Arab Horses Neglected in Abertridwr, Caerphilly

21/10/2022

Look who has been back to say hello! Mr Funny Feet man.
But this time, guess who had his hind toes trimmed

17/10/2022

Where are our days going?! We run out of hours each day, especially daylight 😔.
Apologies for no updates for a while but here is a little video of Desert Miracle's bum. Or rather, lack of it and with awful rain scald.

It's rainscald upon rainscald upon rainscald over months without treatment or even just prevention 🤬
This is a very slow process because as you can see, if the scabs/tufts come off, they have pus and raw skin under them!
If it were just a few scabs, they could be eased off, but can you imagine what would happen if we removed ALL these scabs?? 😳
Des would have one huge, red raw, exposed section that would be prone to further infection. Which of course in his weakened state would be even more detrimental to him.

So instead, we have to keep washing and soaking and trying to remove all the dirt, scabs and hair little by little over many weeks.
Des is being a super patient! He stands patiently letting you do pretty much whatever you want to him!
There is no excuse for how this was allowed to happen repeatedly over the years. It's not a case of a few weeks or even months of neglect, it's a few years at the very least 🤬
And it would and could have been so easily avoided which makes it all the more difficult to bear.

He has put some weight on, which again is an exceptionally slow process, but he has a good appetite for his high fibre and oil bucket feeds, adlib hay and grass.

His mud fever is also a long slow process but the scabs are also coming off very slowly and easing the pain when he walks around. It had been so bad he developed lymphangitis from standing around but he has a little more movement now to walk around for grass.

To confirm, we have NOT heard directly from either WHW, Jayne and Kelvin Watkins, the 'rescue', BHS or any other agency or society to discuss this neglect. If anyone has any information as to how WHW and BHS allowed so many horses to be neglected over so many years owned by the Watkins, we would love to know! They have failed the horses in more ways than one.

26/09/2022

We promised we would keep you guys updated on what we are doing with each horse, what treatments they receive, what it costs us, what donations go towards etc.
As of yet, your amazingly kind donations are sitting in the donation account, and we have not spent 1p of it. We have winter coming, more veterinary treatments, increased hay and feed, and that's without any emergencies we may have in the meantime, so its very comforting to know we have a little pot we can use when we need it.
You wonderful kind people have given us this security and we all thank you

26/09/2022

25/09/2022

Worm Egg Count Update - We, well my foster mum!, are in complete shock. My count come back as under 60epg! YAY We can rule worms out of contributing to my emaciated body!
My foster mum was dreading the reading coming back as she thought it was going to be really high and I may need a lot of repeat worming, but I don't!
I don't even need one worming as its such a low count. But my mum said not all eggs and worms can be discovered in my poo test, so I will need some worming soon, I just don't have to panic to have it done straight away and I can wait until I have put more weight on

25/09/2022

Our stables - all closed up and feet deep full of old poo so we couldn't use them at all, in summer to get away from the heat and flies, or the winter cold or the rain.
Between the start and end of the week abandonment notice, the rugs you can see in one stable (we were wearing those in the heatwave to hide our bones) were removed!
Couple of photos are blurry, sorry, but you can still see the mess and poo.
A stark difference to the stallion stables :'(

Now we have lovely dry stables with rubber mats and bedding, that we can use as much or as little as we choose

24/09/2022

We had a funny foot man come visit us a couple of days ago. He really wanted to see what our feet were like - is that a foot fettish? My foster mum said he was going to make me and Tom a lot more comfortable.
It took quite a while to do my feet. I had to stop and rest because I was so wobbly. I only just had enough strength to stand to have my front toes trimmed. Mr Farrier was so very patient with me and letting me put my feet down often so I could have a rest.
He tried to do my back feet but I wasn't able to stand and support myself any longer. He said he has to come back in a few weeks time and hopefully I will be stronger and I can stand and hold myself up for a bit longer and he can do all 4 of my feet.
He seen I had a hole from an old abscess that had burst out of my coronet band a few months ago. That was so very painful and I was hopping for a while until that burst on its own.

Tom also had his feet done. he was doing really well until Mr Farrier started to do his back feet. Ohhhhh he was so naughty! Bad Tom! He kept trying to kick our lovely foot man because he didn't want his done. But Mr Farrier is big and strong, and he said he has come across these naughty little ponies far too many times and he laughed at Tom! Tom finally realised he wasn't going to beat Mr Farrier, so he finally gave up the fight! And now he has a lovely set of 4 neatly trimmed toes .

Mr Farrier is coming back to see us in a few weeks time and I cant wait to see what naughty Tom tries next :D

24/09/2022

SATURDAY! My foster mum has a 'day off' so she can get on Facebook! So lots of updates from our last week in our foster home to come and lots of messages/notifications for her to work through.
But a little update about me Des .............. I have continued to put weight on in a controlled feeding plan and I hope you can see the small difference in my body. I am still skinny, I am still body score 1 (out of 9) and will be for another few weeks but I am improving thanks to some feed, grass and hay!
My foster mum said my skin felt like tissue paper, and she could feel all the bones in my neck as if they didn't have any skin covering them, especially where the vet found my enlarged vertebrae where I have arthritis. But now she says the bones no longer feel so sharp under my skin because my skin is getting more coverage.
Photos of 05.09.22 and 22.09.22

I have had 3 small baths! Wow they feel so nice. I have to have smaller baths because I cant risk getting cold and a chill, so my foster mum is doing sections of me every few days. Its going to take quite a lot more baths to get all the grit and grime out of my coat and remove the tufts of rainscald. She said its my spa treatment.
Photo's show before and after on each half of my back, after first bath.

I will share more photos and updates later

20/09/2022

*UPDATE* Long post!
1. The horses are now one week into their new foster homes. They have really settled in very well. They have wonderful natures and each of their characters are developing which is beautiful to see.
When you rehabilitate an underweight/emaciated horse, the progress is very slow. Sometimes you don't think they have put any weight on, but they have, internally. Sometimes you don't think you will ever get to the end of the road with them, but you will. It just takes such a long time.
Unlike healthy horses, these horses cannot have 'normal' levels of feed in a meal. They have to have small meals several times a day. It is the only way to ensure they put on weight slowly. If they were to eat a normal size bucket feed, it could cause them to go into shock and get colic. Colic in healthy horses is high risk and can be fatal, so in horses in this condition it would be extremely dangerous, so we do not take this risk. This is why weight gain takes so long.
When you first see one of the horses literally wobbling towards you on day 1-
to then trotting a few strides to you on day 4-
to constantly whickering at your shoulder telling you to hurry up and mix the feed faster on day 6, you know you are winning.

19/09/2022

Through the network of Facebook, we have finally found the names of the two in our saved herd that we had no information on.

We have also found out details of 2 other Arabs that were owned and sadly lost their lives, as well as a connection to one of the horses we saved.
(Explains why he was the only one Jayne asked to have back!)

19/09/2022

We have been inundated with messages, information, offers of help and so much support, thank you.
Please do not think we are ignoring you, we are trying to reply as fast as possible to everyone, but it's difficult keeping up with so many of you. Back to work tomorrow, so we will be even slower