Heart Land Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation

2/25/08: JENNY: The 2 pictures above and one below are of a mare found starving in a pasture in Osteen. As you can see, her top teeth are just nubs. She has suffered from a severe leg wound to her left hind, which is still swollen, neglected hooves, and severe saddle sores. She is currently being fostered and we are looking for a loving home to adopt her.

Zoe, September 2007

Zoe's pasture mate was about to be buried alive. Authorities were notified, but that horse was euthanized. Zoe, on the property, was seized, and turned over to Heart Land.

Lady, Sept 07, 1 week after rescue

Lady's owner used the excuse for her poor condition that she was old (33). However, poor Lady, who has  only 4 teeth, was fed only once a day and lived on a property with no grass and she received little hay to supplement her diet. In addition, she had to fend off 3 younger horses and did not receive a special senior diet. Upon rescue, she began receiving 6 small meals that were soaked with water so she could properly eat!

 Lady's feet had not been tended to in a long time. The hoof on the right is before trimming, look at what the difference proper hoof care makes, with the one on the left having just been done! 10/07

Roving Eye "Teddy"

12 year old TB gelding, abandoned.

October 16, 2008

Nov. 25

Teddy suffered a set back this week when his infection, which had been shrinking, suddenly blew up and the infection spread to behind his elbow, up his shoulder and down his leg. We are treating it aggressively and are hopeful it will resolve soon. Teddy has been a real trooper through all of his rehab, despite the pain.
Someone really loved this horse and trained him well. He stood without restraint to have his ears and face clipped, bathes, loads and trailers and does everything asked of him without any problem. He is extremely well mannered!

Nov. 29

Dr. Pultz came today and drained the abscess. There is still a large area where it is rock hard, and he will be back for further treatment. In the meantime, Teddy is getting massages and warm compresses twice a day and cold water therapy with massage once a day. He is very sore on that leg...probably because Thanksgiving morning, having received a Bute injection the night before, he was feeling a bit too well and ran around since the others were full of it and running around.

December 26, 2008:

It has been a long road to recovery for Teddy and we are still no where near the end of the journey. For every step forward in healing, he takes two steps back.

His abcess on the shoulder was drained twice and continues to shrink and improve.

Meanwhile, he blew a large abcess out of the cornary band on the same injured leg. The day it blew out was the day that Calvin Borel arrived for vacation and he kept busy helping soak, medicate and bandage Teddy!

He has days that he is  sound and then the next day be sore again. I think once he is shod we will see a big difference. Meanwhile, Teddy got body clipped and stood with no restraints...what a good boy he is!

Then, just before Christmas, Teddy managed to roll next to the fence line and get stuck. He took out 4 boards and it looked like a mountain lion jumped on his back. He suffered several deep gashes.  Once again, Teddy has been a trooper through all the medicating!

December 26: The gashes are bandaged but looking better and the leg looks fantastic!

Update on Teddy, October 2009:

Teddy's adoption fell through and we decided to keep him at Heart Land for our Equine Assisted Therapy Program.

In August, Teddy started becoming sore on both front hooves. Our farrier determined that he was abcessing in both front hooves. Over the month of August, he became progessively more and more sore and by the first week of September, he no longer would leave his stall. Vet exams and x-rays revealed what Kevin, our farrier had stated...he was abcessing and has very thin soles. Thankfully, he was not foundering, which was our biggest concern, as he was now standing in the classic "founder stance". X-rays of his right hoof did reveal that his coffin bone curls up at the tip, like an elf shoe. Most likely it has remodeled itself due to so many abcesses.

Finally, on September 18, one abcess ruptured in his heel. It provided some relief, though he still was in much pain and would not leave his stall. He was laying down alot and I was having to manage his pain with Bute and injections of Banamine. He was developing sores from laying down so much, so Jane, his foster mom, and I, were keeping his stall bedded extra deep, keeping medicine on his sores and sponging him down daily. We hung his hay from a hay net so he would not have to put extra weight on his hooves to reach down to the ground.

On October 7, Kevin came and put glue on heart bars on his hooves. The relief was instantaneous! For the first time in over a month, Teddy walked outside and around the barn yard! It was a very emotional sight. Despite another abcess rupturing in the other hoof, he was feeling much better!

However, Teddy is not out of the woods yet. Teddy has been showing other "issues". We feel there is a metabolic issue going on. After he eats, he wants to sleep. He will go from being very alert and interested, to depressed and sleepy. And to make matters worse, the heat wave we have been experiencing this past week, after a week of lovely fall weather, has caused him to stop sweating. We have a holistic vet coming out to do blood work and a full work up on him. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, we have switched his diet to one for horses that are IR (insulin resistant) or laminitc prone. Hopefully, the lower sugar and starch will reduce the excessive number of abcesses.

Today, October 11, Teddy went outside for an hour. It was only the second time being turned out with his mares in over a month. He spent 40 minutes scratching and grooming Imp! It was such a sweet sight! We will continue to let him out for short periods of time until he has built his energy level back up.

We will update as soon as we have results.

Jenny, 1 month later:

Zoe, January 2008. Zoe has been adopted!

 Lady, December 07

Lady, June 2008. Amazing what a good diet can do for a horse!

 Teddy

November 9, 2008

Teddy is a real sweet heart! He has an infection from an injury to his chest that we are treating, and once he is healed, we hope to evaluate him under saddle. He should make a nice childrens mount.

Leg after the infection spread

The gashes from the run in with the fence: