This story comes from Idaho Equine Hospital.
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THE STORY
Our #foalfriday this week is definitely a story with a silver lining. The foal belongs to Gale and Elaine Burns and this little colt had a bit of a rough start to life. He lost his mama at about 10 days of age. She had suffered damage to the nerves that control her bladder and damage to her intestine-both as part of the foaling process-and had to be put down due to the extent of her injuries. We worked with the colt at the hospital to train him to drink from a pan, but he did not like the milk replacer and was not eating like we thought he should. Gale had a couple of mares at home that had recently had foals and he felt like one of them might be receptive to taking on another foal. We sent the colt home and gave Gale some medication to give the mare to help make her more receptive to the foal. While he was introducing the orphan foal to his mare Carmel, he moved her foal off to the other side of the barn hoping this would make her more tolerant of the little orphan. He gave Carmel the shot and introduced her to the new foal. Initially she was receptive to the foal, but as the day went on she became suspicious and less accepting. Gale gave her a second round of the medication, this time she took the new foal and never looked back.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the barn, Gale’s other mare started talking to Carmel’s foal, despite having her own foal on her side. So Gale figured he would see what would happen if he gave Carmel’s foal to the other mare. Happily, she took the other foal without a second thought and is totally happy raising two babies.
According to Gale, it turned out to be a pretty good case of “Mix and Match”. We are just so happy that things worked out as well as they did, and that there was a silver lining after the sadness we all felt at losing the mare. @ Idaho Equine Hospital
JULY BUCKET FUND HORSE: BLAZE, who nearly cut off his foot! Luckily, he severed no tendons or ligaments, so he can be helped! Blaze’s surgery and treatment costs are astronomical! To read the story, click here. To donate, click here! (Thank you Thank you, Thank you!)
