Abandoned Colt Foal

We received a call from a farmer asking if we could take an abandoned foal. The foals mother still had a yearling feeding from her and the newborn had been pushed away. We took the colt in and initially he was doing very well. A member of staff fed the colt every two hours and monitored him throughout the night, in the morning he seemed well and had a feed. However he refused his next feed and the next, he seemed to be straining to go to the toilet and spent a lot of time lying down. Concerned staff asked a vet to attend to the foal, by the time the vet had arrived the foal had deteriorated further, he was given treatment. He did not improve and the vet was called back, a bladder problem was suspected so a scan was performed. This revealed the foal had a ruptured bladder, a common problem in very young foals. It was decided to have the foal put to sleep. RIP little man.

Mare with Eye Infection

Our welfare assistant came across a mare on Yeoland Down that had a severe eye infection, Our welfare officer was at the yard so came to assess the mare immediately. The mare was heavily in foal so it was decided, with advice from a vet, we would treat her on the down and not drive her into the yard for treatment, this would have caused her great distress and could have resulted in a late stage miscarriage. The mare was quite tame so she was happy to eat food with antibiotics and after a few days allowed our welfare staff to administer eye ointment directly into the infected eye. It became apparent the mare is completely blind in that eye but seems happy enough to stay with the herd. We Will, of course, monitor this mare to ensure her and her foal are happy and well and if she needs further treatment we will see she gets it.

 Update - After antibiotic treatment, both orally and directly into the eye, this mare has made a recovery. She is blind in that eye but we are sure she will adapt extremely well. We are still waiting for her foal to arrive.

Abandoned Foal - Easter Monday

We received a call from a lady whose dog had come across an abandoned foal on Dartmoor, it had been raining heavily all day with low lying fog over most of the moor all day. The lady had carried the foal home where she immediately called a vet for advice. The vet advised that she keep the foal warm and call us, a member of staff went and collected the foal and bought it to the yard where a second member of staff was waiting. The foal was put in a warm blanket in a heated stable and staff attempted to feed it, it was very weak and approximately a day old. The foal would not feed so the vet was called, he soon arrived and decided to tube feed the foal colostrum. We were advised to feed every two hours and keep the foal warm, unfortunately the foal passed away just before its next feed was due.