Need advice quick, PLEASE

[pepperhill]

We had a little filly this morning about 7 AM. She did everything she was supposed to do and was strong and healthy. A few hours after she was born, I headed in to work leaving her and mom to bond. I got home at about 2:30 PM and little Filly seemed a little lethargic, but I woke her up when I went into the pen so I thought she just wasn't all the way awake. I just took my husband down to show him and find my filly's entire rear end is covered with watery stool, all the way down both legs too, and there are puddles on the ground of liquid mustard.

I saw the foal pass two good sized muconium (sp) stools this morning, and she urinated. I also made sure she had nursed 4 or 5 times before I left. I can find one stool in the pen that is half black and half yellow, so I know the colostrum is making its way through her. What is this liquid mess!!?? It is like colored water! She is also very lethargic.

I tried to do a search, but it never works for me. Wasn't there a thread a month or so ago about foal scours and what to do about them? Does any one remember this or have any ideas what to do? I have probios on hand and Pepto bismal, I also have penicilllan. These are really bad scours, and she is too young for this. If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

ALSO, I do have a call in to my vet but no reply as of yet.

 

[CountryHaven]

Wow, this has been going around it seems like many of us have had a foal or two get severe diahrrea for one reason or the other that is way beyond anything that could be considered normal, but I do think yours is the youngest. I will pray hard as that's the best I could offer as I'm not sure even the treatment we gave our 5 day old would be right for one so young. I do hope you get a call back really quick. If not, maybe try other vets considering yours seems to be 'out'.

 

[kaykay]

a foal this young will go down really fast. Is she nursing?? if shes not be sure and get milk down her. hoping your vet gets there soon

 

[mizbeth]

Hi

I think I would the vet again or else another one. If the baby is only 12 hrs old I don't know what to recommend but on older foals I would give probios and pepto.

Perhaps someone else will be on shortly tho and help you. Hope the baby will be okay? If her stools are yellowish or mustardy colored she has most likely passed the meconium already. Just my guess now, still call the vet again.

And yes! By all means make sure she is eating/drinking milk she is most likely dehydrated from the running stools making her lethargic. Hope she is not RH positive? (or is it negative) geesh.........

Good luck!

Beth

 

[ruffian]

I use Imodium AD in Liquid Form. 2-3 cc.

 

[jdhand]

Here is what to do to save the baby. Give it a tablespoon of metamucil and pedialite mixed. Quickly suck up in a syringe. Then give it to the foal. Also give it Imodium for kids. Do this 3 times a day until the baby stops having the scours. This saved my foal. The stuff the vet gave me didn't work. I know it sounds funny, but it works. Start right away

 

[RJRMINIS]

Here is what to do to save the baby. Give it a tablespoon of metamucil and pedialite mixed. Quickly suck up in a syringe. Then give it to the foal. Also give it Imodium for kids. Do this 3 times a day until the baby stops having the scours. This saved my foal. The stuff the vet gave me didn't work. I know it sounds funny, but it works. Start right away

I second that this works.........I had a 3 day old foal with scours, but in addition to this I gave him oral antibiotics too......The vet prescribed, but after he finished the antibiotics he still had scours, so I used Immodium AD, pro-bios and the metamucil/pedialyte.....

I also had to wash his rear 3x a day and put cream on him..........he lost all his rear hair, but is FINE now!

Please have the vet look at her, if she is not nursing you need IV's ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!! My colt never stopped nursing, but I had a donkey foal that did this once, and we couldn't save her.

My prayers are with you & your foal!

