Vehicle Accident injures several horses 8-14-20

 

2 year old filly, one of several hit by a vehicle 7-27-20

On Monday, July 27, while I was out feeding the rescue’s equines I got a call from one of our adopters, Jake, who is a sergeant with the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department (NCSO). He was being dispatched to Summer Pines, the last housing development south of Show Low on Hwy 60 before FS300 (Rim Rd) because there was an injured horse that had been hit by a vehicle roaming the streets and was yet unsure what he would find, but wanted to know if we were available. I mentioned we had a dart gun if needed and also referred him to our contacts at AZ Dept of Ag, Livestock division because I was pretty sure it was a free roaming horse, perhaps one of them we provided water for around the Torreon area. When he arrived on scene he sent me a photo, which I forwarded to a friend who photographs the free-roaming horse near her house and she was able to find a photo of this filly from 2019, when she looked to be a yearling. Now we knew she was not a horse off the reservation and thus under the jurisdiction of local agencies. We were contracted to go assist in her capture and transport to the vet.

Her left side took most of the impact and caused internal and external injuries. When we arrived we found her standing, pawing the ground and in shock. She had large injuries to her left side and smaller injuries all over. It appeared on impact with the vehicle she must have been flipped over based on all the wounds. It took several people, several hours to sedate, catch and get her loaded in the trailer to be taken to the vet. Sadly, she had internal injuries and was humanely euthanized by the vet.

Jake injured standing in the forest with the small herd. During this process we learned it was a small herd of 5 horses that had gotten hit and there were others that needed assistance. One of which turned out to be a gelding with a BLM freeze brand. This required input from yet another agency, already the National Forest Service, AZDA (AZ Dept of Ag) were involved with NCSO as the lead agency, now the BLM (Bureau of Land Mgt) needed to be contacted to confirm whether they still owned the mustang or if it had been titled to an individual and no longer under their jurisdiction.

Injury to Jake's shoulder from the vehicle impact. After several hours in the 90+ degree sun and nothing more we could do at the time we headed home but stayed in contact with everyone. A family offered to place the horse in their backyard while ownership was determined so they could treat his wounds.

On Wednesday, July 29th, the gelding was delivered to the rescue after the individual he was titled to denied ownership so he was determined to be a stray horse that had been roaming loose in the forest giving AZDA complete jurisdiction to deal with him. We knew he was coming and were prepared to treat his injuries even though they were two days old. (The white around the wound is cream to keep the flies away.)

Dr. Helzer arrived and after 2.5 hours of surgery he was stitched up as well as he could be with the size of the injury and extent of the swelling. He was immediately administered pain meds and started on antibiotics and a treatment plan established.

Stitching complete after initial surgery Had he not been able to come to us he would have been taken to a local auction house, put in a pen to stand untreated for at least 7 days, when he could be auctioned as a stray horse. That 7 days is to allow the owner time to claim the horse and if not claimed, by law they must be auctioned. As a newer vendor for AZDA, EqWBR could house him instead and he could be auctioned at our place if unclaimed

Photo by Leslie Brucker Photography We treated his wounds several times a day and monitored his condition. In addition to the obvious injuries he also had impact bruising so it helped ease his pain to massage those areas a few times a day also. We assisted Dr. H as he had a second surgery to remove skin flaps that were dying off as the huge wound started to heal, additional surgery would be needed and more tissue died.

Jake after his 3rd surgery 8-10-20 On Monday, August 10th, Rudy Mejia, the initial responding brand inspector and Kevin Mc Fee both arrived to auction off the mustang. Flyers had been posted in the area of the hit and run, and local post offices and no one had stepped forward to claim him. With a few volunteers gathered in support and no one else showing up, we bid on and purchased the mustang allowing him to remain in our care so he could continue his treatment and heal. Shortly after Dr. H arrived for his 3rd surgery to remove the larger surrounding skin so the wound could continue to heal, a process that will take another 6-8 weeks for the surface to close and then longer for it to fully heal.

Photo by Leslie Brucker Photography Meet Jake, we named him after the NCSO Sergeant that stuck with the situation, working with all the various agencies to help the horse get the needed care after being struck by a vehicle which left the scene never calling in to even say there was an accident. He is now safely with us where we can continue his care and give him much needed love as he heals. And yes, he does have a Khaki halter. So far, his medical expenses for 3 surgeries, pain and antibiotic medicines, topical treatments and other needs are in excess of $1400 and we are asking for donations to cover those expenses and provide for him into the future while he heals. It is clear to us from the time he has been here that he has been trained at least with the basics of haltering, being handled and such and he has the sweetest personality and patience as we treat his wounds numerous times a day.

