# Tendon Laxity in Foals



## AQHAProud (Apr 17, 2016)

Level of Severity


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Have you stalled her. They do best with no exercise.

You can tape or glue plastic shoes on her with extended heels. That helps a lot.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I'm going to say the opposite - I've always read that foals with tendon laxity need exercise to improve. 



> Flexor Laxity .....Many foals are born with flexor laxity, or looseness of their tendons. Flexor laxity is a congenital disorder and not a manifestation of DOD. Usually, it is most obvious in the hind limbs with the fetlock dropping close to the ground, and occasionally the toe will lift off the ground when the foal is bearing weight on that leg. In general, this laxity self corrects over a few days *as muscle tone improves with exercise*. In some circumstances, the laxity is severe enough to prevent the foal from getting up to nurse or is such that the back of the fetlock develops abrasions. In these cases, lowering the heels with a rasp or using glue-on shoes with extended heels and/or using compounds, such as Equilox,ｮ* are helpful in providing heel support. *Exercise should be encouraged, but limited to prevent fatigue.* The use of bandages (except to protect the soft tissues) and splints is generally counter indicated, since they encourage further laxity. The use of casts is discouraged. Most foals improve significantly once normal loading of the flexor tendons occurs.


http://www.admani.com/horse/Equine%20Library/Horse%20Congenital%20Orthopedic%20Disorders%20in%20foals.htm


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

It isn't unusual, and many of my foals have been the same way. With extreme cases, stall rest is correct until they start to get some strength. Then they improve with limited turnout. I would turnout for 30-60 mins twice a day and stall the rest. You don't want free choice exercise because they course strain the tendons or worse.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

This foal is extreme enough that stall rest would be indicated. It is also premature. This particular foal does not need the added work and stress of trying to follow a mare around. The glue-on shoes would also help immensely. They are really hard to keep on with turn-out in anything bigger than a very small pen. 

We have gotten our advice from expert Vets that have specialized in horses. I'll go by their advice over a feed company any day.


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

What does the vet say in the case? Particularly one seeing her every three days. Do what they recommend, since they will be dealing with the consequences. My last lax tendon baby the vets didn't recommend doing splinting or enlongated shoes, where in the previous baby they had with a very similar tendons. Not sure why. Both seemed to resolve in the same amount of time. Turned out the mare required 2x the amount of natural Vitamin E as my other mares seemed to (the recommended amount) when supplemented more she had normal foals. (Side note)


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## AQHAProud (Apr 17, 2016)

The vet wraps he legs and deals with the abrasions every 3/4 days. We had her on stall rest and then started to turn them out and now they are on stall rest again because turning her out was causing more abrasions and no solid results. We also put shoes on her and again, didn't see enough results to validate having them put back on. She is about a month old now and has only shown minimal improvement. Her bum is higher (she use to look like a giraffe & is now level) but her fetlock is still just barely off the ground. 
I'll continue to follow the vets advice, i was wondering, how long did it take for other people's babies with sever laxity? When you look it up online, most sights don't mention how long it can take for sever cases. 


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## AQHAProud (Apr 17, 2016)

Dehda01 said:


> What does the vet say in the case? Particularly one seeing her every three days. Do what they recommend, since they will be dealing with the consequences. My last lax tendon baby the vets didn't recommend doing splinting or enlongated shoes, where in the previous baby they had with a very similar tendons. Not sure why. Both seemed to resolve in the same amount of time. Turned out the mare required 2x the amount of natural Vitamin E as my other mares seemed to (the recommended amount) when supplemented more she had normal foals. (Side note)




How long did it take to correct? And how sever were they?


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## AQHAProud (Apr 17, 2016)

The vet comes every 3/4 days to re-wrap her legs and deal with the abrasions. We had her on stall rest for 2 weeks and then turned her out for a week. We didn't see much improvement and she ended up with more abrasions, so we have put her back on stall rest. We put shoes on her too but we didn't see enough improvement to validate putting them back on. She is almost a month old and there hasn't been much improvement in her fetlocks but her bum has come up significantly (she use to look like a giraffe but is now level) however, not sure if that is considered improvement. My vet says he has never had a case that has taken this long... So I'm wondering, if your baby had sever laxity, how long did it take them to come up? 
I will continue to follow the vets recommendations. 


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

The 4-6 weeks to see significant improvement. 2-3 months before the foals looked normal and could get normal turnout. We were doing vitamin E and selenium supplementation as well.


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## AQHAProud (Apr 17, 2016)

Dehda01 said:


> The 4-6 weeks to see significant improvement. 2-3 months before the foals looked normal and could get normal turnout. We were doing vitamin E and selenium supplementation as well.




Thanks!!! That gives me hope!


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## absteinhauer (May 1, 2016)

have you tried a round of tetracycline? ask your vet... i've known some breeders to use tetra to tighten up tendons in foals.


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