Lilo – 09/08/09

I haven’t done any Lilo updates because there just hasn’t been anything to report.  This mare has made absolutely NO progress.   The only thing I can say, is that after weeks of Koppertox, her thrush is finally gone.  She’s been wormed twice, two weeks apart, with Anthelcide and then Ivermectin.  She’s getting 2qts of rice bran, 2qts of hay pellets, and 2 qts of rolled oats three times a day.  She has plenty of pasture and I’ve also been throwing three square bales out to the three of them every day.

So, I think the Lilo picture updates will come once a month, rather than every two weeks as I did the others.  However, I did want to share a breakthrough that happened tonight.  Remember in my first Lilo post how I said she was shy and slow to trust?  She’s been that way every day – I reach to pet her and she pulls away.  I can catch her if I have feed, but other than that, she really has had no use for me… up until tonight.

When I took their buckets to them tonight I reached to scratch her head, as usual.  And par for the course, she pulled away from me, but I managed a quick rub once she had her head back in her bucket.  I left them to eat and came back about an hour later to collect up the buckets.  Lilo was standing by herself (unheard of) by the gate, and Stride and Sadie were off in the pasture grazing.  I walked up to Lilo and instead of pulling away, she lowered her head and let me scratch her ears and rub her face.  I stopped petting her for a minute to chase a horsefly away from my head and she stepped closer and lowered her head even more until I scratched behind her ears again.

So I rubbed and petted this poor mare until the sun went down.  As I walked away she just stood at the gate, staring after me.  I looked out the kitchen window later and saw her grazing quietly between Stride and Sadie.  I’m hoping with the mental adjustment her body will also finally adjust to the new environment and the new human and maybe she’ll finally start putting on some weight!

Lilo – 08/16/09

Just a quick update on Lilo… instead of moving Stride into the quarantine pasture with her the other day, we moved Maverick and the other little yearling studs in the quarantine and moved Lilo into the bachelor pad with Stride.  We also put Sadie in there with them and the three have become the best of friends!  As soon as Lilo and Stride introduced themselves, Lilo put her face in the grass and started grazing for the first time since she arrived here. 

She eats her meals with gusto now and is actually in charge of the little threesome!  She’s more energetic and comes trotting to the fence for meals instead of making me bring it to her.  She’s not aggressive with Sadie or Stride, but the two respect her leadership and let her eat in peace.  The first night together, Lilo and Stride insisted on eating out of the same bucket, even though there were two buckets right in front of them.  They finished the first one then moved on to the next.  It was so cute!

The day after posting my first post on Lilo my tiny little brain had an epiphany (it was painful, trust me).  I know she was being fed beet pulp, senior, and rice bran at her previous home, so what makes me think the same feed will make her fat here?  Her tucked up tummy and pickiness with feed made me think of Sadie and Indy earlier in the year when their ulcers were acting up.  And I certainly wouldn’t doubt that previous stress and irregular feeding have given her gastric ulcers, so I transitioned her to the same diet that Sadie is on:  rolled oats, rice bran, and corn oil.  She loves it!

She’s been on that diet for a few days now, so we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks!

Lilo – 08/11/09

Lilo is a 15 year old Saddlebred mare, broke by the Amish to ride and drive.  She’s a very shy, quiet mare who is slow to trust humans.  Someone else rescued her off the slaughter truck last year and she was even thinner than she is now.  Then she was taken in by a family south of here, but after six months of feeding her senior, beet pulp, rice bran, and flax seed and not seeing much improvement, they decided to turn her over to us.

Her teeth are in good shape and she comes with a clean bill of health from the last vet that examined her.

Let’s start with the obvious fact that she’s thin.  Yeah, no kidding, right?  But look closely at her and you’ll see that she’s not quite as thin as you first thought.  She’s got some muscle on her shoulders and butt and her ribs aren’t protruding that much.  The first thing I notice on this mare is her TERRIBLE conformation!  That long back that sits much lower than her croup, the straight shoulder and back legs… this mare was not built to withstand the workload imposed on her by the Amish.  Three of her ankles are bulged with old injuries and she’s got mild arthritis in all four legs.

 

She’s a very picky eater and wouldn’t finish her first dinner here last night.  She has no interest in hay or grazing, but prefers instead to stand in one place and simply take in her surroundings for hours on end.  We’re going to move gentle old Stride in with her today for company to see if that helps bring her out of her shell a bit. 

We’ll worm her today with Anthelcide and have already started her feeding regimen, which is pretty simple:

1 qt soaked beet pulp, 1 qt senior, 1 qt rice bran

We gave her twice that last night when she got here and she barely ate half of it.  If she finishes that much this morning, I’ll repeat the feeding again every two hours until she doesn’t want anymore.  Since she’s so picky, we’ll have to play it by ear with her and only feed her what she will eat. 

Holly – 08/09/09

This will be Holly’s last update here on Rescue Recoveries since she and Synergy go home with Maggie tomorrow!

After the second worming in two weeks I finally started to see some improvement to Holly’s topline.  While it’s still far from ideal, her hips are starting to round out and the point from her spine to bulge of her rib cage is less concave.

Everyone who visits the farm falls in love with the big gal and she’ll be missed when she leaves.

Holly -– 07/24/09

I’m impatient and this mare is testing what little patience I have.  She still looks like crap.  Her teeth are fine and there is no obvious illness.  She’s got hay 24/7 and just LOOK at how much food she’s getting three times a day.  I know, I know, she is looking better.  I just want her to be mistaken for the good year blimp within a month, and it’s just not happening.

I wormed her and her buddies with a Pyrental 15 days ago and will be worming them again with a Benzimidazole wormer tomorrow.

 

At least her butt is filling out nicely.

Holly –- 07/09/09

Last night was Holly’s two week anniversary here and she is s..l..o..w..l..y putting on weight.  She definitely seems spunkier now, and rips around the pasture with the two younger mares.  She’s very vocal if I’m even a few minutes late with her food, but is still a big sweetheart that just wants to be loved and groomed.  She’s not as interested in the hay roll as the two younger girls, and prefers to spend a lot of her time at the gate staring at the house and just waiting for the next meal.  Because of that, I’ve cut back her feedings to three a day.  I’m hoping she’ll stop expecting it so much and spend more time grazing or munching on hay.  At this point, the hay is much more important in her diet than all the beet pulp and rice bran I’m feeding her.

8AM – 4 qts beet pulp, 2 qts rice bran pellets, 2 qts senior feed, Source, DAC oil.

3PM, 9PM – 4qts beet pulp, 2 qts rice bran, 2 qts senior

Once all that food is soaked it nearly fills a 5 gallon bucket and she still manages to finish eating before Synergy, who gets half the amount of beet pulp!

She’s looking less ribby from the side, but her topline still looks awful.

 

Maggie should be ready for Holly and Synergy by the end of the month and I’d like to get Holly looking better than this by then.  But I have every confidence in Maggie and I’m sure both girls will be too fat by the end of the year! :)

Ellie – 07/05/09

I realized the other day when I was publishing Holly’s first post that I never did finish up with a final Ellie post.  I know everyone is curious to see what color she shed out to be, so without further adieu, let me introduce you to Ellie’s belly.  Plump, round, and jiggly like jello.

 

I still haven’t gotten started on her training.  I think I’m finally coming to the realization that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.  Oh well, I think once she gets started she’ll be very quick and easy to have under saddle and going well enough to move on to a new home.