CrookedLegsin Foals
By Laura McCormick
AT LAST, THE DAY HAS ARRIVED and your new foal is here! You’ve done everything right for the last eleven months and your mare has thankfully produced a perfect, healthy baby. You shower it with kisses and love and watch carefully for the first few days as he or she develops. Everything is completely normal as your foal runs and plays in the field.
a few horsey friends what they think. They unfortunately confirm that your perfect little foal does appear to have a crooked front leg. So you call your veterinarian, and after he or she does a full examination, you learn that your foal has something called ALD.
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An Overview of ALD Angular Limb Deformity (ALD) is defined by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons as “a deviation from the normal axis of the limb in the frontal plane.” This deviation can happen from the knee, the fetlock or the hock. It is mostly seen in the front legs but can also occur in hind legs. The two types of deformities, valgus and varus (see diagram at right), can be fixed surgically within the appropriate time frame, but in some instances time left alone or non-surgical treatments will fix certain ALDs. So what causes ALD in foals? Limb deformity is not
specific to breed or age. A four-day-old Thoroughbred filly has the same chance of being affected as a four-month-old Dutch Warmblood colt. Depending on possible foaling complications, nutrition problems or injury, any foal of any breed is susceptible to an ALD. Congenital factors include premature birth, twin pregnancy, placentitis and perinatal soft tissue trauma. Potentially any of these situations would prevent a foal’s bones from developing completely. Pressure and impact on cuboidal (small) bones that have not completely ossified can cause the bones to be crushed, which will lead to an ALD. Ossification is the term used to describe tissue turning to bone. Bone begins as cartilage, which aligns as columns and allows blood vessels to penetrate, adding cells to make bone.
Pictured above: Newborn “Luminary RBF” at the farm. Warmbloods Today 55
eeks, maybe months, pass by, then one day you suddenly notice that your youngster’s front leg doesn’t look straight. You’re not sure, so you ask
Developmental factors that occur in older foals causing an ALD include unbalanced nutrition, excessive exercise or a traumatic incident. Too much protein or fat will cause the bone to grow faster than the supportive tissue surrounding it. It is essential to make sure foals receive an adequate amount of grain and forage without feeding them too much. It is also important that foals are able to run and play in the field. However, too much exercise can lead to small fractures and crushing of the growth plate. Finally, an acute injury can also cause damage to the bone and result in disproportionate growth. You may have heard the medical term “physis,” what most call the growth plate. The physis is responsible for the growth of long bone. It is the space between the center of the long bone, the diaphysis, and the end of the long bone,
Laura McCormick
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