Jake in the forest before being hit by a vehicle, a photo sent to me.

There are many things we don’t have answers to, why he was turned loose in the forest, who hit the horses and kept going, where was he originally gathered from (Herd Management Area)? Some questions we will be able to answer in time, others we will probably never know. In the meantime, this guy needs us and we are here for him with great thanks to all the agencies that worked together to help him. You can help too by sharing his needs and donating if possible. Together we can teach him to trust again, heal his wounds and give him the love and care he needs and deserves. You can donate by clicking the Donate button below for links to PayPal, Venmo, Debit/Credit Card and donations by check. We can’t thank you enough for helping us help him. He will never be abandoned and left to fend for himself again!!!!

Donate Now! Thank you SO much.

Rimson-the difference a year makes.

Stall seven made into a make-shift surgical suite at the break of dawn, well into repairing the many deep punctures and scrapes from a cougar attack this week-old foal was fighting for his life. So weak was he that no anesthesia was needed, the shock and dehydration zapped all the strength he had. A year ago, we were not sure he would survive but survive he did and today Rimson is a strong, healthy horse who hopefully doesn’t remember that attack and the pain of recovery that followed. Who would have thought that a late phone call would change the lives of so many people? Just as Lary and I were settling down to have a bowl of ice cream at the end of the fourth of July holiday weekend I got a call, a plea for help from Gail who had called the authorities and several other places for help and had no where else to turn. A young horse, attacked by a cougar the night before was in their yard and the Marinello’s did not think he would make it through the night. His herd had run off and left him behind, he wandered off the Apache Indian Reservation and into their yard and they desperately needed help. An hour later we arrived at their house to find this tiny foal, wet because it had been raining and in shock from multiple wounds. In the misty dark of night Kyle carried him into our trailer as Gail, Dennis and he told us about the attack and how they had been trying to help this little guy all day. With a myriad of emotions, they watched as we drove away. We were lucky enough to find Milk Replacer for livestock at our local Walmart as the decision was made with Dr. Helzer to bring him to the rescue feeling he would not survive a long drive to the equine hospital hours away. She would get there a quickly as we could and, in the meantime, we made him a clean dry place to lay, put a wound cleaning gel on his injuries, dripped milk into his mouth with a baby bottle, patiently waited and prayed. 365 days later and the memories are so clear, the details of the moments come back to me as though it was only hours ago. I am sure the same can be said by Dr. Helzer and the Marinellos, memories that will be with us for years to come. Now we share the joy of watching Rimson grow into a healthy young horse with seemingly no residual memory of the attack. I suspect it is back there, somewhere in his sub-conscious but the many good memories of all the love and care he has received since keep them locked deep inside and don’t define his being. At the time we just did what needed to be done. Round the clock feedings, nursing and wound care, worrying and praying with the support of so many. It consumed our lives but every minute was worth it to now see him living a normal life, happy with his best friend Buddie and the two of them growing into fine horses. He still needs to be massaged regularly where the scar tissue is that adheres to the muscle in his neck as he grows. He was castrated this spring and that took a long time to heal and he also injured his leg which required a short hospital stay to help with the wound management for a few days. He has been home and it is almost healed no only requiring daily observation and covering with Sox for Horses, Silver Whinny to keep the bugs and dirt out of it till fully healed. His days are mostly normal for a horse his age. He turned 1 year old on July 1st. 7-8-20 Rimson Rimson has brought together so many people who daily look for pictures and updates of he and Buddie on Facebook and through our emails and watch his journey with so much love in their hearts. In these tough times of Covid-19, unrest in the country and worries that so many have he is a beacon of light for us all, a reminder that tough times happen in life and they can be overcome and survived as long as we try every day with a positive attitude and can-do spirit. That doesn’t mean it will be easy, but with love and support, kindness and optimism, it is the trying every day that gets us through. Together we can over come so much and we thank you for being on this journey with us. Happy Anniversary our little hero. You bless us everyday with your happy spirit and love. Donate Now! Thank you SO much.

