At first, everything seems fine: Your foal was born without incident and started nursing as he should. But two days later, the baby quit suckling and began acting strangely–wandering around and pressing his head against the stall wall. Your youngster could have “dummy foal syndrome,” one of the most common and costly problems requiring intensive foal care.

Something’s Amiss

Dummy foal syndrome is a term applied to foals who demonstrate abnormal behaviors during the first few days of life, says Fairfield T. Bain, DVM, MBA, Dipl. ACVIM, ACVP, ACVECC, of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky. “In reality, it really is a vague set of clinical signs that probably represent a collection of different disorders, from true birth asphyxia with abnormal brain function to other medical or surgical illnesses that result in a weak or sleepy foal that may show signs such as lack of affinity for the mare or seizures,” he notes.

This medical condition is more formally known as neonatal maladjustment syndrome or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, says Carla Sommardahl, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, assistant professor of equine medicine and pathology at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Other common names for the condition have been wanderer foal or barker foal (because foals were reported to have abnormal vocalizations)