Tetanus Antitoxin in Foals
I was reading a fact sheet on foal care today that was available online. It was one of those sources that gives a mixture of good, mediocre and bad information. One thing that I didn't like was a reference to tetanus antitoxin administration being a common practice in newborn foals. That might have been the case a couple of decades ago, but it is certainly not recommended now.
Tetanus is certainly a serious problem in horses, and foals are at risk for exposure because the bacterium that causes the disease, Clostridium tetani, is widespread in the environment. Good measures need to be in place to reduce the risk of foals developing tetanus. The most important steps are:
- Ensure the mare is properly vaccinated for tetanus prior to foaling. This includes a booster that should be given approximately 30 days before foaling.
- Ensure that the foal gets enough good quality colostrum (see the information sheet on the Resources page for more details about colostrum for foals).
- Treat the umbilicus properly after birth (for more information, see our previous post entitled "Starting Out Right - Foal Umbilical Care").
If these things are done, there is no need to give tetanus antitoxin to a newborn foal. In fact, it's not only unnecessary, it's a potential health risk. Tetanus antitoxin neutralizes tetanus toxins that are in bloodstream. It used to be widely used in horses of all ages if they were wounded. However, administration of tetanus antitoxin has been associated with a disease called Theiler's Disease or serum hepatitis. While rare, this is a severe and almost always fatal liver disease.
Tetanus antitoxin is only potentially indicated in foals whose mares were not vaccinated against tetanus (or their vaccination status is unknown) and possibly in foals that did not receive adequate colostrum.
More information on tetanus, colostrum and vaccination recommendations can be found on the equIDblog Resources page.
