I am NOT one to call the SPCA, I am a firm believer of minding my own darn business but today broke my heart. I'm in a sticky situation and I need advice.
To start, sorry for the novel. I have a neighbor that has owned horses as long as we did. She had a 30 year old arab mare and a 20 year old appy, the arab passed away this summer, but was sooo bad looking. I minded my own business when she lost weight and was finally put down. The appy on the other hand, she started going downhill very fast after her partner died. About a month ago I thought she was put down because the pastures were empty, the barn was dark all the time and shut tight.
A little bit of background info on said neighbor before I go throwing crazy things around: She is the FIRST one to call the SPCA (AC) on ANYONE, for ANYTHING. She boasts about her horse knowledge every time I see her when I take my colt for walks, (which is often) and always gives me "advice" about my boy, that I ignore because I either use different methods of training, know a little bit about it myself, or because it's ludicrous information. For example: she once looked at my guys greying hairs on his face and said "Oh, he must be at least 18, there's no way he's two-look at the grey he has. MEANWHILE, he was nine months old when I got him still sucking off mum, he's still in his gangly teen phase and is nowhere near done growing, his father carried a roan gene and his mother a very pronounced grey gene..
Anyway, the barn was shut for a long time and I hadn't seen her so I assumed she put the mare down. By this time I knew before that she had lost at least 150 pounds since her partner died, and looked pretty sickly from the road. All summer she kept her in a 20x20 dry lot by herself, instead of on grass pasture. I went for a walk today... And seen her mare poking her head over the gate in her pasture. I stopped to show my little sister her pretty appy and my heart broke. She's VERY underweight, her hip bones are protruding, her withers and back bone are sticking out, her feet are EXTREMELY long and cracked and she's been rubbing the hair off her face. She has a huge bloated worm belly. A year ago she was beautiful. To make matters worse I looked down to see a wide open nasty gash on her canon bone. It looked old, but had gross yellow infectious flesh and I'm thinking I might have seen maggots in it. It's leaking yellow puss and blood and hasn't been treated or cleaned up. Her back legs are swollen three times their regular size. My eight year old sister looks at me and says "She looks like, rotting. Like, sick, rotten." It broke my heart. I tried to justify it the whole way home. "Maybe her age is catching up with her." No, we have a 25 year old mare with arthritis that looks five years old and in her prime, there' no excuse to neglect an aging horses needs. "Maybe she has no teeth." Nope, checked them. "Maybe she's nasty and can't clean the wound." No, I got in the pasture to check her teeth and pet her, plus she's a broke kids horse. "Maybe money is tight and she can't afford to feed her. "Well, she breeds goats and has at least 50 chickens and all sorts of exotic breeds of livestock she can buy and feed. I just can't get over it. I don't know if I'm overreacting or my heart got to me, but I hate to see the poor girl like that. I'm going down tomorrow to take pictures. I'll keep you updated.
To start, sorry for the novel. I have a neighbor that has owned horses as long as we did. She had a 30 year old arab mare and a 20 year old appy, the arab passed away this summer, but was sooo bad looking. I minded my own business when she lost weight and was finally put down. The appy on the other hand, she started going downhill very fast after her partner died. About a month ago I thought she was put down because the pastures were empty, the barn was dark all the time and shut tight.
A little bit of background info on said neighbor before I go throwing crazy things around: She is the FIRST one to call the SPCA (AC) on ANYONE, for ANYTHING. She boasts about her horse knowledge every time I see her when I take my colt for walks, (which is often) and always gives me "advice" about my boy, that I ignore because I either use different methods of training, know a little bit about it myself, or because it's ludicrous information. For example: she once looked at my guys greying hairs on his face and said "Oh, he must be at least 18, there's no way he's two-look at the grey he has. MEANWHILE, he was nine months old when I got him still sucking off mum, he's still in his gangly teen phase and is nowhere near done growing, his father carried a roan gene and his mother a very pronounced grey gene..
Anyway, the barn was shut for a long time and I hadn't seen her so I assumed she put the mare down. By this time I knew before that she had lost at least 150 pounds since her partner died, and looked pretty sickly from the road. All summer she kept her in a 20x20 dry lot by herself, instead of on grass pasture. I went for a walk today... And seen her mare poking her head over the gate in her pasture. I stopped to show my little sister her pretty appy and my heart broke. She's VERY underweight, her hip bones are protruding, her withers and back bone are sticking out, her feet are EXTREMELY long and cracked and she's been rubbing the hair off her face. She has a huge bloated worm belly. A year ago she was beautiful. To make matters worse I looked down to see a wide open nasty gash on her canon bone. It looked old, but had gross yellow infectious flesh and I'm thinking I might have seen maggots in it. It's leaking yellow puss and blood and hasn't been treated or cleaned up. Her back legs are swollen three times their regular size. My eight year old sister looks at me and says "She looks like, rotting. Like, sick, rotten." It broke my heart. I tried to justify it the whole way home. "Maybe her age is catching up with her." No, we have a 25 year old mare with arthritis that looks five years old and in her prime, there' no excuse to neglect an aging horses needs. "Maybe she has no teeth." Nope, checked them. "Maybe she's nasty and can't clean the wound." No, I got in the pasture to check her teeth and pet her, plus she's a broke kids horse. "Maybe money is tight and she can't afford to feed her. "Well, she breeds goats and has at least 50 chickens and all sorts of exotic breeds of livestock she can buy and feed. I just can't get over it. I don't know if I'm overreacting or my heart got to me, but I hate to see the poor girl like that. I'm going down tomorrow to take pictures. I'll keep you updated.