I just had a Shetland foal born on Monday that does not have her left eye. It is mostly closed with eye lids and eye lashes, no other facial deformaties and her right eye is normal (brown eye, not blue). She also has angular limb deformaties but can get up and down fine, nurses well, and seems to have no internal problems. My vet feels like her legs will straighten up with time and limited exercise. The mare is a 20 year old red roan sabino and the sire is a 6yr old bay splash overo (minimum marked). The filly is pretty much classic red roan sabino...apron face with freckles, big belly white, four high white stockings. I have raise a lot of foal and have never had one born with only on eye. Any information on the subject would be appreciated!
Renee Posted From: 203.49.156.174
Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 07:12 pm:
Leah, I had a friend that had a mini born with only one eye, it was because the mare was extremely sick in her first 3months of pregnancy, and was on some antibiotics. They asked the vet to abort the mare due to this illness and the antibiotics, and the vet told them that the mare would have lost the foal due to the stress of the illness, and the antibiotics anyway, so not to worry... later that year, a very weak, one eyed, foal was born, that looked as though he was dummy. They bottle fed him, and he slowly but surely picked up, and is now a lovely happy little colt. Anyway, my point is, that sometime in her early pregnancy, was the mare sick, or on any type of antibiotics?? From this experience, that can most certainly be the cause of your little one eyed filly..
Sometimes these things happen due to screw-ups during development, just a malfunction of one growth/development "signal" will do it - doesn't have to be genetic/inherited.
We had a mare who gave birth to 6 normal foals by 2 different stallions (both related). Foal #7 looked totally normal, but the retina in one eye was defective, and he was totally blind in that eye. (took us a little while to realize why he was skittish on one side.)
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