September 22nd

JoJo trying to back up the stairs to sneak up on me. He thinks if he can’t see me that I can’t see him! LOL

Finally, a short break from the rains. The stalls are full. So thankful for the shelters. Headed to shower. It’s going to be another long day tomorrow. Victoria will be getting x-rays. The sarcoid on Attagirl’s ear will be removed – it’s grown and is becoming quite a mess – we wanted to get her immune system stronger first and I think we’re there. I hope and pray the weather will be good. Have a good night everyone.

September 23rd

We need an ark. Please pray that these rains stop!THE SUN IS OUT – FINALLY! Even if for a short time!

I don’t know what it would feel like to not have a donkey to greet us in the mornings and I’m not sure I want to find out. LOL And then there is Matilda’s morning breakfast serenade. I just love these long ears!

"Good morning mommy Theresa – lookie my nose is just fine!"

The boys having fun in the new lake this morning. LOL! I’m so glad the rains stopped today and the sun came out for a bit. Everything is saturated. I truly wish we could redirect some of the rains to places that need it.

Betsy Rose out grazing with little Lucy. Everyone needs a bath. LOL

I would consider today a good one. Not all great news but it could be much worse. After the indirect lightening strike that Victoria took in mid-July, I was concerned she would colic or founder from the stress of it all. But she slowly improved and was doing well. A few days ago, she didn’t want to put weight on her front left foot. She blew an abscess but there were more suspected. We’ve been packing and wrapping her feet and she’s been CleanTraxed. Victoria’s x-rays today indicate she’s had some rotation but the vets don’t think it’s new. The current issue is believed to be abscesses. After Victoria took the indirect lightening strike back in mid July, it took many weeks before she was able to comfortably stand for all 4 feet to be trimmed. I video her progress and I’ll post a video of her tomorrow to show how well she was doing before the abscesses started. She’s a tough Arabian that has lots of spark in her eyes – this is just a bump in the road.

Some relief – Victoria popped an abscess! Unfortunately, there are more, I’m certain. As soon as I unwrapped her foot this am I could smell it. The vet should be here in an hour or so to do x-rays. Please say a prayer for her – hopefully this is just a case of abscessing and nothing more. The weather has been horrible which isn’t helping the situation.

When Victoria, Matilda, and Donovan arrived last year they all had unhealthy feet (among other issues). Bars were long, there was thrush, white line, gravel abscesses, many were pretty long and some were chipped up pretty bad – there where cracks that went all the way up the foot, and there were abscesses that resolved midway up the foot. This was one of Donovan’s feet upon arrival. But I can tell you that looks can be misleading – I’ve seen some feet "look" bad that were very healthy. But the feet on these three horses were not healthy. All of them have been quite a project in many ways. But they are all worth it. I’ve no regrets for saying "yes" when we were asked if we would accept them into our rescue program.

This was Victoria upon arrival last year. That is Matilda in the background.

If anyone would like to be a sponsor for Victoria and help her along this journey we would great appreciate it. She will need more acupuncture/TENS treatments and supplements. I don’t think we will need more x-rays but she needs help with today’s expenses. This photo was taken in late April. We had just put her up for adoption a few weeks before the indirect lightening strike. It’s sad, just sad. This mare deserves a happy forever life and we’re going to try to make sure she gets it. Once we get her through this she will make a wonderful pasture pal. She’s incredibly smart and loving. We do believe she will make it through this – please keep her in your prayers. If anyone would like to help her, donations can be PayPal’d to bhfer. Donations can also be made via our "How You Can Help/Donate" page of our website. Thank you

September 24th

The sound of itty bitty hooves running around having fun. Priceless!

Victoria is just beautiful – inside and out.

Matilda is an older Mammoth Mule that came to us about this time last year. She arrived very emaciated and with a high parasite load, neglected teeth and feet, and her blood work was that of a typical starvation case. As Matilda progressed through our rehab program she gained weight and perked up physically and mentally. But she would often pass soft manure, go off her feed, and “park out” as though she had a stomach ache. We treat incoming compromised horses for ulcers, even if just as a preventative, for the first few weeks they are with us – the GI tract can be easily challenged, even in a healthy horse, when put under stress. A horse that has endured starvation for any amount of time is at higher risk for colic, colitis, etc.

We opted to try something different – we put Matilda on a product recommended by Dr. Julia Simonson made by Bluegrass Equine Products, Inc. called EquiOtic. Matilda got 20 cc of EquiOtic paste twice a day for four days – a day after, she stopped parking out and having soft manure. She was then put on a maintenance dose of 20 cc once a day – we have not seen her “park out” since and she eats all of her meals. She now gets a packet (powder) a day and still has not demonstrated any signs of a GI issue. EquiOtic is a bit different than other products we use – it combines a probiotics with an immunoprobiotic (a bacteria that interacts with the host immune system).

Bluegrass Equine Products are also where we get the Deluxe Slippers from – they work great. And Victoria – she gets EquiBios – also from Bluegrass Equine Products. They have a Facebook page – EquiOtic(tm) – check them out! Their products are available through various online stores. And if you have any questions give them a call!

Here is Matilda before EquiOtic – “parked out” under her favorite tree where there is a water mister overhead to help keep her comfortable in the Florida heat.

Dr. Julia Simonson, DVM, performing acupuncture/electronic stimulation on Matilda.

Matilda is HUGE! She is a very sweet girl that everyone adores – we are very blessed to have her with us. She’s served humans well and we intend on making her sunset years good ones! Thank you EquiOtic!

The sarcoid that was on Attagirl’s ear is now gone for the most part. We are now treating it topically. Dr. Julia suggested we send the mass to the lab to determine what, exactly, it was. Please say a prayer that this works – they usually get worse before they get better but we’ll see.

Dr. Julia also aspirated some fluids from a lump that is near Handsome’s elbow. Handsome was a very good boy about it. I’ll let everyone know what we learn when the lab results come back.

Coming soon to: Beauty’s Haven Equine Rescue Auction Page!! Who will be the lucky owner of this one and only original JoJo miniature? Stay tuned for more details . . .

If anyone would like to help with the extra vetting expenses and some hay it would be greatly appreciated. Our PayPal is bhfer. Donations can be made through our website www.bhfer.org. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Theresa

Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Website:
Facebook:

Dear friends,

The expense of rescue, rehabilitation, and follow-on care are out of this world and we need your support!

We are asking you to help us by supporting our Park Lane Jewelry Fundraiser. The holidays will be here before we know it! But you don’t need a holiday to make a purchase – make a purchase and surprise someone with a beautiful gift “just because”!

Park Lane Jewelry, founded in 1955, is all about giving back. A full 50% of our fundraiser sales will be “given back” to benefit BEAUTY’S HAVEN FARM & EQUINE RESCUE (not 10% or 20% like others).

Our goal is to raise $5,000 for our ever growing daily expenses. You, your family and friends may place orders September 12 – 23, 2014. When you place your order you will have the choice of direct shipping to your home, please choose the direct ship option. Your order will be individually gift boxed and shipped, within two weeks following the close of our fundraiser.

Simply click and shop to help us reach our fundraising goal. Follow this link or cut and paste the link in your browser:

https://parklanejewelry.com/store/start/fundraiser/168#sthash.UGgK4DMh

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Theresa
Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Website: www.bhfer.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bhfer.tb

I apologize for this update being late – I found it in my “Draft” folder.

September 8th

Oscar and Pistol are doing great – their adoptive mom loves them dearly!

It was a very long day today and I’m beat – I’ll update tomorrow. Have a good night everyone.

September 9th

And what in my path did appear? Yes, a little flymask that happens to be JoJo’s. Now, off to find the boys…

"Mommy Theresa! There you are! I looked all over for you but couldn’t find you! Look at what I did! The sun went away behind the clouds and I was a big boy and took my mask off all by myself! I even left it where I knew you would walk so you’d be sure to find it – we wouldn’t want it to get lost because then I know I’d have to stay inside when the sun comes out. Aren’t you proud of me? You don’t have to search all over looking for it this time!"

Victoria took an indirect lightening strike several weeks ago which really took a toll on her but she is slowly recovering. We believed she could pull herself out of the fog she was in with time. She’s never lost the light in her eyes even on the darkest of days when she couldn’t more than a few feet – she never gave up. And we never gave up on her. We believe….

When Handsome arrived on August 30th he was wearing pony shoes that were way too small for him and he had terrible thrush. His feet hurt him – he didn’t want to move. The farrier pulled his shoes and we put him in Soft Ride boots – he was so tender footed. Last Wednesday, a package arrived for Handsome from Thrush B Gone!

His feet got the first treatment on Thursday and the product has worked wonders (http://www.thrushbgone.com/)! Hats off to the ladies that make it – it really works! The thrush cleared up in just a couple of days and he’s not nearly as tender-footed. We’re going to make sure we always have Thrush B Gone on hand. The first photo of his hoof was taken the day after he arrived. The 2nd one of his foot was taken last Thursday. I’ll get another one tomorrow and you’ll see how far his feet have come in a very short time.

Handsome had lived alone for 5+ years before coming here. Yesterday, he was feeling so frisky we turned him out with Santana. They did the gelding "meet and greet" thing and it was beautiful to watch. Today the boys grazed and ran together. It’s really heartwarming to watch a horse come in and begin to heal both mentally and physically.

Hay Handsome – wow, can I call you something else? Don’t you have a nickname or something? I hear you have an appointment with Dr. Bess to get your teeth done tomorrow. She’s pretty cool. Doesn’t hurt at all."

"Thanks CaryLou but how …would you know that it doesn’t hurt? You’re only a year old and all she’s had to do is look in your mouth!"

Oh these silly boys! I guess we’ll let Athena go first tomorrow so Handsome can see it’s not bad.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks with Donovan but we’re staying positive that he’s going to be just fine. Have a good night everyone!

September 10th

We welcomed Athena to the rescue today. She has gained weight since we’ve been feeding her. She’s a 15 year old Arabian cross that we had vetted a couple of weeks ago. We had a place lined up for her but just after the coggins came back, the home offer fell through. We hadn’t planned on bringing her in but she had no place to go. Tomorrow she will get her teeth done (so will Handsome). And she’ll possibly get a hooficure – we may wait until next weekend for that. We need to work with her a bit on picking and holding up her feet. If anyone can offer a good home with lots of TLC for this sweet girl please let know. She’s very, very sweet. Thanks Pamela Zarem (Double B Equine Transport, L.L.C.) for safely transporting this girl.

Poulticing front left and running DMSO at the same time. We need clouds and a breeze and Donovan needs prayers.

September 11th

When we woke up that morning we had no reason to think that the future of mankind would soon change forever. Our daughters, sons, and grandchildren would never know the world as we did before that day. We all need to remember…

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis"

Artwork by Greg Ambrose

September 12th

The day started out in one of the best way’s possible – finding Donovan walking on all 4’s! He blew another abscess in the wee hours and this morning he was putting weight on his front left – he’s been 3 legged for the last several days. Watching any horse walk on 3 legs is hard but watching a huge – huge horse, well, it’s not easy. It’s been tough these last few days but we will get him through this! Dr Julia was going to work on Donovan today but she ran out of time because she helped the farrier with Donovan and then she worked on Peaches. She will be back to treat Donovan.

What did Peaches do while she was in Betsy Rose’s stall today getting her acupuncture/massage/TENS/chiro treatment? Well, it looked like there was a heck of a party – toys everywhere! None of them were injured and they are all back in their rightful places now. Betsy didn’t mind.

Dr. Bess Darrow worked on Handsome and Athena yesterday. Both had some dental issues and I bet they are much more comfortable now. Handsome is an 11 year old Saddlebred gelding that was about to be euthanized a couple of weeks ago and Athena is an Arabian cross that needed help – she just arrived a couple of days ago but we had been providing feed for her for a couple of weeks.

Dr. Bess had her awesome assistant with her, and the horses cooperated so well, we got to actually sit and talk for a few minutes and she was able to leave here in record time! She’s the best! Her website is http://www.tuneupsequine.com/Tune_Ups_Veterinary_Equine_Dentistry.html.

The dynamic duo playing "let’s take everything apart and knock things over to give the humans something to do" game!

By evening I was simply too tired to even walk to the house. LOL

"Mommy Theresa you look like you need a nap!"

Do we have any Appaloosa fans out there? We really need some help networking to find a good home for Serenity and Bryce. They are such sweet horses. We don’t want to separate them – they are brother and sister and have always been together. Serenity is 18 and Bryce is 6.

Serenity is trained.

Bryce is ready for school.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sincerely,

Theresa

Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Website:
Facebook:

Thursday, August 28th

"Did you find my mask yet mommy Theresa?" He asks with a snicker on his face.

