i am her friend, she signed up and told me i could use it.
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I bought a foal from a dealer in kent back in 2003, i bought him unseen, and had him delivered. However the dealer was well known and had a good web site ,offering all these terms ect. Back in the days when buying un seen and getting the horse delivereed was the done thing i suppose (for foals anyway) I was sent photos and a video , i also sent loads of emails for info and spoke on the phone. When the foal arrived it was evident that all was not well. The foal was meant to be a 7 month strong little colt, corn fed, wormed and well handled. The foal i got was so weak it practically fell off the horse wagon.
Under the huge coat it had grown there was just a bag of bones. The mucus membranes where a horrible pale colour and he was just very listless and weak. I got my vet out who did blood tests and had them back to me asap. It showed that he was bleeding internally, probably from a damaged gut, from red word damage. the vet was amazed the foal was still alive. The blood work was very grim. he also felt the foal was only 4 monts old if a day and the dam was almost definatly dead by now. He felt that to have such a huge worm burden as thsi foal had, the mare must of been at deaths door her self. It was liekly the mare died and the foal was just taken and never wormed either. I was given 2 options at that point. They where put to sleep, or worm but he woudl probably die if i wormed him. if we didint worm him he would die. I decided to try and worm him, and give him the chance. The vet gave him corticosteroids to help suppport his liver and gut and then we wormed him with equest over the weekend. Remarkably he servived the worming. That was unfortunatly the start of a very long battle. He had no muscle or fat he was so weak, he had nothing to keep him warm. His case was reffered to newmarket where they advised steroids to try and build him up. I also had him on a special diet of procell and ultimate balancer. We coudl nto over load him but we needed to feed him gradually. Grass was too much for him to deal with. I had to feed him 4 little feeds a day, and he was rugged up to hsi eye balls. He had bloods taken monthly to monitor how he was doing. they also took a gut biopsy to see the extent of the damage. I was nto insured for any of this as i bought him in the condition. Over time he went from strength to strength and as long as he was wormed on time and with equest he was fine. I had tried panacure equien guard when i first bought him. It did not even touch the burden. The dealer was shut down, after i had tradeing standards and 2 horse welfare charities involved. The dealer was actually in the toen of kent and was keeping the horse son an industrial estate in an old air hanger. She admitted she had bought most of her stock off travellers from the back of a wagon or at sales. However she was then selling them on as healthy foals and nto getting them the care they needed. I knwo a few horses where seized at the time. The dealer did try and re start again under different names.
The foal grew up to be a strong healthy young man, and i sold him to a good home. I spent well over a grand on vet bills. Worm counts do not show encysted red worms! People dont seem to understand this.
Its a shame the horse in the photos was nto given the same chance. If they are goign to die anyway, why not try and worm them and try and get them back on track. iIm not saying its an easy process but there is always a small chance.
i have not got the horrible photos of him when he first arrived to hand. however this is how he ended up after all the hard work. he is rising 2 in this photo. He was stunted as a reasult of his bad start. The vet felt he shoudl of grown more than what he did, and he looked out of proportion. However he was very lucky to have servived in the first place.
I think there was a winners thread, I'm sure there was (I think I remember putting the winning photos up, but correct me if I am wrong). I tried to contact SF at this time but had no reply.
added as found the link: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=239693&highlight=photo+comp
I am sorry to all those who feel miffed by the whole thing (me included)
QR
Im refusing to read the whole thread as it seems that the OPs grudge (in her eyes) is more important than the plight of that poor animal!
COULDNT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH
Shame on you OP for using the suffering of a poor defenceless animal to try and prove a point. WRONG AGAIN>
The horse itself looks like it has suffered for a while, with untreated sores and depressed demeanor. Instead of trying to prove a point why dont you help?