Update on emaciated mares, Rimson and Buddie

We can't thank you all enough for helping us help the three beautiful, but emaciated mares that arrived on 4/25/20. Shortly after our last email went out we were contacted by the Hovden family who wanted to cover the entire cost of the digital livestock scale. We ordered it right away and by Friday Lary and Dennis were assembling it for us. Quite heavy itself (500lbs) it took all their strength to get the two pieces assembled and leveled so the readings would be accurate. With several volunteers here we took advantage of all the help and started weighing the mares. Willow was the first, she weighed in at 645 pounds, the weight tape we had used on her 13 days prior gave us an approximate weight of 590-600 pounds. While I don't think she gained 45 pounds in that time (though she has been eating non-stop) 20-25 pound increase would not be uncommon. "Rain" Dancer is the tallest of the three at 15 hands high or 60" at the whithers. She should weigh around 1100-1200 pounds for her big boned frame so she is approximately 300 pounds underweight as she weighed in at 839 pounds. We kno she had already put on some weight since arrival. Sable is by far the skinniest of the three with little visible fat or muscle anywhere. She is just an 1.5 inches shorter than Rain, but weighed in at 117 pounds less. As a big boned horse standing 14.2 1/2 hands (58.5 inches) tall she should weight between 1050 - 1150 pounds. Amy, who is almost the same height weighed in at 1117 pounds yesterday. Sable needs to gain 350+ pounds and we know she has already gained a little in the last 13 days. Tomorrow we will reweigh all three. While they are getting better, the blood work showed both Rain and Sable anemic, their lower legs are swollen and all three horses have areas of dermatitis on their bodies. We got a wonderful donation from Marty Bowers, who sent some Equiderma lotions and Neem oil to help them, she also contacted the Equiderma company who will be sending us an assortment of their products for all the horses as a donation to the rescue. We are so very excited to have these products to help heal the girls and others. The other thing that is notable about Sable and Willow is the loss of their coat. As the nutrition is kicking in their undercoat is letting go of the long winter fur and a shiny new coat is growing. It is very thin, but soon they will have shed all their old coat and I hope the bad memories go with it. Thanks to a donation by the Wallis family we have ordered each of them UV protection light weight sheets to wear so we can keep dirt off while their skin issues heal. We are patiently waiting for those to arrive. So many of you answered our call for help and opened your hearts to these special mares. I promised them they will never go hungry again and together we will be sure they are always fed. Yesterday Willow got her feet trimmed along with Peaches, Peanut, Amy and donkeys Ricci and Ramey. In the past the donkeys have been a challenge but yesterday they were as good as gold. Willow was not a happy camper having her feet picked up so we suspect she has rarely had her feet trimmed. Rain and Sable are not stable enough to have them stand on 3 legs while a hoof gets trimmed. It all takes time and I am so glad we are heading into summer and not winter as they recover. The corporate office of Tractor Supply Company, one of the sponsors of the A Home For Every Horse program we are members of sent us a $100 gift certificate which we used to purchase each of the mares their own grooming brushes, combs and supplies which will help their skin issues clear faster and they love the grooming too. Huge thanks to TSC. On 4-27-20 our vet was out to castrate Rimson, Buddie and Willie, and they are all doing well in there recovery. Unfortunately we had some very hot days which is very unusual for this time of year and with the spring winds blowing silty dust in their incision areas we followed up their surgery with antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory pain meds. While not fully healed they are doing much better than last week. They are all showing some spunk and their appetites are as good as ever. They too have been getting a lot of attention from our volunteers. We are currently at 23 horses, donkeys and mini donkeys and continue to get calls daily for people looking for homes for their horses. Sadly at this time I am having to say no because the mares need all of our attention and caring for each of them daily adds an extra one and a half hours to the morning chores, many days more time than that. Volunteers to help with grooming and other small tasks would be very welcome. Our emergency food fund is available for those in need of hay or feed assistance during these uncertain times with Covid-19. While many places are starting to loosen up Stay at Home requirements, many will struggle financially for the months to come and your donations have given us the ability to help those horses, donkeys and minis stay at home with some short- term feed assistance. So far we have granted over $2500 in assistance during this crisis. We hope that you and your family are all well and we know that many had serious health issues prior to all this and are going through various needed treatments and therapies. We are keeping each and everyone of you in our prayers and will continue to do so. You have blessed us so richly by supporting our mission which has allowed us to help many horses, donkeys and minins in need. Our volunteers work so hard to help with the care and feeding of those at the rescue and help in many, many other ways too. We appreciate each of you SO VERY MUCH. You all make a difference in many lives. Thank you, Thank you!!! One final note, we have tentatively schedule our Open House for Saturday, June 27th in hopes that more people will be able to safely attend. It will be a very special day because we will be celebrating Sydney, Rimson and Buddie's birthdays. A wonderful day of celebration. We will keep you updated on the recovery of the mares and plans for the open house so we will be talking to you soon. Have a great day and wonderful upcoming weekend. Wishing you good health and many blessings. Christine Your support is so greatly appreciated, we simply can't thank you enough! Donate Now! Thank you SO much.

