Here we are in June, half way through the year, and coming to the end of the foaling/breeding season. The breeding farm personnel are nearing total exhaustion. The breeding farm veterinarian is starting to talk about this year’s vacation. And the mare owner is hoping his mare has an easy foaling and can be bred back on her foal heat.
Several breeding farm managers were polled to see how they handled the ‘foal heat’ breedings. A compilation of their criteria for success is listed below.
The early foals are home by now and the time has come to get them vaccinated. They have probably been wormed for the first time at about 30 to 45 days old on the breeding farm where they have been residing while their mothers were being bred.
Joey Weaver’s veterinarian, Dr. Noel Muller, has given us the protocol that he uses on Applebite Farms in Northern California. This protocol is fairly universal throughout California, although there are some variations used that depend on what illnesses are prevalent in a specific area. It’s probably best to check with your local veterinarian.
Timing is very important when vaccination schedules are arranged. New research seems to made it clear that past vaccination practices are not effective on the influenza virus. Leigh Ann Howard, farm manager at Valley Creek Farm, runs a training barn at San Luis Rey Downs made up of the horses raised at Valley Creek Farm. She shares with us the new research that, when implemented, has greatly reduced the incidence of the "Two Year Old Cough" in her training barn.
Feet trimming on the foals is an important issue that has not yet been discussed in this series. Steve Berger, a farrier in San Diego County, brings us a few of his observations and insight.
Joey Weaver, farm manager,
Applebite Farms, San Joaquin County
The chart (below) is the minimum vaccination schedule that we follow here at Applebite Farms and that we recommend. This was put together by our farm veterinarian, Noel S. Muller, DVM, of Los Caballos Equine Practice, Inc.
| FOALS | TREATMENT |
| 30 days | deworm (continue every 30 days until one year old) |
| 60 days | deworm |
| 90 days | deworm |
| 120 days | 4-way #1 (Eastern & Western encephalomyelitis, influenza, tetanus toxoid); EHV 4/1 #1(rhinoneumonitis); strep #1 (strangles) |
| 150 days | 4-way #2; EHV 4/1 #2; strep #2 |
| 180 days | strep #3; rabies #1 |
| 210 days | FluVac; EHV 4/1 (continue every 60 days until one year old); rabies #2 |
| Yearling | Treatment |
| February | Annual 4-way + EHV 4/1; strep booster |
| April | Flu Vac; EHV 4/1 (continue every 60-90 days); rabies booster |
| Mare | Treatment |
| 4 weeks | 4-way & strep booster prior to foaling deworm at foaling |
| months 5, 7, & 9 of pregnancy | pneumabort K |
| Fall | strep booster; rabies booster |
| months 8, 9, & 10 of pregnancy | rotavirus vaccine |
| Stallion | Treatment |
| Jan/Feb | 4-way; EHV 4/1; strep |
| Late Summer | Flu/EHV 4/1 booster; rabies |
| Barren Mares | Treatment |
| Jan/Feb | 4-way; EHV 4/1; strep |
| Late Summer | rabies; FluVac; EHV 4/1 booster |
Leigh Ann Howard, farm manager/trainer,
Valley Creek Farm, San Diego County
One tip that I want to pass on to farm managers and trainers involves the dreaded "Two Year Old Cough" that all racing barns experience as the young horses are sent into our training barns.
Farms almost universally vaccinate their sucklings at three and four months of age. The foals are given two or three injections, thirty days apart, that are supposed to cause these foals to develop antibodies to ward off specific diseases. Tetanus, sleeping sickness, strangles, influenza and rhinopneumonitis are the diseases commonly covered here in California.
When these babies are one year old they are given a booster vaccination for these diseases. Most yearlings will be broken and galloped a bit on a farm before they are shipped to the race track. They are about 20 months old when they take up residence in a racing barn. At that time they probably receive another booster vaccination for Influenza.
Pretty soon the youngsters are all coughing. And the trainers are wondering if that could have been just sterile water in that bottle labeled "Influenza Vaccine"!
Lo and behold, recent research has produced some interesting results! It seems that the initial influenza vaccination series given to the foal when it was three to four months of age probably did no good at all!*
The booster vaccinations given at 12 months and 20 months of age is never backed up by a second injection.
So what do we do now?
The new vaccination protocol recommended for influenza vaccine is to give the initial two doses, a month apart, starting when the youngster is about 9 to 10 months old. And then a booster regularly while they are in the training barn!
There is a very good possibility that the youngsters arriving at the track from the farms have not had the initial two doses since they were four months old. So get those youngsters vaccinated right now and again in thirty days! Might as well use the "flu-rhino" combination, just in case the same thing is true with the rhinopneumonitis vaccine!
I think trainers who follow this new protocol will be surprised how many fewer two year old coughs they hear!
*Reported at the AAEP 1997 convention, a study from University of Kentucky Equine Research Center by Dr.’s Thomas Chambers, Robert Holland, and H. Steve Conboy.
Steve Berger, farrier,
San Diego County
I do the foal trimming on several breeding farms in my area. My philosophy is to remove very little hoof on the foals, particularly on the sole. As the ground gets harder the foal needs as much protection as possible from the pounding on his feet as he runs after his mother.
There are many little things that can be done with the very young foal that will make a big difference in how he grows. The foal who is born with weak pasterns and rocks back on his heels needs to have his toes squared off.
This will take some of the pressure off his
heels and cause him to stand up straight more quickly.
You can cause him to break over in the front rather than on the side just by regularly snubbing or squaring off his pointed toe when his is very young. By doing this you are creating a situation where the front of the toe is the point of least resistance as he walks. This should also help if he is toeing out. This squaring off of the toes needs to be done often until the baby is standing normally.
Long Toe Foal
Glue-on shoes with a lateral extension can be used to great advantage for foals with problems of toeing in. There isn’t anything that can be done to change the fact that a baby is ‘off-set’ in the knees but the glue-on shoes will keep him from also toeing in at the ankle. If the foal doesn’t go in at the ankle he will usually ‘walk through’ the off-set knees. If this problem is neglected you could end up with a severely bow-legged horse.
If I notice one hoof is not growing the same as the other or the foal is getting contracted in one leg, I immediately look for the problem in the foot. It is very easy for a foal to bruise a foot or get a hairline fracture in the coffin bone and still look sound. But the fact that one hoof is not growing at the same rate as the other is solid evidence that he is not putting the same weight on both feet. If it hurts a little bit to put weight on one side, then the feet will not grow evenly and the result will be a club foot and/or contracted tendon.
It is essential to make a good diagnosis as soon as possible. This means working with the veterinarian and getting an X-ray. The mare and foal need to be moved to a small soft pen until the bruising is gone or the fracture is healed. Because the foal is rarely lame enough to be noticeable, you will have to re-Xray the hoof regularly until the problem is gone. If the foal is noticeably sore, a glue-on shoe is helpful to stabilize and protect the foot.
I have noticed that epiphysitis in the ankle and sometimes in the knees will also make the baby come up on his pasterns and start to get a bit ‘clubby’ in the feet. This is usually bilateral and can also be helped by reducing the foal’s activity. Again, the soft paddock and maybe the veterinarian will prescribe some anti-inflammatory drug (bute) for a few days. I have also seen some farms poultice the inflamed areas of the leg. This is not a problem with the feet.
With all feet problems, you have to figure out what is causing the problem and get rid of the cause. Treating the symptoms rather than curing the cause is not going to give you a very satisfactory outcome.