Michelle@wescofarms
Well-Known Member
Last Wednesday we had a 2 week old filly that was having difficulty swallowing, sounded congested in her lungs, snotty nose, etc. Her dam's bag was full so we knew she hadn't been nursing either.
We checked her temp 103 and called the vets. While waiting fot them to arrive we gave her a bit of banamine for the fever (less than .25cc) and milked mom to syringe milk to her as she was refusing to nurse. Milk came out her nose (both sides).
I suspected choke. The vets came out checked vitals - temp was at 102.6, she was a bit dehydrated but not tacky (gums). They gave her a mild sedation to run a tube to see if she did indeed have a blockage (it took five attempts to get it to her stomach before the sedation and four more after) as they kept getting into her lungs. She was really snotty, and obviously distressed. We also did a field xray of her lungs and took blood for a panel.
The vets suggested she had pneumonia or a cleft palate or had been sick since birth.
After the last tube attempt, she did try to nurse a bit. The vets decided to put her on Naxcel for 10 days, and they didn't have any on their truck to we followed them back to the hospital. When we came home, the filly's stomach was obviously full, she'd passed manure, no milk comming from her nose (we syringed some to check), no snotty nose or distress breathing and her temp was 101.4. The same was true in the morning. She was running and playing, an obviously full stomach, temp was 101.4 and has remained between 101.2-101.6 since then.
The vets called and suggest she had aspiration pneumonia or (the new one to me) a syndrome common to minis (this is what I was told) that causes foals in the two week age group to not swallow properly, so that they aspirate milk into their lungs causing pneumonia and/or it comes back out their nose. She suggested that I milk mom and teach the foal to drink from a pan and that would resolve her swallowing problem - it would only take a few weeks up to six months.
I didn't say anything, but was thinking - I've told you everything has resolved - no temp, she's eating, no fluids of any kind coming from her nose, no raspy sounds, no snotty sounds from her at all. She's playing, eating, peeing, pooping and acting 100% normal - so why would I do that? I did keep her on the Naxcel for 3 days - I couldn't see 10 days of an antibiotic in this case. She did have slightly elevated white blood cell count, but the chest xrays were fine as was everything else.
To me it was a clear cut case of choke that had been resolved when the tube passed into her stomach as the foals attitude changed so quickly after that - literally within a few minutes, and she was acting normally within two hours.
We're still monitoring her just in case, plus she's only allowed access to Mom's milk, Equine Junior, soft hay and fresh grass as I don't want to irritate her throat (not that she grazes much, but nothing stemmy). I'm more concerned she swallowed a rock and we're going to have colic problems later!
So after the lengthy story - has anyone every heard of this 'swallowing problem' in mini foals? I've never heard of this syndrome and can't find anything in my books or online, so any ideas?
I don't want to doubt the vet and I don't like to practice medicine or go against their recommendations, but sometime it makes me wonder, so thought I'd ask here.
We checked her temp 103 and called the vets. While waiting fot them to arrive we gave her a bit of banamine for the fever (less than .25cc) and milked mom to syringe milk to her as she was refusing to nurse. Milk came out her nose (both sides).
I suspected choke. The vets came out checked vitals - temp was at 102.6, she was a bit dehydrated but not tacky (gums). They gave her a mild sedation to run a tube to see if she did indeed have a blockage (it took five attempts to get it to her stomach before the sedation and four more after) as they kept getting into her lungs. She was really snotty, and obviously distressed. We also did a field xray of her lungs and took blood for a panel.
The vets suggested she had pneumonia or a cleft palate or had been sick since birth.
After the last tube attempt, she did try to nurse a bit. The vets decided to put her on Naxcel for 10 days, and they didn't have any on their truck to we followed them back to the hospital. When we came home, the filly's stomach was obviously full, she'd passed manure, no milk comming from her nose (we syringed some to check), no snotty nose or distress breathing and her temp was 101.4. The same was true in the morning. She was running and playing, an obviously full stomach, temp was 101.4 and has remained between 101.2-101.6 since then.
The vets called and suggest she had aspiration pneumonia or (the new one to me) a syndrome common to minis (this is what I was told) that causes foals in the two week age group to not swallow properly, so that they aspirate milk into their lungs causing pneumonia and/or it comes back out their nose. She suggested that I milk mom and teach the foal to drink from a pan and that would resolve her swallowing problem - it would only take a few weeks up to six months.
I didn't say anything, but was thinking - I've told you everything has resolved - no temp, she's eating, no fluids of any kind coming from her nose, no raspy sounds, no snotty sounds from her at all. She's playing, eating, peeing, pooping and acting 100% normal - so why would I do that? I did keep her on the Naxcel for 3 days - I couldn't see 10 days of an antibiotic in this case. She did have slightly elevated white blood cell count, but the chest xrays were fine as was everything else.
To me it was a clear cut case of choke that had been resolved when the tube passed into her stomach as the foals attitude changed so quickly after that - literally within a few minutes, and she was acting normally within two hours.
We're still monitoring her just in case, plus she's only allowed access to Mom's milk, Equine Junior, soft hay and fresh grass as I don't want to irritate her throat (not that she grazes much, but nothing stemmy). I'm more concerned she swallowed a rock and we're going to have colic problems later!
So after the lengthy story - has anyone every heard of this 'swallowing problem' in mini foals? I've never heard of this syndrome and can't find anything in my books or online, so any ideas?
I don't want to doubt the vet and I don't like to practice medicine or go against their recommendations, but sometime it makes me wonder, so thought I'd ask here.
