Leila, Just a Bit Under the Weather

Dolly and Leila spent all day yesterday and the night before in the barn, because the weather was alternately very hot and very stormy. By 11PM last night, we took the two back out to their paddock, only to discover that Leila had a strange bought of scours, and a temp of 102.2. At one month old, we didn't think it was "heat scours", that which is caused by the mare's first heat at around 10 days of age. Being very concerned that it could be heat stress in the foal (for, in spit of the large fan directed at their stall, Dolly was wringing wet when we took her out last night), we called the vet in for an emergency check up this morning. He took blood samples, fecal samples, listened to her vitals - everything. He prescribed antibiotics for whatever is causing the temp to remain a bit high, banamine to bring the temp down, and electrolytes to keep her from being dehydrated. She did not show any signs of dehydration in spite of the diarrhea. After her meds, we cleaned out the paddock and put clean fresh fill down and some straw for her to lay in, and she slept the whole day through! She gave us a bit of a scare - we would not want to see anything happen to her, if we could do anything to prevent it!

A byproduct of having her sick is the quick training to do certain things, like standing tied for a considerable amount of time (we had, up to today, never had her tied to anything - we know that not all youngsters take to it easily!). Standing still for the vet's assistant to try and draw blood from "baby" veins was another skill learned today! What a trooper Leila is! She stood tied to the standing stall next to her mother in the barn isle as if she has always done this. Testimony to this filly's very sensible head, good breeding and, happy to say, her upbringing!