Jasper the little pony who was picked up by the transporter the other day was delivered safely to his new family. We know he is going to get lots of love and attention.
Tuesday was going to be a huge gelding day. We had a vet coming to geld as many of the unhandled stallions as possible. First of all they had to walk up the chutes into the holding room.
One by one they were brought into the surgery room. The vet worked quickly and efficiently as they rested peacefully under sedation.
A tractor guy volunteered to help clean up the ruined bedding in the enclosed pen. We really appreciate him volunteering his time and effort!
Cathy has been extremely busy in the office working on adoption applications. We know many of you are waiting anxiously to be approved to adopt, be assured that Cathy is going to get you approved as soon as possible. She has been answering a lot of phone calls inquiring about their applications, which slows her down from getting them done. She is working on them and will call you as soon as you are approved or she has questions.
We had some potential adopters come to the shelter to see the available horses.
Meanwhile, the gelding operations were still going.
After the surgery the horses could sleep in la-la land until the sedation wore off.
By the end of the day 10 operations had been done. Sadly, two of the boys were deemed untreatable by the vet and were given the Last Act of Kindness. One of them was cryptorchid and despite the vet being an experienced cryptorchid surgeon, she was unable to find one of the testicles. The other horse came to us with an old injury on his hind leg. The bone was infected and his metatarsal joint was infected. He was leaking joint fluid, and the vet’s prognosis was, even if he was a well trained horse that could be given the best of treatment, he would never recover properly and would have arthritis shortly. It is sad that he had an untreated injury that went for months, causing him pain and suffering. When he came to us, it was hard to tell how bad his injury was, but he wasn’t limping on it, and it wasn’t fresh. Under sedation the vet was able to examine it and give us her recommendation. She said the reason he didn’t appear lame was because the joint fluid was still actively draining, and as soon as the wound closed up he would be in chronic pain.
We are very happy for the boys that were gelded successfully, given their shots, worming, and ready to be adopted. It’s only thanks to your support that these boys are now ready to go to homes that can give them the training they need to lead long, happy lives.
By the end of the day, the tractor guy had the enclosed pen looking great and ready for new bedding!
Some improvements were made to the stallion pen and they seem to really respect the fence now. We made one of our existing pens taller with electric fencing and they seem quite content staying inside the pen. Their gelding operations are scheduled and they will be gelded soon. The recent geldings are all recovering in their own pen.
It was a very busy day, but finally all the chores were done, the horses were all fed supper, and the sun was setting in the western sky.
Thank you all for your support!