I have a client who has a 14 month old colt. His left hind fetlock seems to be rolling forward. I saw the horse a few days ago and he was fine. The odd thing is several months ago she had another colt that did the same thing except it was both hind legs. This colt became severely anemic and died despite treatment. Now she is worried the same thing will happen to the colt she has now. The vet is researching it but doesn't have anything yet. The colts were not related. The only connection is they were both in the same pasture but there are other horses (adult) that are also in the same pasture and are fine. Anybody ever see anything like this?
possible mineral imbalance and/or epiphysitis . Vet visit with xrays & blood tests would be a good idea unless the colt isn't worth much
we see it often with owners that spare no expense/my colt has to have the very best grain,3rd cutting alfalfa,feed suppliments,etc.When they finally listen and feed them like a normal horse the issue will go away/no problem. When they don't listen, I have seen these colts knuckle all the way over, destroy their joints and then be euthanized. Those same owners accept no responsibility; pretend the colt's problem was an act of God and how unlucky they have been.
As far as I know these colts are just pm pasture. I think they both started dropping weight when this happened.
24/7 pasture may be better or it may be the pasture and stalling with just hay may be the answer. That's really an onsite vet decision. The vet who wrote "blessed are the Foals" said these things don't seem to happen in poorer barns.
OK, I would blame the pasture, and it is really a veterinarian/owner/plant expert call - looks like a tremendous plant variety there - are there any other young horses on that pasture? This is the time for a growth spurt on those youngsters and the bones often grow faster than the tendons, The pain response kicks in, the muscles the tendons attach to tense up and it rapidly worsens. Yes, it can go bad in just days. If it happens in foals before the pastern epiphis hardens, they knuckle at the coffin joint, by now the pasterns are set, the pain is higher up and the response is higher up. I'm not giving veterinary advise, but I would dry lot this guy on plain hay until the vet figures something out.
I see foals do this when folks let them eat grain along side their mothers at too young of age...IMO all a foal needs in mothers milk and grass...no grain at all ..but that's just me..
