An UPDATE on the Casiaic horses – dental, farrier, vets… the whole MAGILLA!

I wanted to give you an update on all 4 of the Castaic horses who are our October Bucket Fund horses: Red, Diamond, Lester and the TWH Mare who needs a name!!

LET’S NAME THE MARE!

Debra said that she thinks the donors should name this mare so that’s YOU all!

We’ve decided that any person who donates any amount today can put their name suggestion in the Pay Pal ‘comment’ box. Just indicate the name you’d like and I’ll keep track.

Once the day is over, I will send all the names to Debra and let her pick. Since she sees the mare all the time, the best name will probably pop out right in front of her from our list.

So, if you donate today, please give a name suggestion for this very sweet mare!

Nameless!

UPDATE ON THE TWH MARE

These are the emails I’ve received from Debra:

October 18:

She’s doing great! I posted last night about our vet visit yesterday. Attached are some pics. The vet actually said her (back) condition may be genetic. I’ve not seen a horse/foal born that way, but I guess it does happen. He also checked both front legs and found nothing wrong. Her front left hoof is squared off, so it’s obvious she drags that one more. Her shivering *seems* to be improving. We’ll see. She’s eating well, drinking tons and peeing and pooping as one would hope. I’ll deworm her in a week or so. I hate to do too much all at once, but she does not seem stressed. The vet saw no reason to do blood work, but her teeth were a mess – it’s been a few years since she has had dental care :( She was a very good patient for IV sedation, but she was very sedate tolerant! She needed a lot of drug on board before she got the least bit droopy and she came out of it fast! She was very good for her float. It took a long time and we used a hose to keep her mouth cool. It took me and Troy and the vet working together :) After her float, while she was still sleepy, I vaccinated her and brushed her mane out (it was matted). I brushed her tail too, but it was in good shape. She’s such a sweet, sweet girl.

That mare is huge! She is the darker mare behind Debra. Wow!

October 20:

Attached is the invoice for our vet visit. Given how much sedation he had to use I’m surprised that part didn’t cost
more. Dr. London is retired and works at the vet office part time these days, mostly to fill-in, so he has some discretion with
regard to billing; maybe he cut us a break :) I gave her the vac which I already had and our farrier, who had to put his very,
very old mare down earlier that same day, trimmed her feet ‘on the house’ in memory of his mare. So because the vet saw no need
to do blood work, her vet bill was nominal.

The equine dentist doing his thing…

I am traveling, so away from home, but Troy reported this morning that our sweet new mare (she really needs a name!) is no longer
eagerly waiting for the hay wagon. Instead she patiently waits at her tub. I think having a small amount of alfalfa and a bunch
of grass mix hay to keep her busy throughout the day is keeping her satisfied. We have been working on small amounts of grain
late at night, slowly increasing it until we get to about 2 pounds of equine senior, which all the oldies get each night about
11pm at late night barn check. On the first of each month we do psyllium to remove sand from their gut, so this timing works well
for her to have senior feed/grain in her diet – we mix the psyllium with bran and senior feed so she will be ready in a week for
her first psyllium treatment. At the end of her psyllium treatment I will deworm her. She’s on the right track :)

She is just such a pleasure to be around. She is friendly, respectful of space and easy to have in hand. Hard to belive someone
threw her away – she is obviously well trained. Well, she will have a forever home here with us and she will be loved on the rest
of her days.

Her unmatted mane! Today was a beauty day… Hair, feet, teeth and vet!

If you would like to help this mare, just click the link. Remember to give a name suggestion!!

RED, DIAMOND AND LESTER!

Good news!! We have reached our goal of $2700 for The Golden Carrot (even though the thermometer isn’t at $2700, TGC received donations straight to them which made up the difference) – and that amount makes good on my promise to Casey that if she gave theses horses a forever home, I would give her a boost to get her started with all the vet bills and feed bills.

These horses all need sponsors of any length and any amount. If you have fallen in love with any of them, you can follow their progress on THE GOLDEN CARROT FB page or you can sponsor one of them on this page!

Diamond is a beautiful creme color with blue eyes.

Here is the update from October 19!

Red has fallen in love with Daisy. Remy (Daisy’s ‘husband’) is mostly just trying to ignore it. The doc says he thinks Red is more like 18 years of age, and has a high pitched ejection heart murmur (lots of these old guys have heart murmurs, but this type is more rare. Not usually a big deal). His hoof test was “ok” and overall he seemed good. Now, I’m pretty sure Daisy bumped down a huge section of my fence, and went walkabout with Red, Remy and Ronan. I was pretty quick to realize a problem, and right behind him, so saw that it was RED who found the end of the fenceline, and took them out on the road, heading south as hard as he could go. I stumbled along behind, a big square of about 1.5 miles, only for us all to end up right in front of the property again. I caught Daisy and was correct – the boys all followed her right back in. I was furious with all of them – it took me another 2 hours to get the huge gap in the fence repaired – and so didn’t check them over altho I’d seen Remy stumble to his knees, and later found a big rock in Red’s shoe. I told him he deserved it. (yes, I removed it). So, he seems to have some leadership qualities…. (I wrote the shelter begging them to see if they could find and fax those papers for Red, but have to wonder if they are even his, if he’s only 18 …. Of course, they haven’t shown me the courtesy of a response.)

Diamond’s heart and lungs were ok, but his right eye has severe iris scarring from uveitis, and the left shows signs of low grade past uveitis as well. He does see, but we have to assume his vision is compromised somewhat. Doc told me to keep an eye out for tearing and squinting, which would indicate a recurrence which we can treat with steroidal antibiotic opthalmic ointment. Of course, I’m keeping a clean fly mask on him all day every day. The doctor also noticed severe arthritis in the ankles, no doubt caused by those buckled over knees. He gets around great tho, he and Lester cover the whole property every day. One final sadness is that Diamond’s tongue is barely attached, literally hanging by a thread of flesh. At some point long in the past, it was almost cut completely off! Now Dr. Z says he should have no problems eating and drinking, but wow. And he IS a chow hound. The doctor agrees with the age estimate of 14 years for Diamond. He recommends a light floating in about 3 months when Diamond has more weight on, just a few sharp areas that can be filed down.

Lester he estimates at 18, not 12. His temperature was good, heart and lungs normal, but he had low gut sounds in that one quadrant (remember I was worried because he’d left some pellets? after his exam by the doctor, he went into his stall and ate those pellets!) The doctor wasn’t concerned about a colic as Lester had been eating all day, bermuda grass and the sounds were low in the one area, not absent. Same with his teeth as Diamond.

The boys have learned the routine. Oddly, I’d say Red seems most excitable these days, but I guess having a girlfriend, and charging off property for a walkabout could comboobalate you. He knows his stall, eats all his food, and mostly just stands close to Daisy.

No doubt I’ve got 3 that fit my mission here. Although Diamond is younger than I normally would take, between his knees, ankles, eyes and geeze that tongue, he’s kind of a wreck. I figured I’d try to get pictures on Saturday and post them (will send some to you too) to show them at “a week”.