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Never though I'd have to deal with this - neglect situation

2K views 20 replies 16 participants last post by  waresbear 
#1 ·
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.
 
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#6 ·
I would call the SPCA, the local animal control, police, anyone I could to get some results and I wouldn't stop till the mare was either gone or put down humanely.

I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your vet, if you suspect she uses the same vet you do, when she HAS to call them, talk to them as well.

I you sit back and do nothing, your just as bad as she is if not worse, your letting an innocent horse suffer at the hands of an ignorant woman. We owe it to them to be their voice as they have none.
 
#9 ·
If it were me I would probably talk to her and tell her that her mare seems to be in pretty bad shape and ask her if there was anything I could do to help (and be realistic on what I could do). If she does nothing, then I would call.
 
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#12 ·
Okay some news everyone - I called, but our AC needs "hard evidence" to start an investigation. She said I need to come to her with pictures in order to go out. It's been raining and she's been in the barn so no pictures. We had a nice morning so I got up early to go today and my neighbours husband was walking with an empty halter and a tarp about 300 feet ahead of me. when I got to the pasture there was a tarp over something that highly resembled a deceased horse :( I think she may have passed away guys. I feel so freaking gosh darn bad that I couldn't do anything. I made the decision last night that if AC didn't do anything I was going to buy her too. I feel so bad and so effing heartbroken. I don't even know what to do with myself.
 
#18 ·
Honestly, while very sad, that is a GOOD thing. She is out of her misery and at least her owner did what she could (though obviously she should of done more before that point).

As far as her Arab goes, doesn't sound right but doesn't sound like abuse. Maybe she should of put her down as she started to decline but I know plenty of people who take excellent care of their animals that have issues with "keeping them around for the human's sake". It's a separate issue.

I'm sure she could of done more for both of them but ultimately it is 2 older horses, one of who was depressed after her friend died.

If she gets other horses I would keep a close eye on them though!

Go home, hug your horse and promise you'll take good care of him and try to move on. Hugs.
 
#15 ·
Maybe your neighbour actually did the responsible thing and had her pts? Not that it's excusable she was in such an awful state when you saw her but.... might your neighbour have been long - term sick and unable to attend to her horse, discovered her in a shocking state and then called the vet? The halter and the tarp sounds more like an intentional act than an unnoticed, uncared-about passing away.
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#17 ·
She definitely wasn't sick, she walks her dog every day past my house. Sad part is I think she may have just tried to cover her as she was next to the road and could be seen by passing vehicles. Her 30+ year old Arab had to die on its own :/ she couldn't get up and had frequent bouts of being down for long periods of time and she still wouldn't put the old girl to sleep. We were talking on the road and I commented on her Arabs weight and she said "oh no, she still has at least five years in her!" This was a couple weeks before she died.
 
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