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]Redi also had a bout of diarrhea, the mares milk was too rich on the complete feed and alfalfa. I stopped her feed for a couple of days and put her just on hay, redi got 1/2 SMZ tab twice a day and pepto 20cc every 6 hours. He was good yesterday all day... but clean. Last night I tried a handfull of the sweet feed for mom again and this am he had green water again. I left her just on hay and oats and he has a shiney hiney again. She was used to just pasture before she came here just a week ago. He never ran a fever but at two days old when this started he was lethargic and not nursing much but nursing some. Praying for your baby.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[schutzandwhinnies]

Here is a website I found on scours. Take note that this farm is Arabs and full size so you would need to lessen amounts for the mini foal. I read a ton of folks advise on this and the one thing they all had in common was getting the good bacteria in the intestines with probios, even yogurt if you can't find probios. Pepto or Kaopectate. I went to google.com and typed in scours in foals and a bunch of stuff came up. Here's one

http://www.babsonarabians.com/Readers_Corn...s_the_Pepto.htm

As my kids would say, "Google is the bomb"

Prayers to you and your foal. And if it helps you at all on making a decision on the foal being so young. Our 3 day old colt got colic, the vet couldn't figure out why, gave him 4 meds for 5 days. Gastroguard, electrolytes, probios, and some blue pills for the intestinal track. He said well I can't figure out what it could be so let's cover all the bases, it can't hurt. Which would tell me that if you gave some probios or yogurt, pepto etc...that it wouldn't hurt. Just watch the amounts till you get with your vet. Keep close eye out and keep calling the vet on their after hours number if you have to. Bug um until they show!!!! Goog luck

 

[Vicky Texas]

Any Updates on your baby? We too just had about with Diarrhea here. Our new

leopard filly had it for about 2 days. She is 2 weeks old now. I think her's was the

mare was in heat. I gave our's the Kaopectate, and clear her behind up.

A good reminder here, since this is happening a lot. First, and I did this, worm

the mare after foaling. I heard this is suppose to help prevent foal heat diarrhea.

I did this, I think that is why we had it so light.

And another thing, is to make sure you don't have salt or mineral blocks around the

little one's. If you do, make sure they are not obessed with it. We had 2 last year who

did, and $800.00 later we finally learned why? The salt blocks. Our babies became

obessed with them. They lick them and drink water. They overdosed on Water, causing

the diarrhea. Another Forum member help me so much with this. It took us 2 months to

clear them up. The Vet who is great agreed it was the salt blocks. He ran every test to find

out why. Your feed's have enough salt and minerals in them. Check with your Vets.

:

Wishing you the best with this baby, and prayers

Vicky

 

[Mona]

Hope your little one is doing better?? It sure is scary when something goes wrong with them, and they do go downhill fast, so the sooner you can get it under control the better. You need to be sure she does not get dehydrated. Do whatever yo can to ensure she is getting enough to eat and electrolytes to give her a boost. Good Luck. Will be praying for her full recovery.

 

[pepperhill]

UPDATE:

I cleaned up her bottom and legs, gave her pepto and probios and moved mother and baby into a more secure stall (one without an outside run attached) I watched for quite awhile and the baby is still up and moving, but lethargic. She did nurse a few times which I thought was good. I do not have metamucil or pedialite but the store opens at 7:30 AM and I will get some. The vet confirmed all this and we discussed antibiotics, but then decided to try all this other stuff first. She also asked quite a bit about the mare, but there is nothing wrong with her that I can see. The only thing I can think of is that I neglected to worm her this morning right after she foaled. That is part of my normal routine after a delivery, but for some reason I forgot it this time. Neither of us thought that probably had anything to do with the foals illness in this particular case. It came on so darn fast! The vet thought the RH thing was unlikely since this is the 3rd foal by this dam and the same sire, but we haven't taken it off the list of possibilities yet. Anyway, I have carefully taken notes of all that you had to tell me, and I have a plan of action to get me, and hopefully HER, through the night. I will update in the morning. Thanks all, so very, very much! Thank heaven I had most of this stuff on hand in my foaling bag. I wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for this forum!

 

[lil hoofbeats]

Hi, i feel i must add to this topic, because last year, almost every foal we had develped diarrhea, most likely due to the mares asymptomatically shedding sallmonilla, this is what we found to be effective treatment

1. Give plasma, does not matter what the IGG test says , IGG IS LOST THROUGH THE GI TRACT!

Foals given plasma recover FASTER than foals that dont get it. it cost us about $220.00 per foal. it replaced 2 things, IGG lost through diahrrea, and replaced fluid.

