Bringing Up Baby Month 1 Part 1

Her first month was a month of extremes and it all started the week before Father's Day.  We went out to the barn, and I decided to go in and say hi to the owner.  So I did, she was in and had some company.  After I sat down and introductions and other niceties were out of the way, she said to me and I quote.  "I'm so glad you stopped by, Ms. J, has something she'd like to ask you.  What she wanted to ask me was if I would be willing to sell her Jolie after she was weaned for $9,000.  You could have knocked me over with a feather, to be trite.  After the shock wore off, I said that I'd think about it, but right now she wasn't for sale.

Later that week, a friend told me she'd posted pictures of Jolie on her facebook page and Jolie now had "friends" across the country.  Jeesh.

Fast forward to Father's Day.  After visiting my inlaws, we went out to the barn and I saw her lieing down behind the hay bale.  So I called out to her "Hi baby horse." And for the first time she neighed, this pitiful little neigh and this is what she looked like limping over to us.

As you can see, something was definitely not right. I ran for the barn manager and together the three of us somehow got her and Kitt back to the stall.  The barn manager ran for her cell and called the emergency vet.

To make a long story short.  Jolie had a septic right hock, was running fever and septic joints in foal this young is generally the result of a blood born infection which is absolutely life threatening. She had to go to New Bolton (where they took the race horse Barbaro) first thing in the morning. 

As we were all standing around in a state of shock, I happened to notice a small dark scab right over the swolen hock.  I showed it to the vet and she said that it looked like a healed over puncture wound. And then she said, these sceptic joints in foals are 99% of the time the result of a serious blood born infection, but maybe this time it wasn't.  But she still needs to go, because I can't treat this.

So, it was off to New Bolton.