Week One 14 December 08

A week later the mare, now christened Manky-Mare, is looking much better. I have been feeding her twice daily with sugarbeet, oaten chaff, and broodmare mix. Added to that is 400gm of hemp a day, yea-sacc probiotic, and 'healthy hooves & hair'. She has been giving everything she has to Sprat for so long that her own system is depleted of everything and her hooves are crumbly and her hair is falling out.



Another couple of weeks and I reckon she will look like a normal horse again!

Unfortunately Sprat isnt looking so great . . . I was at the paddock spraying weeds yesterday, and my partner was mowing. We were watching him run around frolicking and oohing & aahing at his cuteness. Then we went back to what we were doing and 5 minutes later I looked over and his face was stoved in.

By the time the vet got there I had him in the yard and blood was everywhere, it was pulsing out of the hole in the front of his face. It was a stinking hot afternoon and I hadnt eaten all day. The vet sedated Sprat and at around about the same time he passed out . . . so did I!!


The vet peeled the skin back from his face and tried to tie off the severed artery but it was under the shattered bone and she couldnt get to it. I came to just long enough to have a look at poor Sprats broken nose and split cartilage and then I had to go and sit in the shade again. The vet stitched it all back up again and it doesnt look too bad.






The next day alot of blood was still running out of his nostrils and when he breathed he gurgled due to the hole on the front of his face.



By day two the stuff coming out of his nose was pink and watery rather than actual blood but he was still having trouble breathing, and feeding was a bit of an issue for him as he couldnt push up on the udder, though he was very happy to see his feed bin!



Day three and the dripping fluid has stopped and now rather than a gurgling sound when he breathes it just sounds like an air filter. He still isnt feeding well but is loving his two small bins of feed a day. I will get him some weanling mix tomorrow and start him on that.


We still dont know what could have happened. He was in a flat square paddock with nothing in it except his mother. The only thing that could have happened is that he either ran full tilt into a fence post, or his mother kicked him. I dont think she did though, as he isnt scared of her back end now, and she hasnt shown any sign of wanting to kick him at all, she is very patient with him. Even when he uses her as a scratching post!