Help with hay funds and update on emaciation cases

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The first malnourished horse we rescued was Gwen in December of 2007 and she is still with us today. Our first emaciated and very sick foal was Prince William (now Thor) who arrived at the rescue 12-31-09 he is now in a wonderful adoptive home with Marty who also adopted Peaches. Since that time we have provided emaciation rehab for over 30 horses with a new arrival already in 2019. There is a scale from 1 - 9 that determines the body condition score called the Henneke Scale. 1 is extremely emaciated and 2 is emaciated, the two most at risk levels of body condition and also the ones that require special feeding protocols so they don't suffer from organ failure while regaining weight. 5-6 are where we like to have all the horses to be considered a healthy weight. Here is our beautiful Noel after two months of rehab at the rescue. This is Dove who came to the rescue with a foal at her side, BCS 2 and dehydrated with no water in sight at the place we found her. She and Raven both made a full recovery, we put them in training and are now part of Taylor's family in Tucson. Precious came to us from the Riverside County Animal Control, she was abandoned and left to starve. Quite elderly she did make a full recover within 4 months. She has since passed. In 2011 we help with a large rescue of orphaned foals off the Fallon, NV feedlot. Diesel arrived not only emaciated, he had strangles, a high fever, dehydration, high worm load and at one point was unable able to swallow anything almost dying in my arms. He pulled through with a complete recovery and is with the Niven family in Ramona where he enjoys trail riding and various riding competitions. Mihi arrived almost a year ago with her daughter Peanut, both were BCS2 and Mihi was sick with a tooth that had been infected for many months needing surgical extraction. Don't let the winter fur fool you there wasn't much fat over her bones. Even with the surgery and its recovery she was still looking awesome in four months. Mihi is pending adoption by Ann. Below is Peanut who was so malnourished she looks like she is about a year old, but she was five years old at the time. Her recovery took 3 months and last fall we started her training under saddle in hope we find her a wonderful adoptive home. Princess arrived in 2015 and is currently our oldest resident turnign 29 this year. Many of her molar teeth are gone so she relies 100% on a diet of Senior Feed because she is no longer able to chew hay. You probably all recognize Sydney who is the youngest equine at the ranch and arrived in a very malnourished state last June. We were able to rescue she and her mom who had been down for several days suffering the starvation effects of the drought last summer. Sadly Momma was too far gone for us to save. It broke our hearts to have to humanely euthanize her, but her organs were shutting down and there was nothing else we could do be release her from her pain. The only other horse we were not able to save and rehabilitate was Hope. Her owners asked us to come get her after her stall mate died of starvation during the prior night. Hope's organs were already starting to fail and try as we did she passed within a day. Our world was tipped over when this happened, she was only five years old. We immediately created an emergency equine food fund and named it Hope's Legacy. We offer feed, hay and supplements for families with an emergency need of assistance. We have recently assisted with euthanasia funds too. Since Christmas we have already spent $601.05 to assist families with 6 equine and one euthanasia. Proper forage is so important in keeping the horses, donkeys and minis at the ranch healthy. The southwest suffered its worst drought in many decades last year, considered an 'exceptional drought' it is the driest category of drought. The cost of hay has gone up dramatically because of the many months with no water. It is time for us to purchase another load of 24- 900lb bales of orchard grass (the bales on the right in the photo above) at a cost of $150/bale, the entire purchase will be $3600. Please consider helping us with a donation to cover those costs, with 34 equine here at the ranch those bales last about 8 weeks. We have many horses that we will start training as soon as winter is over, then will be available for adoption but in the meantime we need to keep them healthy. No donation is too small, so please help us keep them fat and healthy. To make a tax deductible donation via PayPal, credit card or check, just click the button below and thank you very much for your support it is appreciated more than you will ever know. Donate Now! Thank you SO much. We are so blessed to be able to help all the equine at the rescue and others in the community through Hope's Legacy Emergency Equine Food & Euthanasia Fund. We are the only rescue in the 5000 square miles that makes up the White Mountains of Arizona and spans the two poorest counties in the State that offers this type of assistance. Our help is needed more then ever in the cold of winter so thank you all for supporting our mission and helping all the beloved equine. Many, many thanks for all you do to help the rescue! Christine

