Q: How does bute affect the foal in the later part of the pregnancy if the mare is lame? We have put a deposit on the foal to be born end of January and the mare came up lame and actually is dragging a leg not able to walk correctly. They don't really know what is wrong? or what happened? and they have been giving her bute. Yesterday they moved her to a special high-risk foaling facility and now we are wondering more andmore if this foal is in any danger. I thought I would ask you after reading the article on the foundering pregnant mare.
Thanks,
A: I always hate to answer a question with an "I don't know", but the effect of of Bute on an unborn foal is a medical question that you should ask your vet. If it were a small dose for a short time I probably wouldn't worry about it but it sounds like this mare has major problems and she is probably getting a lot of Bute. So get on the phone with your vet right away and see what you can find out. I would think that if your vet says there is considerable risk, you should have a good basis for requesting the return of your deposit. Of course this will depend on the terms of your purchase agreement. This is just one reason I always urge people to put all deals, especially potentially complicated ones like buying a foal before it is born or buying a foal that will have to spend time with its mother where the buyer doesn't have control over its care, in writing.
There
are other risk factors here, in addition to the possible toxicity of
Dragging
a hind leg is not a very typical lameness. I would think that it could stem
from many causes, some of which might be detrimental to the foal. Maybe the
way she is carrying the foal is putting pressure on a nerve and after delivery
the mare will be fine. Maybe she has some spinal damage or even a disease like
EPM. I’ve never read anything about the problems caused by these things on a
foal, but if nothing else it seems like they could make delivery and mothering
of the foal very difficult or impossible.
I
think the best advice I can give you in addition to calling your vet and
discussing all these possibilities with him is to carefully study your
purchase agreement and then discuss possibilities with the mare’s owners. If
there is a difficult delivery or if the foal is orphaned or born dead or
damaged, everyone’s emotions will be running wild. The time to sort out what
will be done if things don’t progress normally is NOW, while everyone is
calm and rational.
Good
luck with your foal purchase. I would be very interested in knowing what the
cause of the mare’s lameness is determined to be and how the foal comes out
of all this, so please do keep me posted.
Sincerely,
American Blacksmith
American BCS Video