After Surgery UpDate on Buddy!

Buddy was getting prepared for surgery by Dr Christine Murray and Dr Bill Walker so everything would go well for Buddy's eye to be removed.  It took about an hour but all went well. 

Buddy was sedated and relaxed now.

Now Buddy looks like a wounded war horse! 

Poor Baby!

He still seems to be having some pain but we are hoping it will all get better in a day or two. Hos bandages should come off in a few days.the stitches will be taken out in 2 weeks.

He looks so pitiful!

We put a hay bag in the stall so his head will stay up and eat hay It is unnatural for a horse to eat like this but eating lower could cause bleeding though the eye socket. Buddy walked up to the hay bag and sniffed it. It has alfalfa orchard hay in it. He didn't take any. He stepped back. I pulled a little hay from the bag and offered it to him. He took it and ate it but still didn't go toward the bag. I pulled some hay part way out of the bag, then he walked forward and started nibbling on it. He may never have seen a hay bag before, He figured it out! Tonight he is resting comfortably in the stall. 

We still have a few concerns. Is his eye the only damage his did to his head? We hope it all subsides in a day or two. If not, we may have to look into a deeper injury. We are hoping not and keeping out fingers crossed. Keep your thoughts and prayers coming!

   Thank you all. WE are Rescue! YOU are Rescue, too!

Buddy Update!

Buddy needs his eye removed. 

Dr Murray and Dr Walker are a team. Sadly, eye removals are becoming more common. Buddy has been here at SaveTheHorses less than 24 horse and he must think we are the meanest people trying to look and clean his eye. I hope he knows we are trying to help him. Everyone is giving him lots of love. 

He can not open his eye. It is painful and he stands uncomfortable. His eye will be removed Friday, August 29 at 3 pm. 
His eye is not repairable and he will feel so much better when it is not in pain. He is being given anti pain medications to keep him as comfortable as possible.

We will post after the surgery. Say a prayer for him.
Thank you for your thoughts and good wishes.

WE are Rescue! Thanks to YOU!

Help Our New Buddy!

This guy is in serious pain.

When he arrived yesterday, he was stressed. It was hard to tell if it was from pain or from traveling and being in a new place. He slowly circled in his stall and put his lip up and over to the side with the bad eye. We gave him some anti inflammatory medication. It did help a bit. He nibbled at the hay and grain we tried to offer as comfort to him. He even refused treats. 

He somehow injured his eye. The owner had veterinarians at Southern Crescent Equine in Newnan GA had been trying to save his eye. SaveTheHorses has worked with Southern Crescent veterinarians before of critical cases so again they suggested to the owner to call us. I offered to help with the cost of removing the eye which was quoted at $700.00. I asked the owner how much they could come up with and explained we could help raise money to help. We would rather help people keep their horses. It is always a first choice. So I was surprised the declined and said they didn't want Buddy any more. Maybe dealing with the eye was just too hard. Our first thought is he will end up on Craigslist, not treated and slaughtered. 

We planned on cleaning his eye out but just touching near the eye makes Buddy tense. Our veterinarian should be here later today to see what is under that mess. Sedating him will make it much easier on him and on all of us. 

 Thank you for your compassion and generosity.
 WE are Rescue!
It does take all of us to help these needy horses! 

Jon Michael give love to Dixie Kitten. 

It has been 11 months since we agreed to bring in Thoroughbred Dixie Kitten, a former race horse and long time brood mare. She didn't have any value to most people because she was in poor shape nutritionally and had severe founder. Her owner was paying board to keep her at a local farm but he moved out of state for his job. The local farm told him of Dixie's condition and wanted to have her euthanized. After all, she was used up. She had a 3 year old baby at her side and had lost a baby not long before we were called. 

She is a very sweet mare. She is one of everyone's favorites. She is also a heart breaker. We have worked so hard trying to keep her comfortable. There are days when she is down more than she is up. There are days when she walks around and seems like we are helping her get better, then she lays down and seems like it is hopeless. 

You can see the crack where frequent abscesses break out

Same on this foot, asbcesses often.

We had a few sets of radio graphs done to compare if our time and efforts, along with very tender loving care, have helped. Dr Ken Marcella, Dr Kerri Porter and Dr Christine Murray have seen her, blocked her feet and made great suggestions as to how to help Dixie. Farrier John Stikes and barefoot trimmer Jan Hester have trimmed Dixie's feet. We have wrapped her feet, soaked them, cleaned them, picked them and put on numerous products to help.
She gets well, or at least seems better then gets such terrible abscesses she goes down again. 

