Lavender Foal Syndrome

This disease is fatal, and cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the horse.

Lavender foal syndrome is a rare congenital disorder that affects Arabian and Arabian-cross horses.

It is characterised by a distinctive lavender or blue-grey colouration of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes, caused by an accumulation of bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is a product of the breakdown of red blood cells, and in normal horses, it is removed from the body by the liver and excreted in the feces.

However, in horses with lavender foal syndrome, the liver is not able to remove the bilirubin from the blood, resulting in jaundice and the characteristic colouration of the skin and eyes.

Symptoms

Exclusively found in

Treatment

There is no specific treatment for lavender foal syndrome, and the prognosis is poor. Affected foals often die or are euthanised shortly after birth.

Prevention

Prevention of Lavender foal syndrome is not possible if a foal is born with it.

Lavender Foal Syndrome can however be prevented through genetic testing, which allows identification of carriers and enables selective breeding practices to avoid mating carriers and reduce the risk of producing affected foals.