From: Katy Hi, I have a Morgan filly, foaled at the end of April, who seems to be shedding out strangely. She was born a sorrel, with white socks and a star. She had very little hair on her muzzle and around her eyes when she was born, and as she has gotten older, those places have gotten larger and she is growing dark brown hair there. She is obviously going to turn a darker color, as there are patches all over where the hair is turning color underneath. She is also very itchy. When she was three weeks old, she found a corner on the feed trough and itched a large patch of hair off her chest. She rubs against the trees a lot and much of her hair is looking broken off and dull. The pen is very dusty, due to a dry year, and of course, she lies down in it a lot. I do try to keep the manure cleaned out so it is pretty much just dirt.
We bought the mare in mid May, when the foal was two weeks old, and brought them home to a pasture which is treed with spruce trees and there is no grass. The mare had a very hard winter and was quite underweight when we bought her. We have put on a lot of weight and have been giving her Mare Plus, Omalene 300 and timothy hay. The mare looks great now and is picking up in energy. The filly has grown like a weed and has lots of energy too. We feed the foal Omalene 300 and have been giving her vegetable oil to try and help the itchiness. The mare has been wormed and vet checked and all checked out ok. As we are in Alaska, parasites and flies are not much of a problem, and I use Repel for mosquitoes, so I don't think it's that.
My question is, why is she so itchy, and is it normal for her to be changing color already? (She's now just over two months old.) Could the itchiness be related to poor nutrition in the womb? I have also heard of something called spruce lice, which horses get from pasturing in spruce trees. Have you ever heard of that? Or is it just keeping her in a dusty pen. I've also noticed her feet seem to be growing out black now. She was born with white feet. Is that normal?
Thanks for your help, Katy
Healthy spring and summer foals usually lose their first coat of hair sometime during the first few months, as it is replaced with a proper summer coat. The coat-colour that a foal is born with often bears little or no resemblance to the colour of its adult coat. The "foal fur" will usually wear off around the eyes and muzzle first, and an April foal that seems to have a light-brown coat will often begin to show its true colours -- bay or chestnut -- when it begins to lose its baby coat. This is normal, and not something to worry about, even if your foal spends a month or two looking as if it is wearing goggles. ;-)
ANY horse of any age is going to be itchy when it is shedding a coat! The new coat is growing in underneath it, and the old coat is becoming loose. Horses that are shedding out will often rub against fenceposts, trees, the corners of sheds, and anything else that will stand still for it -- including humans.
If you want to become your young filly's best friend, get a stiff, scratchy brush and start grooming her daily. You'll find that she will stand stock-still for as long as your arm will hold out, especially if you are brushing her withers or the top of her croup. These are places that get particularly itchy, and horses can only relieve the itching by rolling or by getting other horses to groom them in those spots. Horses do this by going up to a buddy-horse and starting to groom they horse in the spots that THEY would like to be groomed, so don't be surprised if your filly reaches around and attempts to groom YOU. You can discourage her gently -- she's not trying to bite you, this is a normal horse reaction -- because it's not a behaviour you want her to exhibit with humans. Horse mutual-grooming activities can be fairly rough. Also, you don't want her to get slapped by some other person who will be handling her later and doesn't understand that she is trying to make grooming motions!
This is how a lot of horses get badly misunderstood, and hurt, in later life. There are many behaviours that horse-owners see as "cute" or "sweet", and encourage in their horses, without stopping to think that (a) the behaviour may be dangerous to the human, and (b) even if it is NOT dangerous, a human who isn't expecting the behaviour will usually interpret it as aggression or lack of training, and will yell at or slap the horse. When you work with your foal, try to keep this in mind, and teach the way you would teach a child: bring her up to have the kind of manners that will make her welcome everywhere.
Talk to your vet about the filly's diet. If she is getting enough nutrition from her hay and concentrates, she's unlikely to eat spruce needles. I would be a little cautious about feeding large quantities of vegetable oil, though, for three reasons. One is that it's pure fat, which is excellent for putting and keeping weight on older horses without stressing their digestive systems, but is not necessarily the correct feed for a growing baby. A foal getting extra oil may not eat enough of the foods she actually needs for healthy growth. Another is that oil alone can cause problems if the horse isn't fed sufficient vitamin E. If you still want to feed oil, talk to your vet about getting a vitamin E supplement (natural, not synthetic) to add to her diet. Finally, adding any single element to a diet that your vet has selected for your foal may unbalance a diet that was previously balanced! This first year of a horse's life is very important; most of your foal's growth will take place during this year.
Give your filly as much turnout time as possible for the next few years -- full-time if you can manage it. Living in a stall or pen will not sustain the activity level she needs to be healthy and sound and coordinated as an adult horse. Confinement won't let her bones and neuromuscular system develop as they need to, and there is no way to make up for that later. Lots of running space, including some hills if possible, and the company of other horses her own age and older -- that, plus an appropriate diet and your good care, will help her grow up to be everything she should be.
If your vet hasn't found any specific condition or parasite that could lead to unusual itching, you're almost certainly dealing with a typical foal in the process of losing its baby coat. Keep that stiff brush handy, spend some time using it every day, and without even trying, you'll teach your filly that she can count on you to make her feel good. That's a very good basis for a successful long-term relationship.
Jessica
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