sick foals

[justdoit]

Has anyone spent money on a young foal that was really sick and had it turn out to be a good race horse?

[triplev123]

G'day justdoit,

Have certainly done so here. We're absolute victims whenever they get ill. It totally depends on exactly what it is that's making them sick though.

Severe gut infections/colitis x /salmonella scours in young horses are my greatest fear. It comes on like a runaway bus, hangs around for what seems like forever and they will lose more fluid than you can ever manage to put into them via a drip. If they live they never seem to get back to what you'd have reasonably expected them to be. They will almost always seem dull in the coat and end up generally poor doing. I think the toxins produced by the bug/s destroy the normal working of the digestive tract. I think it may even paralyze parts of their gut & to varying degrees it then inhibits their ability to both properly push through and moreso to properly absord the full range of nutrients from their food. It seems to leave them overtly prone to Colic because of that....this being especially prevalent after you worm them in the normal course of things. I'm sure it also stuffs their kidneys by way of severe dehydration and so then, on a related note the poor kidney function causes heart related issues from electrolyte imbalances that you can't correct no matter what you try to do.

Rhesus Factor is a shocker too. It is fairly rare thankfully but if you don't spot it early and get to it quickly I've found that even if they do survive they'll rarely recover fully. Similarly to the colitus x/scours angle, they never really seem to get over it and go on to do well, often ending up runty and poor doing.

Other kinds of infections don't seem to have as many/any lasting issues despite the often horrific visuals that they can give.
Blood born infections like Tetanus etc. are visually pretty bad, mainly because of the awful speed in which they can progress...sometimes you can watch them start to go downhill right before your eyes...but again, with treatment young horses seem to fully recover just as quickly. Some people get bent out of shape with lung infections in young horses, to some degree with good reason, but unless it is really severe and there is really significant scarring, the lungs seem to be more forgiving than the gut or a foal knocked by RH. We also had a weanling filly with the all-time WORST case of strangles you have ever seen and she made a complete recovery & went on to be a very good racemare.

From the standpoint of withstanding various health impositions a lot of people automatically think because they're young that foals are therefore fragile. I don't believe this to be the case at all. You've only got to see what they go through being born to know that they can cope with a lot more than we give them credit for. They're actually quite robust things if given half a chance. They can and do bounce back very quickly at times, moreso and much better than older horses with comparable issues. I think this is because they are in a full on, all out growing phase and they invariably get better much more quickly. It's kind of like breaking your arm or leg. You're much better off doing it when you're 15 than when you're 55.

[justdoit]

The foals with the will to live can tolerate alot, healthy foals i love them.

[triplev123]

We were blessed this year, 5 foals that were due, 5 on the ground, all healthy, 2 colts, 3 fillies, wouldn't give any one of them back.

[Flashing Red]

Three due and three foaled for us, 2 colts and 1 filly. One 3 weeks premi and was quite unstable the first few days but he is as good as gold now.

Triple V what is your experience with bottle fed horses vs racing ability? We have a yearling who was bottle fed for the first month of her life as her dam died - I think after that they found a surrogate, I do not believe that she was bottle fed the whole time.

[justdoit]

Horses are born with their ability as athlete set, it is all the other factors(usually human) that prevent them from reaching their full potential.
Some mares do not produce enough milk, so I think as long as the foal is feed correctly a good quality replacement milk it would have no effects
on it long term. A common problem is that the resulting horse can be hard to handle as it has zero fear of humans.
We had a really bad year with the mares and foals, so bring on 2011.

[triplev123]

G'day Flashing,

In my limited experience with Poddy Foals I think there's bottle fed and there's BOTTLE FED.
By that I mean that you can get them used to drinking from a bottle/bucket and then walk away with them otherwise be left to be horses or you can pussy foot around with them to the point where you unwittingly turn them into nipping, pushy, shovey, sulky pains in the arse that for all intents & purposes see humans as horses and other horses as something else again & so treat each accordingly. You walk a fine line between raising them and spoiling them. There are these great contraptions...the name of which I have no clue...that are used to raise Poddy Calves in the Dairy Industry and I think I'd be looking towards something like that rather than being the 'udder holder' for want of a better description. Poddy Foals tend to lose respect for people. In saying that, I think a good colt in the US by the name of Scruffy Hanover (related to Surmo Hanover, might have even been his brother?) was a Poddy Foal raised by the crew at Hanover and he was pretty sharp as I recall. As I said I think there are Poddys and there are PODDYS.

[Flashing Red]

This filly is a PODDY, lol. As I said, we got her as a yearling. I guess she isn't too bad, she isn't pushy or nippy but she can definately evade your space. It is only for a pat. She really is a horse version of a dog. She is the most friendly little creature in the world and loves people, very much like her sire (Flashing Red). I'm hoping it is the Flash in her rather than being bottle fed. She has no fear of humans whatsoever. She is taking to breaking in like a duck to water too, maybe her willingness to please will be a positive. :) Hope so, she has grown to be my favourite :)