Fortunately, we had already scheduled our vet to come out on Monday, June 5th. We called her office Monday morning and changed the appointment to new horse check up. We mentioned her poor condition and asked a fecal check and bloodwork.
Matilda was put into the round pen for quarantine. The round bale was in better shape than the one she left behind, but she began mining the center immediately. Perhaps these are survival instincts? We introduced her to a small amount of senior feed and alfalfa pellets and gradually increased her twice per day ration. She was eager to eat and had no diarrhea, so our pace was slow enough. John began walking her twice per day for ten minutes to eat the rich grasses growing around the farm. We introduced fly spray and fitted her with a fly mask.
The vet was appalled at her condition. Matilda’s body score condition (BSC) was 2. That’s scary skinny. Not organs shutting down, but bad. Her blood work showed low neutrophils and anemia. She was also positive for anaplasmosis, which could kill her. Her fecal was negative, but she was started on a pro pack to make sure the parasite cycle was broken. Her skin showed irritation, swelling, bug bite reactions, possibly ringworm, and rashes. She’s was started on doxycycline for 30 days to kill off the bacteria from the ticks that caused anaplasmosis. We gave her a bath in iodine and shampooed down to soothe and calm her skin (prescribed weekly). She is also on hydroxyzine to quiet her many skin reactions. We bought shoo fly boots for her as well as sunblock. She came with front shoes and we were told she is sore without them. She might have a history of mild laminitis, which means she might need to always have front shoes. We will see as time goes on if good food is enough to help her feet.
Her first bath.
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