Lethal White Snydrome???

[SacredWarGirl23]

Recently my family lost a foal to what is believed to be the Lethal White Snydrome. Can anyone here give me any info on it? I did some research on the web adn found out a lot, but I would like to know what everyone here knows about it.
Thanks
Haley

[MagnoliaFly]

I had an experience with it too at my stables, one of the paint mares had her first foal and it died with lethal white syndrome. Our trainer told us it runs in paint horse genes and it is passed down by the sire (its been a while so I apologise if this isnt accurate). It didnt eat and the mare didnt take much interest in it. It died a couple days after being born. A friend of mine rode down to the stables with me and we were there for a few hours holding it up trying to get it to drink some of the mares milk but it just was too weak.

It was really jaundiced (yellow eyes, means liver failure) and they tried enemas but it didnt work.

What did you find out about it? I'm curious.

[SacredWarGirl23]

Well, the Lethal White Gene is most commonly found in Paint Overo's, but it can be carried in any horse. Normally it is not carried in solid colored horses, but it can be. Also, thoroughbreds are suppose to be another big carrier of it. My mare that lost the baby is a light bay Quarab. She is a solid light bay except on her hind legs she has some color. So that could be where the gene comes in. The mare and the stallion HAVE to have the gene, but even if they are breed together that does not mean that the foal will be a Lethal White. But I would not take chances of something like this happening again. As far as I know, light colored horses do not have to have anything to do with the gene. There are going to be light colored horses that don't have the gene. You just want to be careful with the Paint Overo's and the thoroughbreds. Also it is good to know the breeding of a horse that you are getting. Know my mom and I don't think that mustangs can carry the gene, but it is possible. Somewhere along their bloodlines they could have had some kind of thoroughbred or Paint breeding in them in which the stallion carried the gene and it was passed down to them, but I don't think that it is too likely. The gene has to be passed down through breeding. In other words, a stallion just can't walk up to another stallion and get the gene. And ALL babies that are Lethal Whites will die because they can not pass anything that they take in pass their intestons(I can't spell). Say someone bred a mare and a stallion and the stallion possed the Lethal WHite Gene. The gene could be passed down to the baby and the baby wouldn't have to be a Lethal White, but it still could posses the gene. When the horse grew up it could be used for breeding, but you would have to be prepared to get a foal with the Lethal White Syndrome. You can have your horses tested for the gene if you are going to use that horse for breeding, exspecially if you have a Paint or a Thoroughbred. I think that I would test all my stallions for it though, just to be safe. I think that they can test for it through hair or blood samples and it only costs $50 to test for it which isn't bad.

Actually a Lethal White foal will be all white, have pink skin, blue eyes, and they can have a limited amount of black on them. My baby was all white except it had a little black on it's ears and some sorrel and black on it's tail. It also had pink skin, blue eyes.

Some of the babies will try to eat. My baby ate some, but no a lot. We were able to get it up and it nursed. Mir(that's what I called it. It's actual name was Miracle Unleashed, because we thought that it was going to live and it would've been a Miracle if it did. but no Lethal WHite can live.)was a little fighter. My mom and I took turns trying to get it to nurse. Everytime you would try to touch it's backend it would try to kick you. He was a sweety and tried to live. He was such a fighter I was hoping that he could get through this. At the time we did not know that he possed the Syndrome so I was hoping.

Well that is about all I know on the subject.

Haley

[McCaille]

About 4 years ago my friend's Overo Mare had accidentally been bred by her Overo Stallion when he 'escaped' and seduced her. The foal though was born Lethal White and had to be put down the same afternoon. It was very hard on all of us, and the mare.

"Long time breeders of paint horses have always dreaded the birth of an all white foal. These foals will usually die after hours of painful colic. Since these foals do not develop nerve cells in the lower part of their gastrointestinal tract, they are unable to pass their meconium, the foals first feces. Lethal white foals are usually produced when an overo mare is crossed with an overo stallion."
"Besides being all white, the foals often have blue eyes and clear hooves. They nurse and appear normal for the first few hours. At about 5 hours after birth they may start to show signs of colic such as looking at their flank, straining to urinate and rolling. They develop pain because they cannot pass their feces. No treatment has been found and the most humane course of action is to euthanize the foal as soon as possible."
~http://www.vet.purdue.edu/horses/LethalWhiteSyndromeFoals.html


"OLWS foals have blue eyes and are completely or almost completely white at birth. These foals initially appear normal except for their unusual coloring. After a varying period of time, troubling signs of colic emerge due to the foal's inability to pass feces. The OLWS foal has an underdeveloped, contracted intestine caused by a failure of the embryonic cells that form nerves in the gastrointestinal system. Oddly enough, these cells also play a role in determining skin color. There is no treatment for OLWS, and surgery to bypass the intestinal damage has never been successful due to the extensive nature of this type of lesion. Veterinarians advise euthanasia for all OLWS foals because death will inevitably occur from colic caused by fatal constipation."
~http://www.netpets.com/horses/healthspa/lethal.html

[gunieagirl]

is this the thing where the foal can't digest its food?

[RabbitMage]

From what I understand the bowels of the foal are not fully formed and so what food they can process they cannot pass, and they suffer from fits of colic until they poison themselves.