Prayers for my horse

[Lady Amy of York]

For those who knew me, you know that i am quite  the animal lover. I own 3 dogs,( a beagle puppy, a  yellow lab , and  a golden retriever) 3  cats, and  2 horses, ( a grey Thoroughbred gelding, and  a bay Arabian mare )

Anyway, last night when i was getting ready  for bed, the youngest of  my three dogs kept barking and barking. But i  did not think much of  it,  cause my husband  had just been outside , and  said  there were several deer in the yard. So i figured  she  was  barking at  the deer.

This morning when we went out to feed  the horses  it was  like a  scene out of a Halloween movie.   My gelding was  dripping in blood.  The skin on the one side of his face  was ripped off.   You could literally see  the bone  and muscles  and he had a huge  gapping hole in his  forehead.   How  he was still alive, and  standing, is  amiracle  in itself.   I was literally sick to my stomach at  the  sight.

Thankfully my other horse  was okay.

My husband  and i looked all around, but could not see any animal tracks. But there was blood on the  ground  and  blood on the  walls of the geldings  stall.

We are very careful to keep anything sharp out of  the reach of  the horses. We could  find  nothing in the barn that would  rip a horses  face  like  that.

We  don't  know if he  was  attack by something or  what ?  if  it was an animal  it had  to be  something big, cause my gelding stands at over 17  and  a half  hands  tall. he is  abig  boy.

I also question if it was  some  vicious  prank  by  kids, but we live  on a quiet  street a nd have  never had  any  problems  before.

The  vet came out and did  the  best  she  could stitching    the horse  back up, but    there are some places  were  the   bone and  muscle  are exposed.  She  gave  him a  shot  to ward off infection,  but still she  told us  to keep a close  eye  on him. He  was shivering from the lost of blood. We had  to croos  tie  him,  to keep him from rubbing his  face, and  we are suppose  to hand  fed  and  water him  the  next several  days, and  the  vet will be  back out in a few  days  to check on him.

So for now  it is just a waiting game, and  praying that he  heals  okay, and  no infection sits  in.

it just makes me  sick.  he is  a beautiful animal.   I pray it was  an animal that got him, and  not kids  cause why would  anyone  do  something like that. if it was kids  i'll hang  them by  their  neck.

For now i just pray  that he  heals okay. he is not a young horse.  He is 21, but you would  not know it by looking at him. He is still fiesty and likes  to chase my mare  around. I  wonder if  he  was  protecting  my mare, when he  got  attack.


Anyway, please keep  my poor  horsey  in  your  prayers.   Thanks  ! Never a dull momment lately in  my life  !

[Shandi]

I'm praying...Horse's can be very tough..keep loving him and be there and he will pull through this.
My mare had ear mites and I went to put the ear meds in her she went up and caught the top of the tin on the barn and gouged her face to the bone I could see her teeth at the back of her jaw from eye to nose and she healed up well it was a mess and I had to do hydro therapy on it but she healed with a small scar. Horse's are stronger then we think....
Give him a little molasse's on his feed to keep him interested it worked for her.
keep us posted.
BTW
I'm owned by 8 dogs and 2 horses'

[wyckdblyss]

I am keeping you and your horse in my thoughts...sending lots of positive healing energies his and your way honey. *HUGS*

[Lady Amy of York]

Thanks  everyone.  So far  Sir  Tempus Pendragon  ( that is  the  gelding's name )  is being a good patient.   He is still pretty doped up  from the pain meds  the vet gave him.  He looks like  a drunken sailor.  So funny to see  this  big tall horse  trying to stand  up  straight. Poor  thing.

My other horse, Lady  Jadestar (  the Arabian mare )  can't figure out what is up  with her buddy.

My husband  was  going  to the feed store  tonight to get  some special feed  and  molasses.

I am in better spirits  then i was  earlier, just wish i knew  how it happen to him. I have  been around horses  all my life, and know  horses  can get banged up, and  they can  rub  and  scratch  themselves on stuff in their  stalls,  but We  checked  the  whole inside  of  his stall and  other then blood stains  all over  could  find  nothing  that  would   cause that bad of  wounds.   So it is  a  mystery .


I know  horses  are pretty strong creatures, but there is  alot of  skin and  muscle  expose. plus   he is not a  young horse, even though he  would have  you think otherwise.

[Celtic Lady]

Amy, I'm so sorry to hear about your gelding. Big hugs and prayers to both of you. I truly hope that people were not the cause of this injury.

I know what you're going through. My gelding had a mysterious wound years ago. The place where he was boarded at was very picky about safety and sharp things were never near the horses stalls, paddocks, or pastures. Anyway, I arrived at the barn for a ride one morning and found a couple of small holes in his side. Never found out what caused them but a few weeks later he started to run a very high fever and had stopped eating and drinking. Of course this had to happen when it was hot and humid out. The vet came out a few times to tube him with water so that he didn't dehydrate. I took a few days off of work to stay with him and take care of him. The antibiotic he was on was so strong that the vet was concerned that he would come down with diarrhea. Because of this the farm owner would give him his medicine in the morning and I would give him 8 oz. of vanilla yogurt to counteract any diarrhea that could have resulted from the meds.

[Lady L]

I am so sorry to hear this happened to your horse. I pray he recovers quickly and you find out the cause.

[Serenity]

As a fellow animal nut (and horse owner), I will definitely keep him in my prayers.  Best of luck for a good recovery.

[renren]

Sending healing thoughts and prayers to your horse, and family!

Due to the lack of tracks, I have to ask a question: could it have been a large bird of prey?

[crazyrennie]

Lots of good luck for Sir Tempus Pendragon  and yourself.
Not to disparage renren but I've been working with birds of prey for 12 years and never heard of any raptors being foolish enough to attack a horse. The largest prey that a Steppes Eagle can take is a wolf but the Steppes Eagle is in Mongolia.
Crazy

[Lady Amy of York]

So far Tempus is being a good patient, and has not reopen his  wounds. Knock on wood.   We have him tied up so he can barely move around  in his  stall.  He  was not to happy  , about that  last night  and  kept kicking at his stall.  My husband finally went out around  midnight, and   chatted with him, and he  settled  down.

We have to hand  fed him  and  water him,  which is a pain in the neck, especially on the  cold  mornings, cause it takes  forever  for  a horse  to eat, but  the vet does not want him to be untied at all,   cause knowing Tempus, who loves  to roll in the hay, he  would open his  wounds  right  up.

We continue  to give him antibiotics  and hot compress treatments that the vet ordered in order to ward off infection.


As  for  what caused all of  this it is  still a mystery. Tempus  was  actually  closed in his stall, with the top part of  his  stall door open, so he  could look outside. ( The stalls  open to the outside  for  emergency purposes.)
So  anything  that went after him had  to be tall enough  to reach his  face or  big enough  to  leap at him  or  fly  at  him.

We now  doubt that it was kids cause they would  have had  to climb over  the  corrals  and  gates to get him, and  we would have heard  the  gates rattle , and it it is  abig drop  from the top of  the corrals  to  the  ground.

It could have  been an animal. Cause  an animal  could  easily squeeze  thru  the bottom of  the corral. Then again i guess  a human  could  too if  they wanted too.

There was  a pack of  wild  dogs  wandering  around  for  awhile, but no one  had seen  them in  months.
We  do get  coyotes   often, but they have  never botherd  the horses  before.
We had a bobcat  for  a while  living back in the  woods,but i  don't  think it would  go after  the  horses.

When i told  my dad, he  thought we  should  call  the  animal warden  and  report it, but we are not sure if  it was  a  wild  animal.

I question wheter it was  a bird of prey  cause we have a family of  hawks  in our yard, but i have  never heard of  Hawks , or  birds of  prey  going after a horse.and  like  a said  Tempus  is  a good  size  horse.he is very tall, and   and  has a large  head. Whatever went after him   had  to be  something big, or  something capable  of leaping  at  him.

I  did  find  a nest of baby snapping turtles outside  the  barn a few  weeks  ago, but i  don't think a  snapping turtle  could  go after  a horse.

I question wheter he  got  something on his  face, or  had an allergic  reaction to  something in his  feed, but we feed both horses  the  same  feed, and i have heard of  horses  rubbing themselves  raw, but not bad  enough  to expose  bones  and  muscles. I mean, not to gross  anyone  out here, but the whole one side of his face  was just about gone. it was just all bone  , his  eye and  dangling  muscle. Thank goodness he  did not lose  his  eyesight. He had exposed  skin and bone  and muscle  underneath both ears , above  both eyes,  down one  whole  side of his  face,  down his nose,  ahuge  gash in his  forehead, and the one whole  side of his  face  practically  ripped  off.

With all the  damage  to his  face, and  all the blood in the stall, and on the  ground  outside, something deffinitely  went after him, it is just a matter of  who or  what,  and  we may  never  know. What matters  is that it  does  not come  back again,  and  that Tempus  heals  okay.


Thanks  for  the prayers  and  well wishes  everyone.I felt awkward asking  for  prayers  for  a horse, but he is part of  the family.   He is  our oldest  son, as  my husband  and I  call him.  Matter of  fact if it had not been  for  Tempus  my  husband  and  i  would  not have  met.

[lady serena]

Sending prayers and healing thoughts for your horse may he get better.

[Lady Amy of York]

 Thanks Lady  Serena  for  your  ren mail you sent me on mountain lions.

Don't worry, you did not scare me  hon. I was already pretty convinced in  my mind  that it had to be a  wild  cat or  a wild  dog, cause Tempus stands  at 17 and  a half hands  tall.   So for  something to get at his  face  while he  was inclosed  in his  stall,it had to have  the capability  like  a large  cat or  dog  to leap  at him.
   We  have  Coy  dogs  ( part coyote-part dog ) that have  been spotted in the  area over  the summer and  i wonder if  they are back  around. I  know  this  is  the  time of year  that adult coyotes  teach  their  young  to  hunt.  I plan on calling  animal  control in the  morning.   In the mean time  the stall doors  are being totally  closed  at night, my dogs  are only allowed out in their play yard, and only with  a human with  them,my cats  are in door  cats  so  don't have  to woory  there,  and  my   young son  has not been allowed out near  the  barn or  woods  at all.


I tell you if it is not something going on with the humans  in the family, it is  something going on with  the pets. never a dull momment !   But that's  life !You never know  what is  going to happen  next.

[Lady L]

"Thanks  for  the prayers  and  well wishes  everyone.I felt awkward asking  for  prayers  for  a horse, but he is part of  the family.   He is  our oldest  son, as  my husband  and I  call him."

I just wanted to say that we pray for animals anytime they need it. I called my pastor when my dog was so ill, last summer and requested him to pray for her. She has recovered.

We even have a plaque hanging in the sanctuary at our church, about praying for the animals. My pastor frequently includes the "four-leggeds" in his prayers during the church service. It was one of the deciding factors for me to join there.

[Celtic Lady]

Amy, how is he doing? Still sending lots of prayers for all of you.

[Lady Amy of York]

Tempus is hanging in there. He was not eating or  drinking much at first, but now  he is. His  wounds  still look terrible, and  you can tell it hurts  him.  he  does not like  being tied up all the  time.   We are suppose  to call the  vet  tomorrow  to let her know  how  Tempus  is  doing.

We now  think we know  what  went after him.  One of  my sister's  works  for  an insurance  company, and her job was  to handle  claims   for  large  horse farms  and  diary farms.     When I  told  her what happen to  Tempus,  and  describe  his  wounds  and  where on his  body he  got  attack, she  said  it sounded  like  the  claims  she had been handling  at  work.   She  said  they had several recent  claims made  by horseowners    about  their  horses  being violently  attacked  by  an  animal  called  a "  Fisher ."

Fisher's  like areas  where  there are water  and  brush.   We have  a  large pond in our  yard,  and  a creek  that runs  along  side of it. We live on  8 acres. 3  of  the  acres   is  wooded  and    filled  with deer  and other small wild  life.  Just what a Fisher  needs.

Fisher's look like  a wolverine  .  They have  sharp claws  and  teeth. They  are capable of  climbing  and  jumping and leaping quite  high.They attack  and kill their prey by  going after  their  prey's  faces  and  ripping them apart until they bledd to death.


Anyway, i went on the internet  and printed out some  pictures of a  Fisher.I then showed the pictures  to  my husband  who  said  to  me,"Holy cow Amy, i saw  this animal in our yard last week  when i came  home  form work. It looked  just like  the animal in the picture you are showing me."

So we called the local animal warden and they told us  to call the Department of  Enviromental Control.  we called  them  and  they  told  us  there was nothing  they  could  do  about it. Give  me  a break !  you think they would  be  concern about an animal  going around  attacking  livestock.

So i took  the  picture  i had printed out  and  went a round  my  neighborhood warning all  my  neighbors  that  there was a Fisher  around.  It  turns  out one  of  my neighbors  had  to take  their  dog  to  the  vet cause it had gotten  badly attacked  by an  animal during  the night.

So we talked  to one of our neighbors  who is  a hunter  and  a trapper  and he  was  going to talk  to  some  of  his  buddies  who  also hunt  and  trap  and  see wheter  they  can   catch  the  darn  thing in  a trap,  or shoot it and  kill  it.

So that is  the  latest. In  the  meantime,  the horses  are  completely  closed in, in their barn.  My  dogs  only  go out  during  the  day,  and  on  their  leashes,  and  my  son is only allowed  outside  with  me  or  his  father  cause Fisher's  can  go after  and  kill a  small adult.

So praying  that we  catch the  darn thing  soon.  Also praying  that  the  darn thing  did not have  rabies,  cause that is  all I nedd  for  my horse  to get, cause both Tempus  and  my other horse  are due  for  their  rabies  shots  next month.
The  vet was  actually  going  to vaccinate  them  for  rabies when she  comes  to check tempus  again, atleast that was  the  plan.

So just praying that we catch  the  darn Fisher,  that Tempus  starts  to heal, and  that his  vision remains  okay, and  that he  does not come  down  with rabies, although he  probably  would  be  showing signs  by now  if  he  had.

So that is  the latest  chapter in  the  saga  of my never dull life  !