Getting a closer look - EqWBR facilities

Equine WellBeing Rescue - Snowflake AZ facility

The ranch sits on 20 acres with four 1 acre or more sized pastures allowing separation of the horses, donkeys and minis based on their needs. This will give you a snapshot of the barn, enclosures and pastures.   Most pictures taken 2-5-19

Main entrance of the barn (faces east)

South side of barn, turnouts and pasture

West side of barn and attaching pasture

North side of barn and turnouts are part of the west pasture

Large bale feeders with slow feed hay nets are in each pasture - distance picture

Large bale feeders with slow nets in south and west pasture - closer picture

Feeders in west and south pasture taken from other side with barn in the background

Farthest west feeder in the largest pasture, lots of juniper trees in this area

NE pasture with donkey shelter

NE pasture catch pen-stall with open gate to NW pasture

NW pasture looking back to barn and enclosures - west pasture to the right

Standalone stall for qt or other use with cover

Stand alone stall for qt or other use outside barn

Memorial garden at entrance of barn - a badge project for boy scouts Cayden and Mannix

Peaceful sunset at Equine WellBeing Rescue with barn in the background

Noel's one month anniversary at the rescue

What a beautiful, sweet face. Noel's eyes finally have a little spark to them and she is starting to enjoy her days more now that she knows food will always be there for her.

She arrived at the rescue on 12-12-18 and the left side of the picture was taken that day. As you can see from the picture on the right side, taken 1-12-19, she has started to put on weight, perhaps 70-80 pounds. Her coat is still coarse but that will get better too as her body heals from months and months of mal-nutrition.

This is Noel's spine area. Again the left side was taken 12-12-18 of her spine and hips....skin on bones. The right side was taken 1-12-19 and you can see she is starting to put some meat on those bones and filling out a little all over. You can see her coat is a little better too.

Here is a better look at her full body, again photos taken 12-12-18 and 1-12-19. The first week of January we saw temperatures at six-below zero, we had big snow, winds, extremely cold days and nights. Keeping her bundled in a blanket and in her own private stall out of the elements she was even able to gain weight through the worst winter weather we have seen in many, many years. We are now letting her socialize with the other horses in the pasture during the day and stalling her up again at night so we can continue to track her food consumption. All in all we are pleased with her rehabilitation so far. She has a long way to go, many months, but soon we can address additional health care needs, dental work, a follow up blood draw and soon she will need her feet done. In the meantime she has learned that we are kind and she will always have food to eat and even whinny's when she sees us. On the other hand...my rehab has not gone as well. My last email I let you know I had the Christmas crud that has been going around. Boy feeding during those subzero days and nights was exhausting and I found out why when I went to the doctor last week. Turns out I have had pneumonia through the holidays, not a cold. I have never had pneumonia before so I had no idea that is what was wrong. Needless to say I am doing everything I have been told by the doctor to get better (meds, supplements, herbs, essential oils, fluids, rest). I want to say thank you to everyone who has donated in the past few weeks and to let you know as I get better I will send you a donation receipt for your taxes. In the meantime please bare with me as I have to put the care of the equine first and the office work will sit for a little while as I recover. Huge thank you also to Judi, Mari, Candi and Steve who have been able to come help with feeding/chores in the morning giving me a break a few days week and Lary who has taken on the night feedings giving me the ability to rest and recuperate. You are angels to me and I appreciate you SO MUCH! Hope you are all well, if not, I hope you are well soon. Happy 2019 to all!!!!

Many, many thanks for all you do to help the rescue! Christine

Donate Now! Thank you SO much.

Emergency water and food after fire and explosion.

