Lavender Foal Syndrome (LFS / CCDL, MYO5A)

Veterinary care required

This condition belongs in veterinary diagnosis and treatment. Compounds are at most supportive.

Priority · vet & management

An affected newborn is to be presented to the vet immediately; LFS is not treatable and not viable, so animal-welfare-appropriate veterinary decisions are in the foreground. For breeding, the carrier gene test of the parent animals is decisive.

Possible causes

• · autosomal-recessive mutation in the MYO5A gene
• · only homozygous foals affected; carriers clinically healthy
• · occurrence especially in Egyptian Arabian lines
• · disease manifest at birth, not viable

Supportive compounds · supplementary feed, not medication

Prevention

Gene testing of Arabian breeding animals and avoidance of carrier-x-carrier matings prevent affected foals.

Equiterna's take

Equiterna accompanies LFS dignifiedly and factually: at the centre are veterinary support of the newborn and the gene test of the parent animals — no promises of cure, no role for active substances.