Treasure Hunt Farm Foundation

11/11/2024

✨ It’s a big day tomorrow!!

These handsome bucks & our sweet ram lamb all become wethers tomorrow! It is castration day!!!!

We are very excited, both because they are very smelly teenagers right now and also because it is one step closer to them joining our big goat herd! Out in the main herd, they’ll have so much space to run and friends to play with, and Auggie will be reunited with his mom, Tulip!

As a sanctuary, we plan for our animals to live as long and as healthy lives as they can.

One huge issue in sheep and goats' is urinary calculi, or mineral deposits that block the urethra. Allowing these four to mature and not castrating them until after they turned 6 months old is an important step to continued health!

While it is sometimes not an option for some to wait, we are happy we were able to separate them and allow them time to grow.

The procedure will be done on the farm with extra care taken for their comfort and recovery. As you can imagine, a neuter times 4 gets a little pricey! If you are able to help support our mission and pay for a portion of these procedures, we would appreciate it!!!

Links to our PayPal and Venmo are below in the comments! 🔗

11/08/2024

Friendly reminder!

❄️ For some, it is rug season again! ❄️

Whilst there may be differing opinions on if/when is the right time to rug horses, there is one thing that we can all agree on, the importance of SAFETY and fastening rugs correctly. Here are some key guidelines that are all to often overlooked. Using the correct way to fasten rugs should help avoid accidents such as getting attached to hay nets and getting legs stuck in straps. 🐴💙

👉 Face hooks inward. Always position clips towards your horse’s body to prevent them from getting snagged on fences, hay nets, or anything else. Outward-facing clips can get caught or come undone, risking injury if your horse panics.

👉 Cross those straps! Belly straps should always be crossed (some rugs do have a different arrangement now, i.e. 3 straight straps, follow the manufactures intentions) to prevent twisting. A twisted rug can cause rubbing, discomfort, injury, or even panic if your horse feels trapped or gets a leg caught in poorly fitted straps.
Leg straps must also be crossed in a loop, this prevents rubbing on the inside of the hind legs and keeps the rug level, it also stops the straps hanging to low and risking a leg getting caught as the horse gets up or down.

The image shows visual examples of correct and incorrect strap and fastening placements.

11/04/2024

It’s about time we catch up on introductions!!

meet... ALFIE!

This dreamboat of a mini pony looks like he came straight out of the dreams of any little girl or My Little Pony cartoon! His tiny stature, fluffy mane, BIG personality, and squeaky neighs melt our hearts every day!
 
Alfie, or “Alf,” is a 28-year-old miniature horse who was surrendered to us on Labor Day weekend. (I know, we’re so behind on the updates!! Sorry!!) His owners were being forced to move off the property they both lived and kept him at and desperately needed him rehomed. Alfie was a smidge underweight on arrival and is on daily Cushing’s medications. Otherwise, he is a healthy boy! His owners made an appointment to have him euthanized, as rehoming an older, unrideable horse with expensive daily medications is a nearly impossible task!

When our veterinarian called us asking if we would consider taking him, we knew we could make room!
Alfie has settled in flawlessly, sharing a stall with Rocky and Lil Guy, chatting with Merlin across the hallway, and being Quincy’s pocket doppelganger in the field during the day.
 
We are so grateful that with your support we were able to offer Alf a safe place to land and look forward to sharing him with you for the years to come!

If you’d like to make a donation to Alfie’s continued care, we have PayPal and Venmo!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween from this cast of characters!!!

10/27/2024

Been thinking of joining Patreon?? You’re in luck!!!!

Yesterday, we announced two new arrivals exclusively to our Patrons AND launched our new $1!!! “Supporter of the Sheep!” membership level. Meaning- for just $1 a month, $12 a year, you can help rescue neglected, abused, and elderly animals and give them a forever home here!

Patreon members at the $5 level and up get cool merch, a chance to help name new arrivals, and personalized thank you cards from the animals here!

Sign up today and instantly get to know our two new friends!!! 🤫

https://patreon.com/TreasureHuntFarmFoundation?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

10/25/2024

🎃🐷🎃🐷🎃🐷🎃
It’s that time of year again!!! Not sure what to do with your pumpkins after Halloween?

Malone has an idea! Bring them to him and his friends! Donated pumpkins make an excellent snack for all the animals.

Please message us to arrange drop-off of:
• Carved Pumpkins (November 1st-5th)
• Uncarved pumpkins with NO paint or drawing on them (Anytime!)

59 Wachusett St, Rutland, MA 01543

🎃🐷🎃🐷🎃🐷🎃

10/21/2024

Merlin, our 4-year-old Nubian goat, is the embodiment of love and resilience at Treasure Hunt Farm Foundation. Recently, he faced serious health challenges, including more frequent idiopathic seizures and a rapid weight loss that required 8 days of hospitalization at Tufts. Despite the uncertainty around his condition, Merlin is back home and improving, but his medical bills have been significant—totaling $8,326.33.