2. We had an IV placed in the neck, and gave 150 cc of fluid every 2 hours, except at night and we waited 6 hours. this kept the foals hydrated. we did this for 3 days.

3. We gave the MAXIMUM strenght Pepto 20 cc every 4 hours to coat the stomach.

Seems like alot, BUT,,, we tried EVERYTHING to stop the diahrrea, and NOTHING worked! that diahrrea that we encountered at our farm last year LAUGHED at Imodium, no matter how large the dose. We gave Lomotil, which that stops a Freight train in humans, i mean will SHUT DOWN the gut! and it stopped it four about 4 hours only!

The thing the vets recomended was dont give antibiotics, in my opinion, if i have this problems again, i will do all the above, and i WILL give antibiotics, 5 cc of Pennicillian, twice a day, and a more broad spectrum(Pennicillian is not broad spectrum), such as Baytril which is relatively safe, and effective.

Im sorry about your foal, and i wish you the best of luck.

 

[klydesmom]

I have never posted before so bear with me.We lost our first baby last weekend to the scours.She started at a day old and we fought it for two weeks before having to put her down.Just keep at it.My vet was not very aggressive about it and by the time we found a vet that knew what he was doing it was too late.

 

[lil hoofbeats]

I have never posted before so bear with me.We lost our first baby last weekend to the scours.She started at a day old and we fought it for two weeks before having to put her down.Just keep at it.My vet was not very aggressive about it and by the time we found a vet that knew what he was doing it was too late.

When dealing with diahrrea in new born foals (1or 2 days old) It is PARAMOUNT that you use swift and aggressive treatment. Get a vet who will be agressive with this condition. Not all vets , or any Dr. for that matter, are created equal! Use everthing that can be done. If you treat with a plasma transfusion, it will increase the chances of survival, and SHORTEN the lenght of time the baby has diahrrea. Any clinic that has had much experience with diahrrea will (should) be aware of this. Replace lost fluid with ringers, Get you vet to put a central line in, and you can run the fluids yourself, it is pretty easy, and anyone, even with out much experience can learn to do it,, when shown a couple of times. you can even give the Baytril, and banamine in this same line! its so handy once in place. It can be left there up to 3or 4 days, with out having to be replaced.

 

[pepperhill]

Finally, an update. For some reason I couldn't get on the Lil' Beginnings site at all yesterday. I tried at home and at work :no: Anyway, little Filly is still hanging in there. She has not had a fever at all through this whole thing. She is still making a half hearted attempt at nursing every half hour or so, so at least she is getting SOMETHING. I have her on 30 cc of Pepto and 60 cc of pedialite every 4 hours and I have added the metamucil as well. I am also keeping her poor little bum coated with Desitin so it doesn't get all burned up. It seems to be working! Her bottom was clean this morning! Of course now I have to wonder if I didn't block her up as there is no sign of any stool from her during the night. She is feeling better I think, because she fought like a mad woman when I tried to syringe the pedialite/pepto mixture into her this morning. I am wearing most of it. (Pink is NOT my color!) We are keeping an eye on it, but we may not have to go to the more drastic measures.

: The vet is standing by today and has everything we will need packed in her truck just in case. I am off work today and am planning on doing "foal stare" all day, waiting for that ever-important poop to come out. Thank you so much for the info and advice. It allowed me to get right on top of things the minute they started to go sour. I will update more as we go along.

 

[Miniv]

Thanks for the update. Pink may not be your color, but it may be a GOOD sign!

MA

 

[lil hoofbeats]

Make sure he does an IGG test, some of that could have gotten lost in the diahrrea during the first 12 hours-needs to be above 400, 800 would be great.....,most septic foals do not run a fever, thier temp will be subnormal. glad to hear the foal is doing better :aktion033: