This morning I have dewormed the 4 youngest ones again, this time with a dose of Equiworm that Marlies had given us. And so far....everything is OK... I've just given them their dinner and everything is going well. I have not seen any worms in the faeces.
All in all a tiring day, but more because of the situation with Chiki. At nightfall I've put him on a blanket .... Marlies had sent a very big one that's just his size ....
And the hay nets have also been tried out today.Even Chiki was allowed to try them out tonight too and he was enjoying his alfalfa and hay ...
So with the arrival of the blankets.... Pretty Face "Aston" is wearing another one tonight...
And we were waiting for our vet Lalo this afternoon ... this time for my own horse Chikiboy.
As Chikiboy had to be sedated , so we could have a better look down his throat, the vet used this situation to do his teeth at the same time... And the other vet Pablo helped to hold Chikiboy in the right position.
The piles of Chiki's manure of today, which you can see on these pictures, were left especially so the vet could see the intestines were working "ok"
The quality of the pictures is limited as they were taken with my cell phone.
The vet also took some blood of Chikiboy to be analysed.
Finally, Lalo also wanted to check the manure of the rescue horses and therefore 2 samples were collected from what had just fallen down while the he was there (everything else was already removed because I clean it up 4-5 times every day, so I really can track down who is doing what where and when) .
Finally organized a new neighbourly gettogether.... now that we know what's going on with the horses and we should not fear about any spreading of bacterias.
What is that?Chiki asked .... Do I get one? No Chiki, that's not for you .... but for the others who have a problem"
Everything was pretty quiet today. I fed the horses, then I went out to go & get straw and bring it to the littlens. I hugged & stayed with them and then I met other people overthere. Then I went back to Antonio to get more straw & I went home. I already paid for the 14 bales at a good price for friends
At home I restored a door & cleaned barley straw...which is starting to bother me too...all the dust, irritating my throat ... but the horses love it so we do it anyways ...
Meanwhile, "our" grass and oats and barley is growing .... and we have NEVER sprayed it with anything... So the boys will soon get a little fresh green ... first a little bit ... just a little handful ...
My neighbour warned me of the poor quality of the water again...
Instantly I remembered a situation of 2 years ago... All the horses of a ranch a little further on, which is connected on the same private waterpipe, all had had colic at the same time. It turned out that the private water supplier connected us on saline water ...
When the neighbour told me that the water tasted so strange, all the memories came back up.
This morning I have therefore taken the decision to submit an application for connection to the municipal water network .... Despite the considerable cost, I can not have it that someone else can cause more problems .... and if I can remedy or prevent it, then I will do so.
So this morning I went to the townhall to get the necessary forms, I went to the water company to ask for the specifications to perform the work and connection & price and then to the register to get some documents of the property .... And the rest will follow ....
This morning I received a call from Dr. Erik Laarakker.
This doctor had offered last week, after he had been briefed on the situation of these foals, to do some research. For that reason, I sent them last week on Saturday some tailhair and a little bit of excrement from Aston & Amoroso, by express mail to the Netherlands. By email I sent him a general report, a report on what had happened to Aston happened (what, when, how, what medications administered, etc. ..) and the same journal about Amoroso, along with some pictures.
Dr. Erik Laarakker has a holistic veterinary practice. As you can read on his website : I quote: Bij de holistische geneeswijze gaat men uit van drie lagen: fysiek, energetisch en emotioneel/spiritueel.Onderzoek en behandeling zijn erop gericht is het dier in zijn totaliteit te behandelen en te streven naar een emotionele en lichamelijke balans.De combinatie van therapieën maakt het geheel meer dan de som der delen: men bereikt beter resultaat door de oorzaak op te sporen en van diverse kanten te benaderen. Free translation: In holistic medicine we look at the three "layers": physical, energetic and emotional / spiritual. Examination and treatment is aimed to treat the animal in its totality and to seek to find an emotional and physical balance.The combination of therapies makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts: you get a better result by detecting the cause and to approach it from different sides.
On the basis of different studies Dr.Laarakker found out that the horses had more fungi in the gut than is normally the case and they had stored a lot more waste than normal and this was especially apparent in the intestine and the liver. There were also worms and eggs present.
The problem would probably be the result of those 100 kilo's of lettuce and other greenery that they were receiving to eat every day while being with the previous owner .... they got greens by truckloads And apparently they use more pesticides in Spain edm and thus the situation for the horses did not improve.
And therefore the period of +-one week where they were only eating alfalfa on the vet's demand, did not improve the matter, because alfalfa is a green that has also been sprayed too.