We are reaching out to you, our compassionate community, to help us cover his expenses. No donation is too small. Your support makes all the difference in providing our animals with the life-sustaining care they deserve. You can also consider becoming a patron on Patreon for ongoing support.

Donations can be made via Venmo, PayPal, or mailed to PO Box 696, Rutland, MA 01543. Thank you for being a part of Merlin's journey and for continuing to help us be there for our beloved residents.

Venmo 🔗: http://venmo.com/treasurehuntfarm
PayPal 🔗: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=3ES9ERG99GY7Y

10/16/2024

Did you know- we have 10 horses and donkeys with insulin resistance, Cushing’s, or a history of laminitis? Information like this are so important to maintaining their health!

Pastures, nonstructural carbohydrates, and frost 🌱🍂❄️

Because it is that season, I want to discuss horse pastures and nonstructural carbohydrates, specifically as they relate to the beginning and end of a grazing season. Let’s begin by breaking this down by each topic before we add them all together:

Nonstructural carbohydrates, often abbreviated as NSCs, are comprised of water soluble carbohydrates (simple sugars and fructans) and starch. This class of carbohydrates is an important source of energy for the horse and they are digested and absorbed in the foregut, leading to an increase in blood glucose and insulin. As a result, high levels of NSCs in the diet can be an issue for horses with metabolic concerns specifically related to insulin dysregulation such as equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), Cushing’s (PPID), and laminitis/founder. While NSCs can be more consistent and documented in manufactured concentrates, more variation is observed in pasture or hay due to outside factors such as plant maturity, time of day, and weather conditions.

In pasture plants, NSCs are produced via photosynthesis, a process in which sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide generate glucose and oxygen. A separate but complementary process known as respiration is responsible for breaking down the glucose created during photosynthesis and releasing that energy for cellular use. As a result, increased photosynthesis leads to an accumulation of NSCs and increased cellular respiration leads to a decrease of NSCs. There are many weather conditions that can alter the balance between these processes in plants.

So how are these two factors connected to frost and the swing in temperatures observed in the spring and fall when horses are either being introduced to or removed from pasture? Well, when temperatures fall below 40°F, the enzymes involved in cellular respiration become significantly less active. And when temperatures fall below freezing, the enzymes can become denatured, stopping respiration altogether. This means low temperatures can lead to an accumulation of NSCs in the forage which can be problematic for grazing horses.

As a result, it is important to look at the nightly lows, and if these temperatures are sustained for more than a few hours, change your management practices accordingly, especially for glucose-sensitive horses. Furthermore, a hard frost occurs when temperatures drop below 28°F for more than four consecutive hours and will not only result in NSC accumulation but also marks the end of the growing season. While current recommendations allow grazing to resume 7 days following a hard frost, pastures require a minimum height of 3” to 4” going into the winter to support pasture productivity the following grazing season. Since grasses will no longer grow after a hard frost, continuing to graze can put undue stress on the pasture.

Additionally, sudden changes in the diet that would occur from removing horses from pasture abruptly, keeping horses on dried forage for 7 days, and then reintroducing horses to pasture, could lead to digestive upset or other health problems and the process will be time intensive for owners. When shifting the diet, even between different forages, it is critical to plan intentional transitions that allow the gut microbiota to sufficiently adapt. While the transition back to pasture can be accelerated in the fall compared to beginning grazing in the spring, it should still be done with care.

I hope this information is helpful as you make decisions on horse management and grazing this season!

- Dr. DeBoer

10/13/2024

Our updates on Patreon have been a little slow lately but tomorrow we will be sharing our two newest arrivals with paid members and you're going to want to see them!!!!

Get more from Treasure Hunt Farm Foundation on Patreon

10/12/2024

Have extra kiddie pools you don’t want to store for winter? Consider donating them to our herd of goats- they love laying in them, eating out of them, and even playing with them like Nya here!

10/10/2024

Hard to be mad when the skies look like these! Northern Lights sighting in Rutland!

10/08/2024

“If I like something, I’ll just get it in a different color.”

Rocky, Lil Guy, and their new friend 🤫 (who will be shared on Patreon soon)!

10/04/2024

Did you know today is and ?? With faces like these, everyday is here!

Comet is showing off his “flehmen response” here, a natural skill animals have that help them take in new smells! In this case, Comet was in a different stall for a night and inspecting the past residents odor! 👃🏼

09/24/2024

Most of our animals are LOVING these cool mornings. Some of them, like Charlotte, are counting down the days til summer again!

09/18/2024

☕️ 🧘🏼‍♀️ ☀️ 🐴 🐮 🐷

09/13/2024

Poppy’s just popping in to remind you to enjoy every second (and morsel of food!!). 🫏 🐎