SAGE feral foal rescue documentation 1

Описание: we have named her Sage, we rescued her from the range lands May 2021
there seems to be an epidemic of foals being injured on the range lands near our place.

this day started with us hiking to photograph the stallions, we know this is active breeding season, and with the amount of stallions on this range right now, we knew there would be a lot of stallions fighting for their mares.
there is easily 100 horses in this herd, about 15 grown stallions

the herd stays in this location for about 20 mins and then they shift and all start running down hill. We stay and watch for a minute and then race back to the van to try and catch up to them crossing the road; we miss them as they gallop across the sagebrush. We stop and watch them go, then we hear her... A mare calling... one of the stallions stop and call back to her..
The stallion is urging the mare to follow, we know already with a sinking heart, the only reason a mare is not leaving a spot with her herd, is a foal.

The mare choses to bolt and leave.

Jordan runs back through the range lands and hills to where the mare was pacing, Candice waits for the stallion to leave (fear of being chased as they are aggressive this time of year)

to find a foal laying flat out in the sagebrush and dirt. She is so tiny. So thin.
and she has a huge swelling on her stomach.

Candice thinks she has an umbilical infection, she is obviously thin, exhausted and in pain. We quickly form a plan to leave her, come back with emergency medicines..we walk away.

she leaps onto her feet and totters after us, neighing and calling to us.

there is no way we can leave her now

we call the vet, and inform them of what we see.

We get her off the mountain and into our van, waiting for her appointment. We get some fluids and milk into her

at the vet clinic, we are trying to be super realistic. Both financially and medically. We have her ultrasounded to figure out what the swelling is from, the vets rule out hernia and umbilical infection. We have blood pulled to test for infection...until then, we decide that having a mother is important, and we plan to give her treatment and bring her straight back out to the range.
(our vets are hesitant & very relunctant - please dont judge us) we are trying to be effective in costs. We bring the filly back to the range in hopes we can catch up with a mare who is searching for her foal..

there is no mare.

the herd has moved on.

we try to go to anew location, in front of the herds movement and hike the filly up the hill... as Jordan and our son, Ryder are doing this... they find another dead foal... Jordan turns around and makes the decision to bring the foal back down... AS we are doing this, a Vet sees us out on the range (high is closeish) and comes to see us (we are kinda known in this area lol) and assess the filly, he says, 'candice in good concious, you can not leave this foal out here', he is more then right... we bring her home and hope she survives the night with us.. Her stomach is painful, she is extremely under weight and exhausted.
we get more milk into her, she sleeps, and sleeps and sleeps. We rig up a belt to hold a cold pack on her swelling.

the next morning, she is alive.

we are surprised.
she is a sassy fighter.

Now, the hard work begins.

if you are interested in supporting the foals with feed, care & vet appointments. We would love & appreciate your support.

we do this because we feel it's the right thing too do. and for some reason or other, we have a calling to be out on the land at the time a foal is needing help.

www.candicecamillephotography.ca images & video

www.camilleshorses.com

message us for our links for donations via Paypal or etransfer to [email protected]

thankyou.


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