Just got back from treating a newborn foal that was born out in the mud this morning.
When I arrived at the farm the foal so cold, I couldn't get a reading on my digital thermometer. I placed an IV catheter and ran some warm 5% dextrose and tried to dry some of the mud and muck off the foal. After about an hour, the foal was strong enough to maintain sternal recumbency, but still was too weak to stand and was still too hypothermic for my thermometer to register.
We moved the foal to the house to get her off the cold ground. This was much easier said than done as the foal is a 200 pound, Percheron (draft breed) filly. After an hour inside, I finally found out what the minimum temperature my thermometer will read: 90 degrees! A newborn foal will usually have a temperature of 101.5. I have never treated a foal with a temperature below 90 degrees. I found some corn syrup in the house and gave the foal 4 ounces via a naso-gastric tube (I used up all of my IV 5% dextrose, and didn't want to overdo the fluids anyway) to help get her glucose up. After a couple of hours inside, she was warm enough to feed some mare's milk.
I am cautiously optimistic about this filly. She is by no means out of the woods, but she was getting stronger and more alert throughout the warming process. I always worry about sepsis with hypothermic foals (started on Naxcel), but Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy could be a possibility as well. If the foal was just born in a bad place, a few meals will perk her up and she won't look back. If sepsis or HIE are the cause of hypothermia, the owner could be looking forward to several sleepless nights.
When I arrived at the farm the foal so cold, I couldn't get a reading on my digital thermometer. I placed an IV catheter and ran some warm 5% dextrose and tried to dry some of the mud and muck off the foal. After about an hour, the foal was strong enough to maintain sternal recumbency, but still was too weak to stand and was still too hypothermic for my thermometer to register.
We moved the foal to the house to get her off the cold ground. This was much easier said than done as the foal is a 200 pound, Percheron (draft breed) filly. After an hour inside, I finally found out what the minimum temperature my thermometer will read: 90 degrees! A newborn foal will usually have a temperature of 101.5. I have never treated a foal with a temperature below 90 degrees. I found some corn syrup in the house and gave the foal 4 ounces via a naso-gastric tube (I used up all of my IV 5% dextrose, and didn't want to overdo the fluids anyway) to help get her glucose up. After a couple of hours inside, she was warm enough to feed some mare's milk.
I am cautiously optimistic about this filly. She is by no means out of the woods, but she was getting stronger and more alert throughout the warming process. I always worry about sepsis with hypothermic foals (started on Naxcel), but Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy could be a possibility as well. If the foal was just born in a bad place, a few meals will perk her up and she won't look back. If sepsis or HIE are the cause of hypothermia, the owner could be looking forward to several sleepless nights.