As regards to the probiotics...it was a vain expense .... all I've given ... it will not have done them any good because of what is happening in their intestines. And just giving them alfalfa is out of the question in future ...Luckily I already changed that myself
To me, this also explains why all the littlens never got sick .... They weren' t with the big ones on the field at the previous owner (except Filly but she was like a skeleton and did obvious not eat so much greens in those last weeks) and had therefore not gotten excessive lettuce ... They were in fact a small stall with a little bit of straw.
Of course I am going to apply everything that Dr. Laarakker told me.and apply the treatment he prescribes to the horses. It is possible that this will be difficult and that they can get sicker .... As there is so much rubbish that should come out of their body ...
Therefor he has also asked to stay in touch, keeping him informed of the situation and contact him immediately when the horses deteriorate ... then we would also have to reduce the medication.
At least 7 °C was expected for the night ... but my car had ice on the windows.... So it has been very cold during the night, unexpectively.
After handing out the breakfast, I left immediately to go to the littlens with a new bag of food and alfalfa. Everything went well there, everyone was outside eating his/her breakfast. Then I drove to the horseclinic for Desinclor rose to disinfect the mouths and gums of the horses. Then I went to "Piensos Eloina" in San Vincente del Raspeig to find hay and linseed. I left with a little bag of linseed and he would send me a number where I would be able to find real 'heno' or hay. From there I drove back to Mutxamel where I bought a large bale (with 14 small bales inside) of beautiful white straw from Antonio... he just had a full trailer delivered.
Back home, I cleaned the stables and paddocks and I cleaned barlaw straw on a big plastic of 3 by 4 meter ...
And of course the barley straw also got soaked in my bath before giving it to them.
I heard that "Tot d'animals" in La Nucia would have hay at the proud price of 7.5 per baleor about the most expensive I've ever heard of. Tomorrow morning, after giving breakfast to the horses, I'll go there, and will buy some to try it out.
During the afternoon the mouths of the horses were checked again and later on neighbor Michael had some fun with the horses. And the gray learned today with cords really don't bite ..... strangely enough he had tremendous fear of cords... he began to gallop away if you would want to snap one on. So we did it the natural way...used it as a stroke and brush element, something nice, a second hand and later he even went into sleep with it (or he was pretending.... hahaha)
I had an appointment at 18:30 at the ranch to see some parents of children who would like to adopt a little foal .... but no one showed up. I stayed with the littlens for over an hour and helped cleaning the stables because the waterhose had been running on the ground and the whole stablefloor was wet .... So everything had first removed and replaced.
The littlens were allowed to walk outside for a while and made crazy shenanigans. Our Filly suddenly came in the stable with full speed and slipped & fell in the barn ...I quickly gave her a good treatment with the torch to limit the damage ...
This morning began with the preparation of the paddocks and stables for the return of the children. So the tractor was also used to remove the top layer to remove any bacterias as much as possible. The algae at the bottom was still wet from the rain that came down during the last month ...
Amoroso and Aston also returned to the group .... but that led to problems. Cubanito and Amoroso were always inseparable in the past, but when Amoroso was separated with Aston, Caubanito became friends with the Black Stallion ... and now Amoroso was no longer welcome.
And at lunchtime both Amoroso and Aston were pushed/crushed away and I had to put them back in the other paddock .... which was actually intended for little ones again... All the changes I made this morning with the ribbons had to be undone, to put it back the old way .... change pfffffff
The intimate friendship between the 2 is over ... Amoroso is excluded I began with the intensive cleaning of the barley straw. I remove not only the heads, but do everything in a large sieve so all the little pieces fall off too But it is slow ..... 2 hours for cleaning just half a bale
A picture of a hole, and the dirt inside, in the gums of Picollo.
Everything was fine with the kids today, so I'm happy .... I already have enough on my mind right now...
I work here like crazy to save these souls and everything around us is against us ....
If it's not the terrible storms or floods, it's the bowel problems and colic, and when the sun will shine again other problems arise ... We are TIRED of it TIRED ..... ENOUGH!
I gave them the whole winter stock of Chikiboy's avena and it is no longer available untill May... So ... Chikiboy no luck for you too! You search like crazy, you ask around, you call up .... and then comes a ray of hope .... you can get barley straw with wheat around .... Friends are amazed and want some too, even the DA is happy that I still could find it.
Marlies informed me on the danger of barley straw ... but here it's regarded as a delicacy for horses and they assure me that there is no danger, the way it grows in Spain could not be compared with the barley straw up North of Europe ...
Last night, I suspected that there was already a problem in their mouth ... today it was confirmed ....the hooks of the barley straw went into their gums and drilled holes ...with tweezers I tried to get everything out.
Last night and this morning I had already rinsed their mouths with kamomillethee. I'll try that again in a moment.
All straw edm has gone into the water today and was twisted, crushed and broken ... Tomorrow night Michael comes back to hold the horses so I can verify their gums again. If there is nothing new than this technique from today (Grinding, crushing, wet) does the trick and they have a chance ... Otherwise, I don't know what to do anymore foodwise...
I do everything I can .... and then they still punish us every day ....
Gelukkig blijven alle paarden eten... I'm happy though that all the horses are still eating ...
And luckily I already started Friday to adjust their diet just a little bit .... Yes, I have not told that yet .... Secretly they received just a little little bit of the new grains... 100 gr in stead of a kilo and 5% of alfalfa .... .... and everything goes fine ! Today I was already on 300 gr.grains and 10% alfalfa and it is still good ....
Their new chunk consists therefore mainly of grains: 42% crushed oats, 33% crushed barley, alfalfa 4%, 4% corn, 4% peas ,.... They love it and everything goes well ....
But my heart bleeds when I see this and feel how their mouth is hurting .... I would have loved to spare them all of this .... The tears jump into my eyes ... Why? WHY ? WHY? They have already been through enough .... and I give them everything and do all I can .... I look at no money to give them everything, I put their health before mine and then they have this experience ....
It is not fair!
And the kids .... 3 of them .... have a bit of nasal discharge and the water tap was not functioning when I was there so I could not go and get more .... So I sent them a text message so they would not forget to give the water to the littlens.
And I ?I went to the traumatologist in the afternoon.And I've deceided for myself that I'll not be operated on in May ... I have no time to lie flat and then to do the rehab after a knee replacement .... We'll see next year ... And for the rest ... oh well ... the fracture is still not consolidated and it won't without an OP...but this is so invasive that we exclude it provisionally. As long as I can manage the pain with the torch .... I'll continue as I am ...
The pictures are not good, but there was no other way ... I can hardly ask the horses to stand still for taking pictures of the holes in their gums...
And the first picture is their medication that I bought again today ...
Now I'm going to give the kids their evening syringe and I'll stay with them for a while.... Being strong together! Console eachother! Cry together !
Thursday AltaNero had straw packets in his mouth and on friday Cubanito had much saliva in his mouth ..... this afternoon at 5pm. they all had a lot of saliva in their mouth ...
So there is a new problem .... and my feeling tells me they have sores in the mouth .... of barley straw or the straw that I brought from the ranch last Sunday ....
Tonight I also gave Chiki some barley straw and no avenastro to the boys .... If Chiki has no problem it is the normal straw that's causing it and otherwise the culprit is the barley straw.
Tonight I'm giving them kamomillethee in the mouth and in the morning I'm calling the vet.
Thanks to the efforts of Irene, who sent a number of letters to various organisations, she got a phone call on thursday The holistic Vet Erik Laarakker said that he wants to help us .
He suggested we send 2 manure samples by mail from preferably the worst of the foals according to me.
I had to collect fresh manure in a plastic sandwich bag and put some aluminum foil around it to avoid any external contamination of substances. Also some hair from the tail was desired.
Irene reported me that the vet would personally and for free examine the manure for worms, intestinal flora and any bacteria in the intestines.
He also gave me info on Emanuelle Driesen, who is working here as a veterinarian. I rang her on Thursday, but unfortunately was not able yet to speak with her. I did leave her a message.
Yesterday it was not possible to have evertyhing in the house in time and to catch the manure because I needed help too for myself and I still had to buy some things.
This morning I waited in the stables ..... and waited ..... and waited.... They apparently knew there was something I wanted from them, haha haha
But patience is rewarded .... and so I could gather everything, packed it up and sent it. It was sent by express mail "emergency" and would in principle be there on Monday.
Tonight I will make a list of events and administered medication and will send the story with pictures to the Netherlands by email.
Ow yes .... I selected the manure of Aston and Amoroso
Meanwhile the horses are sunbathing now after eating their breakfast .... finally back a little sun and warmth ... although the wind is still blowing furiously now and again.
The sun shines, the wind blows, and it is quiet cold .... time to take a minute to inspect the fields .... It has rained enough .... what we have sown in September is now starting to come out well ... but with 2 months delay.
The horses are doing fine today ... everyone .... yes even Aston is making beautifull parcels ...
I had to go to the chiropractor to further unlock my neck and to have the epicondylitis in my right arm (due to the falls of the last month) treated. Monday I also have to go to the traumamologist.
Went to the ridershop and bought this.
Of course I went to the youngsters, as every day, ... I have also been looking for the straw-oat, alfalfa,.... supplier who dit not show up yesterday and who doesn't answer his telephone anymore.
Aston en Amoroso are enjoying the blankets for a 2nd night in a row .... they are a bit big, especially for Aston. .
Ow yes .... my quick design to get water into the mouth of a horse to rinse it out in case something is stuck
tonight... 
but the one from
& cleaned barley straw
: it would
