FANCY HAD A BABY!!!!!
What a pleasant and shocking surprise!! Fancy did not look pregnant at all, and today we woke up to a brand new baby being guarded by our herd leader gelding and Fancy obliviously eating on the round bale. Thank God for Hollywood's parental instinct to guard the baby from the 20 other horses in the pasture! We swooped the baby up and managed to capture the highly food motivated Fancy with a bucket of grain. Unfortunately as with some other rescued mares, Fancy is not accepting the foal as her own. We have forced Fancy to allow us to help her foal nurse. Fancy was protesting by trying to bite and kick her foal. There is a "Love Cocktail" of hormones that can be given to a mare to force her to sweat and then get feelings of maternal instinct. It involves the mare sweating from the lutalyse injection that quasi simulates labor pains. Next, you rub the mare's sweat all over the baby. Then you give oxytocin to the mare. The 2 drugs working together and the sweat from the mare on the foal has made all the other mares we have had, kinda wake up and realize it is their baby and start being a mom to the baby. We did lunge Fancy for a few minutes to see if we could get her to sweat enough to rub on the baby and the small amount of sweat we could get from Fancy seems to have made Fancy quiet down and be more accepting of the foal. The last time we brought the baby to Fancy to nurse after putting sweat on the baby, Fancy did not try to kick at the baby. Baby still can't suckle by herself so we need to assist. We are taking turns sitting in the stall with Fancy and her baby to assist and to keep the baby safe. We would appreciate your prayers that Fancy accepts her baby and she can latch on and nurse on her own very soon.
Fancy was found at Elkhart Horse Auction. She had a bad cut on her knee and it was noticeably swollen. She was said to be double bred Shining Spark. They put a saddle on her and attempted to ride her. It was obvious she had not been ridden before and the rider got off quickly. No other information was really given about her. Bidding was only us and kill buyers. We won the bid that night, it was run up high and one of our members paid for her.
We don't know what has happened to Fancy, but she is very frightened and distrusting of people. It is going to take some time and slow, gentle handling to get Fancy to overcome whatever she has been through with humans. She does have a brand on each hip and a brand next to her tail which ranches do to identify their breeding stock. It appeared that Fancy has had at least 1 foal before and her teeth say she is 8 years old. The wound on her knee has left permanent hardened swelling, but it does not seem to affect her any. Possibly with a lot of exercise we may see limping.
FANCY HAD A BABY!!!!!
This precious little baby was a complete surprise to us! Her mother, Fancy, did not look pregnant to us. She is a little miracle. Sabrina heard a commotion in the paddock where 4 round bales and 21 horses are. Instead of Fancy sneaking away and having her baby out in the big adjacent pasture, she chose to deliver her foal right next to a round bale where all the horses were. By some miracle, this baby was not killed. Sabrina saw our senior gelding Hollywood guarding the foal and several of the other horses trying to get to the foal. Thank God for Hollywood's parental instinct to guard the baby! A quick survey of mares in the pasture showed blood down the legs of Fancy, so we knew she was the mother. Fancy had no interest at all in the baby, she was busy eating on a round bale with a couple other horses. Sabrina quickly ran and grabbed the foal from Hollywood and took her out of the paddock and assessed her. Baby was dry, someone had cleaned her off, probably Hollywood. He began running the fence and calling out to the foal. We believe he saved her life, but not before she sustained some injuries that looked to be minor, but we kept a close eye on her. She had a scrape on her lip and chin and some little scrapes on her legs. She also had a swelling on her abdomen that hung low and was about the size of a plum which felt like fluid. She was not tender anywhere but her chin. We took baby to a stall and proceeded to chase all the horses out of the paddock except Fancy. Fancy did not want to be caught, until we brought a bucket of grain. This mare is highly food motivated! Lol. We took Fancy to the stall and she immediately pinned her ears at the baby and tried to nip her. We had a stern talking with Fancy and told her this baby is somehow still strong and desperately needs her colostrum. Judging by the completely dry blood on Fancy's legs and no presence of any fluid coming out of her, we guessed it had been at least 4 hours or more since the baby had been born. There was no sign of suckling and disturbingly, there was no more colostrum, just milk, making us concerned about passive transfer of life saving antibodies that foals need. With some threats of bites and kicks, we were able to convince Fancy that she needed to let her baby nurse. She still was not taking to the baby, so I began to think about getting the "Love Potion" protocol for Fancy, where you give banamine, lutalyse and oxytocin to make the mare feel like she is in labor. When the mare sweats, the mare's sweat is rubbed all over the baby so the baby smells like the mom. The oxytocin then makes the mare feel accepting of the baby. It works in many cases. We decided to lunge Fancy to see if we could induce a sweat. Once she sweated, we rubbed Fancy's sweat all over the foal. It worked beautifully! Fancy started allowing her foal to nurse and started licking her foal lovingly. All seemed to be okay until late in the afternoon, baby Surprise started laboring to urinate or deficate and defication was difficult and urination was not seen. By early evening, the swelling of fluid started to get bigger all of a sudden and it appeared painful to the touch for the first time. By late evening we were concerned for the foal so much that our discomfort about transporting a newborn baby to a vet hospital where sick horses are, was overpowered with a sense of urgency to get her to a good vet. Although we live in a heavily populated area, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a good vet for horses even though our area has a large horse population. In our hurry to get this baby to a vet hospital, we never imagined that all 3 emergency equine hospitals would be closed with No doctors to help horses. We found Brazos Valley Equine Hospital in Salado, almost halfway to Dallas, and we made the 2 hour drive with this precious, now lethargic and in pain baby in the back seat of our truck and her momma yelling for her in the trailer we were towing. Thankfully baby Surprise slept the whole way, as it probably isn't the safest way to transport a big foal in the back seat of a truck, but there was no way we were putting her in the slant load trailer. Newborns need a safe box stall in a trailer without drafts. We arrived at the vet hospital and were greeted by not vet techs, but 2 veterinarians who were waiting for us to arrive. They carried baby into the hospital and immediately examined her.
