Twinkle, as she has been affectionately called, is a severe case of neonatal maladjustment syndrome that we have been dealing with this season. This is a condition in which there is some oxygen deprivation to the brain during parturition. Her birth was apparently normal but after standing and suckling once, she had a severe seizure. We had to control this with diazepam (valium) and during the next 24 hours she was in intensive care but stable. A plasma transfer was given to provide essential antibody. She did not have a suck reflex so we had to feed her via stomach tube. The foal was able to stand but displayed the classical wandering behaviour which resembles box-walking. During her second night, Twinkle had another severe fitting episode after which her awareness of her surroundings and her general behaviour deteriorated.
The foal quickly became weaker despite regular feeding. She was catabolising her own tissues and so losing weight dramatically. As a consequence of this her forelimbs weakened and she developed a severe back-at-the-knee stance. Twinkle’s Mother began to lose interest and her milk started to dry up despite regular milking. The second fitting episode had obviously caused further brain damage as Twinkle did not show a menace response in either eye. Things were looking distinctly gloomy.
We decided to fit an in-dwelling stomach tube so that we could increase the level of nutritional support. All the Vets and the Stud Staff worked tirelessly to feed the foal every hour. Gradually the filly began to strengthen. After four days we withdrew the stomach tube but the foal still would not suck. Feeding continued for a further five days before we once more removed the tube. Thankfully Twinkle obliged and began to take a bottle. She is now going from strength to strength and now the search is on for a foster mother to take over the task of feeding! We will keep you posted on the fostering process.
As you can see from the picture below, a new Mother has been found for Twinkle. Her name is Riba and sadly her own foal died soon after birth before it suckled. The fostering process was quite slow and it was three days before we could trust the mare with her new baby. Twinkle is making the most of Riba’s gold top milk and is now growing rapidly. There is now no reason why she will not grow up to be a normal horse and hopefully will make it on the racecourse.
