more then one week she was straight in the back, but the front still bowed. We called the Vet, he looked at her and said confine her, we did..the leg got a swelling at the carpus below it, but she was never lame. Again we called the vet, he looked at it and said it was a common digital extensior tendon that ruptured..won't be a reining horse, but she would be okay. Turn her out..we did the next day, and she ran, and went lame on that leg..called him again and he said watch it if she gets worse call the equine surgical hospital. The bowed carpus went out the other leg started giving to the added weight it went in..I felt real unsure on the lameness issue, so we took a tape to another old vet we knew, he called me and told me to take her to the hospital, she would most likely be put down. At the hospital we were told they could fix one leg, the other bowed out like there was nothing holding it..maybe everything was ruptured, there was not a good track record for healing, or surgery...I wanted a leg cast at the on set of this whole thing and was told no they cause skin rubs and white spots..now I will always wonder if that would have done the trick..we put her down,the vet said maybe a 30% chance she would be okay, probably not since that was on horses that were operated on within 24 hours. If it did not work, she would not be able to get up someday..was it ALD, or would the cast work? I am not after any vet on this issue, won't use him again, but he is new..anyhow, I just want to know why not cast the angle was really bad in the second week..we did check on the first foal from this mare, and it is straight, we just bought her in the end of nov, so I don't know about her care, we got her out of state and shipped in. She was not suppose to be bred. What do you think, at what point if this happens in the future should I just cast the leg and go for white hairs...is there a rule of thumb on the degree of bend? Or was this something else? The foal was one month old, and although small so is the mare..she was developed well and really nice looking..no defects we could find. Thanks

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 28, 2000 - 8:00 am:

Hello WWWhoa,
I am realy sorry to hear about your foal. There is really no way we can make the judgements you ask us to, we did not see the foal, the nature and severity of the deformities, and how they progressed. The decision to cast is not based alone on the degree of angulation but also on the cause of the angulation and also, management and economic factors. Frequently early in the course of the problem the decision to stall rest and see if correction takes place is made.
DrO
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC