| THANKSGIVING TRAGEDY By Shirley Sepulveda Thanksgiving morning 1997 was going along as it usually does when my pager went off. Checking it I saw that it was my friend and client from across the valley with 911 after her number which meant it was an emergency. I called her fearing that something had happen to her mare that was in foal to my stallion.  Photo Art by ILoveGifts It was not one of her horses but her neighbor's nine week old pinto filly. I had given lessons to the neighbor's daughter so I was familiar with their critters. They had already called the vet but she could not get there for a couple of hours as she was backed up with emergencies. It was only 8 a.m.! My friend, Shereen, asked if I could come over right away and help her administer first aid on her neighbor's little filly. According to her it looked like the filly might have broken her neck or at the least had a severe head injury or a severe colic. I told her I would come right away. I told her to get some blankets on the filly to warm her up and asked if they had milked the mare and tried to feed the filly. Shereen said no to all the above. I told her I would bring the baby bottles. My daughter and I grabbed my first aid stuff and off we went. When we got there it was truly a sad sight---both the filly and the owners. They had not known that their appaloosa mare was even in foal until the mare was over the half way point in the pregnancy. A young colt had jumped their fence and had been with the mare for just a short time the year before. He was a pinto. Then the mare foaled early and the filly was really small and had weak legs. By the weekend before Thanksgiving, the filly's legs were straight and strong and she was finally growing. She lay a couple of feet away from the gate post on her left side. They had covered her up with blankets and when temped her temperature was almost up to normal. She could move her head but that was about it. I listened to her guts with my stethascope, and told everyone I did not think the filly had coliced because her guts sounded really good. I felt that it was either a head injury or a broken neck. My daughter and I haltered the mare. I held her while Tanya began to strip her of milk. I had the owners go get the mare a bucket of water and some breakfast so she would willing to stay put. Between Tanya and myself we took turns milking the mare and feeding the filly. The filly wanted to eat but couldn't hold her head up so we fed her with her head in our laps. She had severe contusions around her right eye and blood coming out of her right nostril. The Filly Had broken her Neck. The vet got there about 10:30 am. After examining her she felt that the filly had broken her neck. After much discussion, the owners opted for no x-rays yet, no trip to UC Davis, but let's treat her for a severe head injury and see what happens. If there was no improvement, they wanted her x-rayed the following day. We rolled her over onto a tarp and drug her down to their stall. The poor mare did not understand why her baby would not get up and the filly kept whinnying to her . Through out the day and night they kept IVs going. The filly quit wanting to eat in the evening. The next morning the vet came out and x-rayed her neck but felt that since the filly had become pretty much unresponsive that her original diagnosis was correct. The x-rays proved her to be correct and the the owners had the filly put to sleep. The filly had smacked into the gate post while she was running but was looking back at something over her left shoulder. In all my years of dealing with horses, I have seen plenty of horses, old and young, do this ----- always terrified that they would break their necks. But this was only the second one that actually died. All the rest were lucky----- they got away with scrapes or stitches and a bad headache. My heart went out to the owners. They were really broken up over the filly. It is extremely hard to know which course of action to take in that situation. I felt really sorry for the little filly. It is tough to lose a big horse but losing babies is really tough on me. She is now with all the good horses that I have known in my life. Happy Trails Directory |