Foals with mouth ulcerations and pustules and death!!

On the ranch we live on they have a breeding program.. PLEASE NOTE: These are not my horses nor do I have any control over their health or care!!

They kept the weanlings (about 20) in a dry lot with some hay after being weaned. The hay was crap hay or left over from last year or something and it had a lot of cheat grass in it. They were eating it OK but not cleaning it up as well as they were the other stuff. One filly started looking real bad, skinny and swollen in the mouth, so the owner took it out into the corrals and found it's mouth was covered in ulcer type abrasions and pustules containing cheat grass. There was just too much of it so they took her to the vet, the vet cleaned her up as best as she could, took a biopsy and put her on antibiotics (I think, I wasn't there)
Two days later she was too weak to get up and too weak to even stop the birds from attacking her. She died that night.
That same day another was found almost dead (they had to shoot him to end the suffering)
There are two others that are on this track and all 20 of them have these in their mouths.
I helped them dig as many cheat grass out of the sores as I could but they are deep in there and it's been this way for too long.

My question is are these caused from the bad hay or did they have the ulcers before the hay. They do not have any on the outsides of the lips, nose or anything else, no outward signs besides dull eyes and depression, and obviously they are getting skinny from not being able to eat.
The wounds are on the insides of the lips, under the tongue, cheeks and even on the bars. Nothing on the tongue.
I don't have pictures.

I am not experienced in this or ever heard of this, sounds horrible. Sounds very much like the hay had something in it that is not meant to be eaten by horses, especially little ones that can't fight off infections as well.

Some varieties of Cheat Grass can do this as can Meadow Foxtail. I have even seen huge abscesses in the cheeks that break to the outside.

Are they still feeding this hay? They need to stop feeding it and need to get these babies on a very good Vitamin Supplement as well as good feed or they could lose the whole bunch.

They took them off the feed today and are giving them timothy. No supplements tho. There is one that had a huge abscess on his leg and the mudpie bird have been getting to it and now it's a massive open wound with the flesh around it eaten away. He is sooo skinny it's disgusting. His mouth was one of the worst.
I got as much out as I could and he has some that are breaking to the outside.
I am trying to persuade them to give him to me or at least let me buy him so that I can get his leg taken care of and he doesn't starve to death.
Is there anything besides switching the feed and getting as many out as possible that I can do?
I've never seen this or anything like this before, the manager doesn't seem to think it's that big of a deal that his foals are dying and suffering!
It's tearing me apart being so helpless and just having to watch it happen.

Can animal control be called? It sounds to me like this is getting way out of hand if all of them are in this condition, wounds are being left to rot, and there are over 20 of them...

I would probably try to give the worst one oral vitamins. The quickest way to get vitamins into a horse without giving very expensive shots is to use injectable livestock vitamins only give them orally. Vitamin B Complex (sold for livestock) and 'Liver and Iron' (sold for baby pigs) and Vitamin A can all be squirted into a horse's mouth. They will make a half dead horse start eating good. You can repeat once a week if they live that long.

Short of IVs, for nutrition, you can try soaked pelleted grain (high quality) and alfalfa pellets. If they are mushy, they should not hurt as much to eat. Be careful to not feed too much or they will get scours.

I would wrap the wounds on the legs loosely to keep the magpies out of them. They are like vultures or crows. The oral Vitamins will do more than anything to get them going. Use Furacin ointment to keep infection out and help them form proud flesh to fill in the gaps. You can ask the Vet about using some SMZ tablets for the infected mouths. The cheat or foxtails will eventually work out if they do not starve to death first.

Good luck with them. I have saved some pretty pathetic animals treating them like this. Good Luck.

I'd be calling animal control and getting that guy shut down and fined!!! That's horrible to leave those horses like that, down right cruel! They should all be under a vets care.

Thank you so much Cherie, if the colt becomes mine this is what I will do, and I will for sure suggest it to the owners. I was going to bring him into the barn anyways.

Endiku - There isn't an actual law that they have broken that I can find nor can I find this in the definitions of animal cruelty, by God I wish I could call him in! I'd do it in a heartbeat.
It's just lack of attention and stupidity. I think things go a bit differently in this area because there is nothing but large ranches out here and animals not being check daily is super common and honestly nearly impossible. :(

If they have feed and water they are not breaking the law. No laws say they have to feed enough to keep an animal 'fat'.

What do you think 'shutting the man down' means? He is guaranteed 'due process'. This means the taxpayer would have to feed and care for the 'seized horses' until a court of law declares who they belong to and if he indeed broke any laws, which he probably did not. If they actually siezed the horses, they would just be sent to the nearest auction and they would all go to slaughter anyways. County sheriff's offices are not 'rescues' and most of the rescues keep horses thin and poorly fed, too.

You cannot legislate morality or good judgement. You cannot legislate kindness or decency. You cannot even enforce child neglect laws and we have a child welfare and foster care system that costs the taxpayers billions.

Do you want something like that for animals, too? Try getting that passed in Congress or State Legislatures when they are cutting programs for children. We NEED well-regulated slaughter back here in the US.

Neglect of known injuries, wounds or illness warrants investigation I would think?