Foals - "Joint Ill"

´´Joint Ill´´, a bacterial infection that spreads from the blood into the joints and causes severe pain, swelling and lameness as the bacteria erode the joint. Treatment for this condition needs to be prompt and aggressive, and can really only be managed in a specialist equine veterinary hospital. The foal would need to be treated with potent antibiotics directly into the vein, and all affected joints need to be flushed clean under a general anaesthetic. The joint flushing often needs to be repeated 2 to 4 times to get rid of the joint infections, but is not always successful, especially in the long standing cases. The prognosis for recovery of a foal with Joint-Ill is very guarded, best case scenario may only be a 50% chance of recovering and going on to be a normal foal IF treatment was instituted as soon as the problem started and adequate intensive care of the foal was provided in hospital. The cost of this kind of treatment can be very high, but worth it for a valuable foal. Foals that have infected joints for a long time (greater than 1 week after lameness starts) before treatment, are less likely to recover completely. Foals that are untreated may die or, if they survive, will have chronic lameness due to severe arthritis and stunting of growth as adults.
This is a very serious disease that foals can get if they don´t drink adequate mare´s milk in the first few hours of birth, of there is any difficulties with birth or problems with the mare, or if the foal picks up infection from the environment (eg. bacteria in soil or manure) that gets into the umbilical cord. Please consult with an equine veterinarian for further recommendations for preventing this in future foals.