The swelling and associated pain and lethargy were alarming. Tests were run and ultrasounds. The standby surgeon and Dr Kate determined a CT was needed to get a better look at the possible tear in the abdomen, check the organs for injury and locate the source of the fluid. Thankfully the CT showed that it was blunt force trauma and her organs all looked good! Baby Surprise is staying under observation with Dr Kate and is being given antibiotics to guard against infection. All the tests and care given to this precious baby are needed but the bill that is being racked up is daunting. We desperately need your help to pay for it. We need another $1500 to pay it. Please help if you can.
UPDATE:
Baby Surprise is doing very well. She is home with us at the rescue and getting lots of attention. She is still on forced stall rest, where she will remain for another 5 days to allow her little body to heal better. Antibiotic administration has become difficult because this little girl has learned how to let the medicine pool in her mouth even though we see and feel her swallow, and she spits out part of it. She is too smart! We have several more days of antibiotics to give unfortunately, with twice daily restling matches. Lol! She is strong! The swelling in her abdomen is still there, but it has not become worse as the vet said normally happens around the 5th day after blunt force injury. Surprise has grown already, her long legs are now even longer. She is nursing a lot, drawing her mom down in weight, so we have increased Fancy's feed intake by a lot. We are thankful both mom and baby are doing well and Surprise has such a good appetite and is well hydrated.
We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts who helped us pay the vet bill. We are more grateful than words can adequately express. You literally keep our rescue going.
4-16-23 Baby Surprise is doing very well. She reached her two week mark and was given the green light to finally leave the stall. She is enjoying her turnout time in their private paddock and learning to use those long legs of hers. The lump of hardened fluid is still on her torso and still bothers her, but we were told it would be quite a while before it reabsorbs completely. She is otherwise happy and healthy. Surprise is nursing a lot, and drawing down her mother. We have greatly increased the amount of feed and alfalfa that Fancy is being fed to help her continue to meet Surprise's nutritional needs.
UPDATE:
Baby Surprise is doing very well. She is home with us at the rescue and getting lots of attention. She is still on forced stall rest, where she will remain for another 5 days to allow her little body to heal better. Antibiotic administration has become difficult because this little girl has learned how to let the medicine pool in her mouth even though we see and feel her swallow, and she spits out part of it. She is too smart! We have several more days of antibiotics to give unfortunately, with twice daily restling matches. Lol! She is strong! The swelling in her abdomen is still there, but it has not become worse as the vet said normally happens around the 5th day after blunt force injury. Surprise has grown already, her long legs are now even longer. She is nursing a lot, drawing her mom down in weight, so we have increased Fancy's feed intake by a lot. We are thankful both mom and baby are doing well and Surprise has such a good appetite and is well hydrated.
We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts who helped us pay the vet bill. We are more grateful than words can adequately express. You literally keep our rescue going.
5-30-2023 If there is a way for a horse to get injured, they will find it..... As if our baby Surprise has not had enough happen to her in her short life, she has managed to injure herself. What are the odds of the corner of Sabrina's truck tailgate becoming an object for Surprise to run into before Sabrina could finish unloading her grain at the barn and close the tailgate? It appears to be 100%. Horses have a way of changing your plans in an instant. Tonight we thought we would make a nice dinner and maybe watch a movie, but instead Surprise ran into the corner of the tailgate and gashed the side of her left hip open and through the muscle. A quick call to the vets offices to see who was available and we found Dr Colt DIetz at Sunset Canyon Veterinary Clinic there and willing to help Surprise. We loaded up Fancy and Surprise and headed to Dripping Springs for stitches for Surprise. It was a traumatic ordeal for Surprise and it hurt her a lot, as she showed us she hurt by protesting the cleaning and the stitching. Sabrina and I held her as still as we could while Dr Dietz cleaned her wound and stitched it closed as Holly watched and became queasy, lol!. Surprise was given a shot of Excede for infection control and a second dose to take home and administer 4 days later. She was also given banamine for pain and inflammation. Because it was a deep cut in a highly mobile area, poor Surprise and Fancy were ordered to be on stall rest for 14 days to allow the wound to heal without having the chance of her stitches tearing out. We arrived back home at about 1am with a very tired and thirsty baby Surprise who was quite eager to get into the stall and nurse.
We want to thank all of you for rising to the need of Surprise and donating to pay her vet bill. We are beyond grateful for each and every one of you who helped. We also want to thank Dr Dietz for staying later and waiting for us to arrive and taking care of our precious baby.
Surprise and Fancy have spent 1 week in the stall now and they are handling the 10' by 20' stall they are confined in quite well. The wound is healing up well except for 1 deeper punctured place that is draining, as Dr Dietz said it would. One more week of stall rest to go and we can release the Kracken! Lol. We know baby will run and run as soon as she is let out of the stall.
We are 100% donation operated; without your help, we would have to close ours doors and PRRHR would no longehave been confined to stall rest for 2 full weeks.r exist.
Thank you. 
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