First 2006 foal in trouble

[Sue J]

Our first foal for 2006 arrived about 12:30 a.m. It's a little stud colt and I think he's either a smokey black or just black...not sure yet. Anyway, when he gets stressed, me towel drying him, treating his umbilical cord, etc. , he passes out. Limp as a dishrag. The first two times he did this, I thought he had passed over to Rainbow Bridge. I pick him up and shake him a little and he'll come around. Vet was out around 3 a.m. and he thought he had just been sleeping. NOT!! He has now had 4 of these episodes and on each occurence, it takes a shorter time for him to come back to us.

I know this has been discussed on here before and was looking for information on what, if anything, we can do for him. When the vet was here, he was about 3 hours old and hadn't nursed, so we tubed him and he was doing great. He's strong, eating well, doing all the things a newborn should be doing, but he'll pass out on us. Any information anyone can give us is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.

You can see him on our barn cam hosted by Marestare.com. or there's a link on our website.

 

[Manyspots]

Sue, it more than likely is an immature nervous system and hopefully you will see less of it with each passing day. It is scary to witness but from what we have seen they come around. There are other things it could be but my guess is just a little maturing needed. The less visitors and stress the better for him. (just my opinion)

 

[Marnie]

It sounds like a fainting foal to me, when this happens, just leave him alone, don't touch him and he'll come back sooner. If you go to the top of the page where it says Search and write in Fainting foal, I'm quite sure alot of threads about it will come up for you to read on it. The immature nervous system sounds likely but I don't really know what causes it. the first time it happened to me, I picked the foal up part way to iodine the navel and she just passed out. I laid her down, looked at Nate in shock and said, I think she's dead. Just like that the mom went over and pawed her and she jumped up. Then it happened again, most outgrow it in a day or two. I've heard of some taking a week.

 

[tagalong]

It sounds like you have a fainter on your hands... he will grow out of it. And it does not hurt to wake them up if you need to work with them for some reason. I usually just take my fingers and make them climb/tickle up the foal's backbone from his tail to his ears. That always does it. Your little guy will be just fine - and congratulations on the new baby!

:

 

[kaykay]

This months issue of the Horse Magazine has a whole article on this in minis with interviews with myself and Robin Cole

But your foal will be fine. Just try to do the least amount of movements especially around his neck until he has some time to mature. You do need to be sure hes not sleeping all the time instead of eating. My theory and several others is that this is actually a form of narcolepsy. Most do outgrow it

 

[New_Horizon_Pygmys]

The poor little guy. I hope it isn't anything major wrong. Hope he gets better soon. :bgrin

 

[Beccy]

It does sound like a fainting foal, and though it is very frightening when it happens, they do grow out of it. We had one last year, and our preemie filly did this at the start also.

Congrats on your new baby!!

 

[qtrrae]

Sue,

My filly, Bretta did this last year. I really panicked but then remembered one of Marnie's foals doing the same thing. My vet suggested handling Bretta as little as possible but everytime I iodined her naval - she would faint. It is so scary but only lasted a couple of days! After that Bretta was an "in your face" kind of girl, the more attention, the better.

Congratulations on your new foal!! He sounds adorable!

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Don't panic, both my 05 foals did it. The first one, Missy darn hear had me but then she just came to, then Casey did it and whew! They out grow it in a few days.

 

[Marty]

Among everything else I had that just a wee bit yestarday.

My foal was shivering and I proceeded to start rubbing him vigoursly and I swear he was starting to go limp in my arms. Just then I remembered that over-stimulating a foal like this can contribute to fainting so I stopped it immediately and he came right back.

I want to send you a HUGE congratulations for a very happy and healthy foal.

 

[Sue J]

Thanks everyone for your responses. It's hard to not go out there, touch him all over and try to do some imprinting, but at the same time I sure hate seeing him go limp. Will just give him a few days and see where we're at then. Will post pics in a bit.

Again thanks for the reassurances.

 

[FFFoxyGal]

just wanted to say Congratulations on your new little bundle :aktion033:

 

[Joyce]

From your description I would call him a fainting foal. I've had several of them and they do outgrow it on their own. So if that is the case, don't worry. Some take longers than others to outgrow it.

Joyce

 

[Charlotte]

We've seen a number of these through the years also. We've found that you can just handle the foal 'up to' the point it would stress and pass out then quit your stimulus and the foal doesn't go out on you. That way you can interact with it without the 'passing out'.

One explanation from my vet is that the foal getting over excited or stressed causes the blood pressure to rise abruptly and causes him to pass out. The foal is neurologically immature and out grows this ... usually in a few days. But we have had one or two premature foals that took a week+ to out grow it.

Of course if you have to medicate the baby or something like that then we are trying to figure out how to do it without undue stress to baby.

Congratulations on your little one!

Charlotte

 

[RJRMINIS]

Hope everything will be ok with him..........Can't wait to see pics!

 

[hairicane]

Congrats on your new colt. Hope he comes around soon for u.

 

[Loess Hills]

Sue, hope that your little guy is doing okay now. Must be pretty frightening to have that happen.

Congratulations on your new boy!

 

[Mona]

Congrats on your new foal. I too have had some experience with fainting foals, and know how scary it is, but things always worked out well for mine in the end, so I no longer worry when I have one like that, and thank goodness, they are few and far between!!!