A bit later in the day…

"Joshua! I’m so glad you’re here! You were a little boy once, right? Can I tell you something? Mommy Theresa says I can’t go out in the sun without my flymask because of my nose – it gets burned easy and I don’t like that slippery stuff my aunties put on my nose – I just rub it right back on them and I don’t think they like it either! I really want to go out to play with CaryLou but yesterday my my mask kind of sort of disappeared and I’ve looked everywhere for it – I th…ink maybe somebody picked it up and put it in this trashcan. Can you help me look? You’d be my hero! Just take the lid off and see if it’s still there – oops – I mean let’s see if someone put it in there!"

"Sure thing JoJo. I didn’t like that sunblock stuff on my nose either when I was a kid! Here, let’s see – you’re in luck!"

"OMG you found it! I wonder how it got in there? Maybe CaryLou wanted to get me in trouble! He must have found it outside after the wind blew it away and then he sneaked in the barn to put it in there somehow. Well, can you tell mommy Theresa that you found it around the barn somewhere? Maybe the wind did blow it and it landed in here. But if you tell her now maybe I can go out to play! Thanks – you’re the bomb!"

"CaryLou why don’t you have to stay in the barn at night?"

"Because I’m not a baby anymore JoJo! Oh no, what did you do with your mask now – where’d it go? It wasn’t me! You blamed it on me last night – I know you did!"

"I got my get out of the barn mask – yeah! Wonder what we can do with it next time CaryLou? It was fun watching the humans look for it today."

Friday, August 29th

Attagirl is a really sweet girl.

Saturday, August 30th

Meet our latest arrival. He has a few medical issues going on but he will be fine. I got a call from our vet yesterday afternoon about a horse he had been called out to euthanize. But he couldn’t do it. He said the horse had light in his eyes. It’s sad that people are sometimes put into a position to have to make a decision to euthanize because of circumstances out of control. His owner loved him but just could not afford to keep up with his ongoing health needs. She was… in tears and didn’t want to have him put down but didn’t want him to suffer either. Deciding to euth is a responsible thing to do in some cases. Fortunately, our vet assured her that we would take good care of him and find him a good home when he is ready. She cried tears of relief. Our vet was relieved. And them we reached out for help to get him here. Steve and Karen Holgate made a bit of a drive to pick him up and bring him to the rescue which we appreciated very much. He settled into the qt paddock and seems very content. The farrier is here and is pulling his shoes today and fixing his feet up. We will try to get Dr. Bess out next week. He can only have a soft diet at this time. He’s loving talking to the other horses. He’s been a lone horse for awhile. Meet Handsome, a 10 year old Saddlebred.

I’ll go into detail tomorrow about our findings with Handsome today. I’m a bit discouraged, to say the least, but not really surprised. Have a good night everyone.

Sunday, August 31st

Sorry for the delay in getting on here today – it’s been busy. When Handsome arrived on Friday evening he walked ok but by the next morning he wouldn’t move. I didn’t want to bute him because the vet suggested Handsome had ulcers which were likely due to medication/stress related to his respiratory issue a couple of weeks ago. The farrier came yesterday and pulled his shoes (which were fairly new) and found a mess – thrush, shoes that were way too small for him and there w…as very deep carving marks and long bars. Once the shoes were pulled, thrush treated, etc. pads and Cavello boots were put on him. Handsome managed to get around a little but still wasn’t comfortable so by yesterday evening I did give him bute. Once it set in, he started to graze and walk.

I don’t know how he managed to walk on the trailer and unload and settle in just fine and graze the evening before unless perhaps he’d been given bute and we just didn’t know about it. I can’t speculate but had hoped to get the answer today but my phone call wasn’t returned. His feet are going to take some time to get better. We’ll see how he’s doing in a couple of days but we may need to get x-rays. The owner told the vet that Handsome had stopped eating a few days ago and started cribbing. Next will be an appointment with the dentist. He’s eating a mash little bits at a time but isn’t interested in hay – he isn’t comfortable with anyone touching his mouth. We have not seen him crib at all. If anyone would like to help with him our PayPal is bhfer. Other ways to donate can be found our website at www.bhfer.org. Thank you.

Victoria and Lucy grazing today. Victoria is gaining strength in her back end. She took an indirect lightening strike several weeks ago.

Caught! CaryLou was trying to rip down JoJo’s sign again today!

Aaleyah Belle and her silly, lovable surgically corrected as best as possible wry nose. She still loves to slime people!

Sincerely,

Theresa

Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Website:
Facebook: