Farrier Blues

Okay, so I promised you a farrier update. It was an interesting/rough day for the babies, so I have neglected to write the post. This is supposed to journal our journey with the ups and downs of rescuing/adopting Nurse Mare babies. All of the pictures are of Bonfire, but all of the babies had a very similar prognosis/diagnosis/etc. So, here we go:

BEFORE:

The front feet didn't show many symptomatic issues other than being extremely long. This was likely due to a lack of farrier care for the first 3/4/5 months of their lives. Normal colts and fillies are able to slough off the long toe if they are on normal turnout/stall rotation or else they need farrier care to help them. These babies were turned out on very soft pasture and therefor did not slough their toes. Bonfire still had a portion of baby toes, which should not have happened after 5 months!

My farrier loves to talk about the theory and function behind hooves and educate his clients on what he is seeing in the hooves. You can see the result of this on the white board behind us! I love this about the farrier. I have learned so much in just the last 3 times he has been to the barn.

The back feet are where the major issues occurred. As you can see in the BEFORE pictures, the heel is extremely low and the toe is so long that it is rotating up and pulling the heels in front of the fetlock pastern angle. We through out many causes. The general thought is that the result is lack of trimming; however, the farrier was also contemplating tendon laxity. 

As he was trimming the feet, we realized that the blood supply to the feet had moved. Where we should have had outer hoof wall to easily clip away, blood began showing. This was a little scary. The farrier wasn't sure why the low heels had caused such a dramatic change in the blood flow. 

The farrier took a lot of photos to post to his farrier forums to see if he could get some group think on the situation. He is fairly confident in our solution, but it doesn't hurt to get other opinions as well.

AFTER:

The final product looked much better than the beginning; however, the amount of hoof that he was able to take off was limited by the blood flow change. Before he left we agreed to research "Foal Cuffs", which would support the hoof and help promote heel growth. 

The farrier called me back the next day. He had taken the next step to speak with my vet (he was doing some work on her horses anyways) about the pipsqueaks (as he calls them, I like it!). She said that she believed the issue was poor early nutrition and lack of muscle tone. She suggested waiting to see about their feet as they gain weight and muscle. I much prefer this answer due to the cost of the foal cuffs plus the cost and time of my farrier to come out to the barn every two weeks to do the therapy. 

Foal Cuffs are not out of the question, but I have been closely watching their feet and so far so good. Hopefully with good food and good trimming they will be doing good by Spring. That is my vet's opinion, so I am happy!

Rainy Day...

What do you do when your weather shows:

Not much...

Since the foals can't go out and play and eat grass I have concocted a mash type feed for them to snack on in the stalls. I first shredded about 2 scoops of Alfalfa cubes, I added a couple scoops of EquiPride. I added 1 pound of Sentinel Senior Feed. Finally I added a couple scoops of Calf Manna. I added hot water and mushed it together and separated it in to 5 different feed pans and scattered them around the stall. They really really seem to enjoy it! Now I just have to watch and make sure that they don't eat it too fast as it was meant to replace grazing on the green grass. 

I leave you with these adorable pictures from a few days ago. These a two of my Work Study students giving Spartan a bath!

I love his expression! hahaha

He looks so puny all wet... 

I am working on a post about their Farrier visit...it was...interesting for sure. 

Where's the Pony?

So, the farrier had a conflict emergency and had to reschedule for tomorrow, so no cute baby farrier photos. Instead, a photo montage of how a 4 month old foal gives his mom a heart attack (and a glimpse into how my brain works!

"Oh, I should check on how my babies are doing in their new paddock. One. Two. Where is Three?"

"Oh No! He got out under the fence. The whole property is fenced so he has to be here somewhere. Wait that cow got in a couple days ago, what if he finds that hole?"

"Ok, so I need to call my husband and tell him. Oh, no how am I going to tell him? What about my work study students? They are going to be heart broken and never want to come ride again."

"Then what is the point of my job if the girls don't want to ride?So, I am going to be jobless, missing a horse, hated by my husband, and crying in a corner."

"I am a failure!"

"Aww how cute, taking a nap in the grass. My horses are so adorable!"

Yes, that is how my brain works...

Vet Results

Well the vet has left and the prognosis is good. She believes that Dakota simply pulled a muscle or stretched a tendon getting up in the stall or tripping over her own feet. She prescribed massaging the leg and controlled exercise. Luckily the babies don't run and play and frolic like normal foals. They are like tiny adult horses in turnout.

On their new paddock with Grass!

My barn assistant and I used some ropes and created the babies their own little paddock in an unused field that is full of bright green grass! Now, they are able to graze and be turned out! While she was out the vet went aheadhistory, she understood. She told me to get them a more leafy and softer (orchard probably) hay, which I am now on the hunt for, ugh. She also recommended Alfalfa cubes soaked in water for the extra protein. Finally, she gave me an ointment for their eyes. She agreed with me that the snotty noses and runny eyes was allergies due to the new environment and their compromised immune systems. 

and did a "well baby" exam on the boys. She was shocked at Spartan's lack of size and lack of any muscle mass, but when I explained his

Yummy Yummy green grass! 

Farrier appointments are tomorrow!

I also had to play cattle wrangler today when one of our neighbor's cows escaped in to our field. I really really dislike cows. They need to stay where they are told!

Vet Call....already...

The foals have been in my life for 11 days. 11 days. ELEVEN! It is crazy when I think about it. One one hand they still seems so new and novel and on the other, I am so much in love that I feel like I have had them forever! A few things have popped up already. 

When they first arrived they had snottty noses and runny eyes. I have pretty much attributed this to the new environment, new hay, stress of moving, etc. As they have gone out in the paddock more and more they seem to have cleared up. Every now and then Bonfire will still have a snotty nose, but it is getting far less frequent. 

Bonfire's eye

For a few days I was beginning to worry about Bonfire as he was the snottiest both in his eyes and his nose. A few day later his eyes got bright red. I flushed them out and they next day they were far less inflamed. All I can think is he got some shavings or hay in his eye. I think that really it has all been allergies. I was to get them out in the pasture more, but we have rope fences and they don't exactly respect the fence. The electricity isn't working correctly, so I am waiting on our maintenance team to come check it out. 

Not a great picture, but you get the idea

I am working on fencing in a new section of pasture which has amazing grass to turn them out in during the day when I am here. If they are out as a group I haven't noticed them testing the fence. The biggest issue is when I begin to bring them in. The last horse out never likes to be the only one out, so that is when the fence testing begins. I still don't trust them to be out by themselves if I am not here. I know that is silly, I mean if they test the fence, get out, and gallop away there isn't a whole lot I can do, but I feel better being here anyway. Mom things...

Dakota also had some abrasions on her nose that worried me for a few days. I think she was just extremely sunburned from living 24/7 outside with her pink nose and it began healing/scabbing. 

Dakota's nose after eating. 

After wiping the nose clean

Bumps and nodules on the side of her nose also

The bumps were on both the pink part and black parts of her nose, so I am not positive that it was sunburn. I kept it as clean as I could, put sunscreen on her when she went out to the pasture and TriCare on her when she was in her stall. It seems to have cleared up nicely. 

Yesterday one of my volunteers was feeding and said that Dakota bit her ear. I was really concerned as even in only 11 days, I know that is not like her. When I fed yesterday evening she was acting really strange. Very stand offish and a little grumpy. I chalked it up to being scared from the biting incident as I am sure the volunteer screamed or flailed about or something. Today when I showed up; however, her front left leg was extremely swollen. 

Compare front left leg (right side of photo) to front right leg (left side of photo)

Compare front left leg (right side of photo) to front right leg (left side of photo)

So, I think the biting incident and the standoffishness was probably Dakota trying to tell me that she didn't feel very good. I called the vet who advised SMZ (Sulfamethoxazole) antibiotics in some whole fat plain vogurt (for the probios and taste) until she could get by to take a look tomorrow. I will update you as I know more of what is going on with the leg. I hope that it is nothing serious! Shane is really worried about his baby. I wouldn't be as worried except that the swelling has extended up through the knee and down through the fetlock. 

So, not a whole lot to report on the foal front other than gooshy eyes, snotty noses, and swollen legs. This better not be a sign of things to come!!!!!!

I will leave you with the following feel good images, because who doesn't love a barn cat helping with chores!

Where do we begin?

I have three foals. I am not sure it has fully sunk in yet. I look in to the stall every morning and there are three adorable, eager, and intelligent faces staring at me. This is a dream that I have been dreaming for 15 years, and I made it come true. But...Now what?

Spartan (left), Dakota (center), Bonfire (right)

I am training the foals using a modified straight use of the Clinton Anderson Foal Training Kit. I say modified because even his non-imprinted colt that he shows is only 1 month old. Bonfire, at 5 months, is significantly stronger and larger than his colt. Even Spartan, at maybe 150lbs soaking wet, is 3 months older than his colt and has 3 more months or brain development! 

So, where to begin. Unlike normal, younger foals, I have to start with halter breaking due to not being able to hold on to them without one! The rescue that we got the foals from was very careful to not do anything with the foals. I actually really appreciate this as the foals are raw and do not have any bad habits or spoiled tendencies or rottenness yet! So, for the first day, I worked to get the halter on them and to teach them to lead by neck and butt rope. 

With this method, you pull lightly on the rope around the neck, and follow it with pressure on the butt rope. This teaches them that pressure on the neck rope means come forward. After they learned that pressure on the neck moves forward, we did the same exercise with pressure on the halter and pressure on the butt. Within an hour all three of the foals were leading! I have never had a horse that learns this fast. This is going to be a huge adjustment. They learn so quickly! 

7 minutes in to the leading exercise