Are we making her suffer? Do we value life so much that we block seeing the suffering? It is such a hard decision to make. We want the best for Dixie. Want her comfortable. Believe me, this is a serious discussion at the barn and a serious discussion with myself at 3 am when I lay there weighing the options. Euthanasia is a serious choice, no turning back. 

After 11 months, we had hoped for more progress. We are not giving up yet. We have spoken with the Vetrixinc company, provider of extracellular matrix (ECM) technologies about injection Dixie's feet with the matrix. They helped SaveTheHorses rescue horse, Chevelle, who we brought in from Louisianna after he was hot by a car and was at animal control in need of help. The Vetrix people are consulting with veterinarians and we are hoping she may be a good candidate and that is provides us the miracle we are hoping for! Say a Prayer for Dixie.

Bugg Update is Great!

Our little Bugg an is doing well. It really was tough and go. Every morning as I went into the barn, I held my breath hoping I'd find a happy pony,not one on the groups struggling for his life. Your prayers and good wishes worked. 

He is slowly gaining weight but his hydration was the most concerning and that is now at normal, which is excellent.

He is getting lots of love from the volunteers. He loves every human and animal he comes in contact with. 

Just a golly good pony! 

Thank you for caring! 

No! No! No! We Have No Room For Another Horse!

That is what I said, NO! And I meant it!

Honestly, we have no room for another horse. Period! 

I was actually sending an email telling someone telling them, I can't take their horses right now, because we have no room, but that I would be happy to help in any way I can. I  answered the knock at the door and that changed everything.

Then as my friends told me about a small, frail horse just moved to the pasture they lease, about 4 days ago, I had to find a place for him. It had to be immediately. I honestly think he would have died today sometime. Yes he was malnourished when he got to the 35 acre pasture. He was able to at least eat grass but the water is at a creek at the edge of the property. It seems he didn't make it there at all. He was extremely dehydrated, extremely weak. My friends have been giving him a little feed and they did last night, too. Then went around and feed their own horses. By the time all horses were fed, they came back to check on him and he had the grain stuck in his mouth. There wasn't enough moisture in his saliva to move the grain down his throat. They literally had to put their hand in his mouth and remove it. It make me want to cry. It made me say 'Yes'. 

You can see how dehydrated he is here. 

The land owner called the owner of this horse and gave us permission to take him. I really should have it all in writing but it couldn't wait. We can really get in trouble for doing it all orally but we couldn't leave him there. Today, paperwork will be signed.

no muscle, not fat, no energy

So just before dark, we hooked up the trailer and road up to Jasper. We found him standing in the clearing, head down, but happy to see us. I think he knew we were there to help. We slowly and steadily helped him down the hill to the gate. He wasn't able to walk in a straight line at all. He was that weak. He was covered with rain rot on his skin and has a sunburned nose. Once we got him to the trailer we dosed him with electrolytes to give him a much needed boost. 
 

He was an emergency. He would have died.

One the way home, I spoke with Dr Hugh Worsham from Foxdale Equine, about the condition of this guy. He was on call in case we needed him to come during the night if he wasn't hydrating.
 

Covered in rain rot.

He road well as we slowly made the trip back to the farm. He was happy to see horses when he arrived. He's really sweet. We gave him a nice cool hosing in the wash rack to get his body temperature down. He had lice, too. The poor guy had no nutrition to fight anything. We put him in a stall with some nice alfalfa hay and a big bowl of alfalfa soup with minerals.  He loved slurping on it.  

This has to be painful.

He is doing good this morning, bright eyed and whinnying. More soupy mix, more minerals, salts, vitamins and he will slowly recover unless his organs took a toll from the dehydration. The next few weeks will be touch and go. All we can do it our best and offering everything to overcome his poor condition. I am not sure the owner will give him up. Hopefully she will let us at least keep him until he is healthy and get a new start on life. We are time-sharing a stall for him, yes, imagine, Time-share stalls. Hey, it works!

The volunteers already all agreed his name should be Bugg. He has great big, sweet soft eyes that beg for love! He is getting lots of love today!

It is what we do. WE are Rescue! 

