Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.texasequineva.com • 18 are advertised, only equine specific products (plasma/colostrum) should be administered. Bovine colostrum supplements do not provide protection against equine pathogens, may predispose the foal to future problems, and therefore should not be used. For the first week of life, clients should watch these mare/foal pairs very closely and to call with any problems. My breeding farms monitor for indicators of early sepsis because, they too, have become believers in early and aggressive intervention to decrease morbidity, mortality, and owners' expenses overall. SOURCES: Aoki, Takahiro et al. "Colostral and foal serum immunoglobulin G levels and associations with perinatal abnormalities in heavy dra horses in Japan." Journal of equine science vol. 31,2 (2020): 29-34. doi:10.1294/jes.31.29 Giguère, S., Cohen, N., Keith Chaffin, M., Slovis, N., Hondalus, M., Hines, S. and Prescott, J. (2011), Diagnosis, Treatment, Control, and Prevention of Infections Caused by Rhodococcus equi in Foals. J Vet Intern Med, 25: 1209-1220. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939- 1676.2011.00835.x José Luis Leante Castellanos, Alejandro Pérez Muñuzuri, César W. Ruiz Campillo, Ester Sanz López, Isabel Benavente Fernández, María Dolores Sánchez Redondo, Segundo Rite Gracia, Manuel Sánchez Luna. Recommendations for the care of the umbilical cord in the newborn, Anales de Pediatría (English Edition),Volume 90, Issue 6, 2019, Pages 401.e1-401.e5, ISSN 2341-2879, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. anpede.2019.01.009. Marr, Celia M, and I M. Bowen. Cardiology of the Horse. Edinburgh: Saunders/Elsevier, 2018. Print. mare went through during parturition and if any hematomas or lacerations are present. If there is evidence of moderate to severe trauma, a cervical exam is warranted. During urination it is not uncommon for the mare to express uterine fluid simultaneously. Cleaning the mare's hindquarters can help the owner be able to note any new vaginal exudate being expressed. TREATING NEONATAL FOALS e best advice for trying to decrease morbidity and mortality in neonatal foals is to be aggressive especially early in disease. While not every abnormal parameter is treated, these foals with abnormalities should be ever present in your mind and receive more frequent examinations or diagnostics, especially if sepsis is suspected. Plasma transfusions with high quality IgG plasma may also provide better return when used earlier before foals become septic and are less responsive to therapy. If an orphan foal is being managed, remember that plasma is best administered prior to giving milk replacers as the latter increases the chances of plasma reactions. Remember that plasma quality can differ among the different companies and that the estimated level of IgG in each liter of plasma will oentimes have a direct correlation to the clinical response achieved. e plasma donors should ideally be screened for Equine Parvovirus, a recently discovered hepatitis virus, to try to prevent propagation of the virus; this may differ among the different companies. Check the IgG in foals between 12 to 24 hours of age. Aer 12 to 18 hours of age, there is decreased pinocytosis of IgG; therefore, at 12 hours of age, my target IgG is >800 mg/dL. Remember that a normal foal on good colostrum has an average of 1800–3600 mg/ dL of IgG therefore foals should easily be able to exceed 800 mg/ dL. And, although the original studies established 800 mg/dL as an acceptable cutoff, those were cases of good management and healthy mares. In my opinion, an IgG of >800 is the minimum for most foals to help to prevent sepsis. Although many different products

• Cover