3 emaciated mares arrive at the rescue 4-25-20

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Ten days ago I received a call from someone wanting to know who much they should feed their horses since they were thin. She stated she found out she was giving them poor quality hay and now was feeding hay pellets, but wasn't sure how much to feed them each. Through the call I found out that an inspector had been out there and stated they were too thin, body condition score 2 of 9 and she needed to feed them. She told me they were over 35 years old and we discussed at length how much of what she already was feeding she would need to feed daily to get them up to a normal weight and that those instructions were clearly printed on EVERY bag of hay pellets she was buying. I went one step farther to tell her with the hay pellets she was feeding it was going to cost her $30 per horse, per week to feed them enough. She had 5 horses in total, just the 2 skinniest would cost $240 a month for pellets only, $1200 for all five per month....just for pellets. It was then I offered her the option to bring them to us, thus saving the funds to purchase for the 3 horses in her care. It did not take long before she called me back and offered to GIVE us the two skinniest horses. On 4-25-20, they brought us three horses instead. What arrived in two separate trips was absolutely heartbreaking. The first two horses were hundreds of pounds underweight, filthy, bad feet and weakly able to walk. The extent of their long-term malnutrition was so obvious. These horses were skin and bone! Sable and Rain Dancer were the first two to arrive and we put them in our quarantine stall so they would have room to move around, could be together and we could monitor their food consumption yet they could see other horses so they would not feel so alone. Their winter coat was so long that it was hard to tell just how thin they were. After a few days of grooming the lack of muscle mass or any fat on either was so very obvious. Sassy, now called Willow was in the best condition of all and that was not good either. In this picture the photo on the left was her on arrival, you can see the filth all over her body. And as we have gently cleaned her over the last days we have found embedded crud, scabs and dermatitis along her back and legs which we have found on the other two also. On 4-27-20 our vet was out to castrate Rimson, Buddie and Willie, and while here did an exam and pulled blood on all three of the mares. When she saw the extent of the malnutrition Rain and Sable have endured we both stood their crying and she said the only skinnier horses she had seen were dead. Pulling ourselves together we discussed the feeding plan and needed future treatment. The blood work is back and shows anemia consistent with long-term malnutrition and explains the weakness in walking, depression and listlessness upon their arrival, the stocking up (swelling of their lower legs), dull, long hair and so much more. Additionally we determined the age of Rain and Sable to be in their early 20's, not 35+ as the owners stated and Willow (Sassy) to be a little over 10 years old. We have slowly changed their feed from the pellets that had little nutrition to a good senior horse feed, and have increased they amount of good quality grass hay to a large bale they can eat freely from 24 hours a day. None of them have to worry about when their next meal is and the relief is obvious on each of their faces. They have many months of needed care. Because Sable and Rain are so weak we will wait to get their feet trimmed, 30 more days after who knows how long is not going to matter much. We will treat the sores and clean the debris mired in their skin and matted on their coats a little at a time to not over stimulate and wear them out. We also want to weigh them weekly and for that we need a livestock scale that will digitally give us their accurate weight rather than a weight tape which gives you and idea of weight, but not the true weight. The cost of the scale with shipping is $1200, the cost of the feed $110.88 a week plus their hay, topical medicines, supplements, etc. Donations have already come in to cover the blood work, initial feed and care but they will need more blood work in 60 days, farrier care, dentistry, etc. I will be contacting the inspector to let him know we are getting a scale so we can accurately tract their weight weekly and we are keeping records of all their needs and treatments. While I am still very worried about any organ damage to Rain and Sable and worry daily till they get show signs of recovery we are so hopeful that they will make a full recovery and everyone will see that it was not their age that caused them to not gain weight. On this Giving Tuesday if you would consider a donation to help us restore these three horses back to health so they can live happy lives and hopefully forget the years of neglect inflicted upon them it would be so appreciated. Funds also help the other 21 horses, donkeys and minis in our care and others we try to help. EVERY donation makes a difference. We also want to say a special thank you to all over our volunteers who assist here at the rescue, help with administrative work, planning committees and everyone who helps in so many ways. We are 100% volunteer organization with no staff so funds donated go so much farther to help so many more in need. Thank you so very much! Your support is so greatly appreciated, we simply can't thank you enough! Donate Now! Thank you SO much. ©2020 Equine WellBeing Rescue, Inc.​​ | 8369 Buckskin Trail