[RC] Any advice for this situation? - Maggie Mieske
Hello friends,
The below note if from our dear friends and mentors
(who made our ownership of our beautiful horses possible)...if anyone has any
advice or hope to offer, please respond directly to Barb or Larry at
mashallaha@xxxxxxx. If nothing
else, perhaps it will alert/educate some of us to this potential problem in our
own foals. THANK YOU!!!
Maggie
Dear Friends, The latest on our new bay filly
(Talimm x Mashallah Mujhara a.k.a. Sweet Chocolate Bunny); This may be a
life threatening problem, or it may be nothing. Little Mujadra seems
healthy and normal in every way except that after she nurses, milk will often
come back out her nose; the first day it was a lot of milk, in a steady
stream, with enough force to look like a punctured artery. I have never
seen this before, and it worried me (it has taken three generations to get a bay
filly from this dam line) and I called the vet and did some research into
neonatal cleft palate in horses. Today she learned to gallop. She
still has milk coming back out of her nostrils, though not every time and not as
badly as on the first day. This could be one of two things;
1. Cleft palate, far enough back and/or small enough that we didn't see it
when shining a flashlight down her gullet. If so, it's a death
sentence. Surgery is risky, complicated, expensive, and the horse should
not be used for breeding for fear it's heritable, as it certainly is in
humans. Untreated, she will eventually die of aspiration pneumonia from
milk getting into her lungs. 2. The mare is producing more milk
at more pressure than the foal can handle, and she can't swallow it all.
In that case the problem will disappear as she gets a bit older and needs more
milk. I have had heavy milking mares before, and Mujhara is one, but never
(having had better than 80 foals on this farm over the years) have I seen a foal
regurgitate milk back out the nose. In other words, it's a wait
and see situation, and it doesn't make for peace of mind. Those of you who
have bred horses, have you ever had any experience with this, either
cause??? Barbara