December 29, 2018 I had hoped to get you an update sooner, but I have been down with a bad flu since Christmas. I haven't had the flu or a fever in years and this one had me in bed till today. Feeling better but still moving slow. I guess what they call the Christmas crud is really going around this year. I hope you are all well or if you have this, you get well soon. I do want to bring you all up to date on how our Noel is doing.

Noel, a name I chose for her, arrived late in the afternoon on December 12th, relinquished by her owners because they had tried to sell her and we offered her a safe home if they would give her to us. They had several people look at her but no one would buy her. This is a picture of her back and hips upon her arrival. Sadly they had been riding her like this. She even had recent marks on her hair from being ridden.

Knowing she had no fat to keep warm we blanketed her day and night in the cold temps and got her this special blanket that come farther up her neck to keep her even warmer. Very important since the high today is in the low 20's and tonight is supposed to be 5 degrees, we have also had snow. This picture has the buckles hanging down but that is because I wanted to take a picture before the sun went down. I buckled it right after.

We pulled her blood and ran a CBC to see if there was some medical issue causing her to not gain weight and Dr. Helzer found nothing that indicated she couldn't gain weight, but rather she has had long-term malnutrition. We also did a fecal text to see if a worm load was causing a weight loss issue and that came back negative. We started her on small round-the-clock meals of alfalfa and slowly added in feed, increasing both a little at a time. We also treated her with Ulcergard in case she had ulcers from lack of food. The other thing we noticed is that she drinks lots of water which is excellent, keeping her trough heated makes it easier to drink. The two pictures below were taken 12 days apart, the top one on Dec. 24th and the lower one on her arrival Dec. 12th. She is hydrated and starting to put on a little bit of weight and we couldn't be happier.

We have every confidence that she will regain her health even in the midst of the cold, snowy winter weather and I can tell you her mood is even a little spunky now. Thank you so much to all who have donated to help us get her back on the road to health. The best present she has ever gotten.

Just when you think things should slow down for the year we stepped in this morning to help neighbors whose well house burnt to the ground and in the fire their pressure tank exploded leaving them no well and no water, just a pile of smoldering rubble. The explosion could be heard and felt throughout the neighborhood and was very scary since it was still dark out. Knowing they have one horse and two mules I texted them before the sun came up and let them know we would bring over two of the big water troughs purchased this summer during the drought and fill them with water so they would not need to worry about how they were going to have water for the equine.

Lynn Pace of White Mountain Water Hauling made an emergency trip out here on her day off to fill the troughs for us. She is such a blessing. This is KC, their gelding who is sniffing around the troughs as we are getting ready to fill them. He was very interested in what was going on. All of them were shook up after the explosion, so this was a good distraction and we gave them some special hugs and love too.

Lynn brought 1000 gallons of water to fill the big troughs and we topped off their smaller troughs so there would be plenty of water to last through this storm and cold spell. For the KC, Molly & Jenny the water should last a couple weeks.

Lary placed tank heaters in each of the large ones so the water will not freeze and then hooked up the cords so they can plug them in and they should have nice drinkable water. The tanks can be refilled by Lynn until the well is fixed and running. We are so glad we had the troughs on hand for this emergency and were able to quickly help the neighbors during this time of crisis. Knowing they have many unplanned expenses right now we were able to provide them with six bags of hay pellets for the mules and KC through our emergency equine food fund, and a large bag of dog food for the rescued dogs they care for too.   Now they don't have to worry about food or water for several weeks while the well is fixed.

Hopefully the last few days of 2018 will go without a hitch though a big storm is predicted on December 31st and into the new year. I suspect my hubby, who works on county roads will be out plowing so people can travel safely during the new year holiday. I will be sure he has a hot meal when he is done! As we close out the year I know there are lots of great charities for people to make year end donations and I hope you would consider us if you do. We are small and 100% volunteer run so your funds go to those in need and every dollar is so very much appreciated. Your supports makes a difference in many lives! Wishing you all a wonderful 2019.......Happy New Year from all of us at Equine WellBeing Rescue.