(That is a collective WE, including you!)

Thank you for your constant help, support, prayers and good thoughts. They keep us going, they keep us strong.

Boston Marathon and Buggs

Last year, while we were all mourning the Boston Marathon bombing with the rest of the county, here in our horse community, we had our own sadness. 

We took in a mare from animal control hoping to find her a good home. Tracy Hunter agreed to foster her. She was very thin and in need of good nutrition. As time passed, the mare gained weight and Tracy had a suspicion that Bugsy was in foal. After a vet check, an ultrasound showed no foal. Bugsy continued to gain weight and became uncomfortable. Tracy called the vet again and this time confirmed the pregnancy. Bugsy was not a happy horse. She was getting everything she needed but seems unhappy. 

Feb 2013 and 2 months to go, Bugsy was growing bigger.

Tracy watched Bugsy gain weight at a rapid speed. After another vet check a few months later, it was confirmed Tracy was right, Bugsy was in foal. Once you know a horse is in foal, you look at her everyday, wondering if today may be the day. Bugsy seemed to be uncomfortable every day. Tracy gave her hugs and kisses but it couldn't take away the uneasy feeling something was wrong. The more miserable Bugsy was, the more Tracy was concerned. It became daily posts about Bugsy until the day came Bugsy was really in labor. Tracy, her daughter, Maddie and Jackie, who are all horse savvy were there to help. It wasn't going well. Bugsy was having a hard time, she was in obvious distress. Humans hands were there to tenderly help the foal be delivered. Another panic moment when the umbilical cord broke and the newborn foal was hemorrhaging. Humans hands again there to help. Many horses are left alone to have their babies but Tracy had the instinct to keep a close watch on this one, thankfully so. 

Bugsy was also bleeding. It was hard to tell if it was just from the birth or was she hemorrhaging as well. She surely was not a normal mare because she was not acknowledging her newborn as her instincts would call her to do. As she stood a few feet from her foal, her eyes were glazed. Her body trembling and her heart rate and respiration rising along with her temperature. The vet was on her way but it would be a while before she arrived. She told us what medication to give her to help make Bugsy comfortable but it didn't ease any pain for sweet Bugsy. Our hearts were aching for her. To stand their helplessly and watch was painful. All we could do it try and be gentle, stroke her and reassure her it would be better soon. 

Bugsy  quietly looked down at her new baby and gave her a quiet tender whinny but she didn't have the strength to do more than that. Not knowing if Bugsy would survive, Tracy started milking Bugsy to get the needed colostrum Baby Buggs would need to survive. A baby bottle was given to the baby and momma was milked again. 
Bugsy was suffering. The closest large animal hospital was 3 hours away and there is no way Bugsy would survive the trip. One the vet arrived, she knew the only way to relieve her suffering was to let her go peacefully. Now Baby Buggs was an orphan and her survival was up to us. Colostrum is so important the first 12 hours after birth, we had to put out a call for colostrum, fresh or frozen, because we felt that we didn't get enough into the foal even though Bugsy gave us 30 ounces, it was not enough. 

 Horse lovers sent out the word and we soon found 80 ounces of frozen colostrum nearby. Tracy set up a mattress in the stall and Maddie cuddled up with baby Buggs to keep her warm and give her a bottle every hour. To raise an orphan, you have to be dedicated,,,Sleepless nights!

Buggs sleeping in his bed. 

No Momma but still needs milk!

The next morning Baby Buggs' bloodwork was good, one less worry but we had to organize to get 24 hour humans to take the place of the mare. Baby Buggs was transported to the SaveTheHorses farm. Everyone volunteered to spend time with this little cutie. 

Everyone's heart was captivated by this little orphan.

She was happy to get all the attention she was being showered with. Everyone couldn't get enough of her cuteness! She is thriving on human love and good care giving.

 Our biggest problem is that she thinks she is human. She has no interest in horses. Why should she? They did nothing for her. It was the humans that gave her milk, gave her attention and loved on her. We hoped teaching her to lead may give her the idea that she was a horse.

Natalie asked her to take a walk.

Look at Buggs today... 

Beautiful young mare Buggs

As we still weep for Bugsy, we are happy that our little miracle is thriving in a good home. But every year, when we memorialize the Boston Bombings, We will also remember the sweet mare, Bugsy, and offer a silent prayer for her also.