Guest Post by our friend, Jann...

Last week my dear friends and horse lovers had an extremely frightful experience. Pesky, their loving Tennessee Walker foaled a beautiful filly but her entire uterus prolapsed. Miraculously, she overcame a series of nearly impossible obstacles and mare and foal are both now healthy and thriving.

First, despite the fact that having her entire uterus inside-out and hanging outside so that she could not stand up or walk, she managed to get up and climb into the stock trailer where she collapsed. Her newborn filly rode in the back of my friends truck cab as they raced toward Bakersfield to the vets [about an 80 minute trip]. Quite amazingly she survived the trip, but had lost over 5 gallons of blood by the time they arrived at 2 am. Basically they pretty much brought a dead horse to the vet.

Most vets would have taken one look at the dying mare in their trailer and told them euthanasia was their only option. They all knew well that Pesky’s chances for survival were extremely minimal, with many statistically horrendous hurdles to get through before she had even a reasonable chance of survival. Dr. P took one look and asked, "Shall we try anyway with this mare?"

After several hours of repeated tries the uterus was reinserted. Pesky’s chances of ever standing up again were slim because of the epidurals and general anesthetics given her. But at 8 am she stood up! She received 9 liters of blood from a donor Arabian gelding. However, this was only the first of several vital hurdles. Her legs were cold with no discernible pulse for all those hours that she was flat down, so founder was likely, even if she survived short term. But her legs and feet are all fine and healthy!Miracle piled upon miracle, and after a roller coaster series of blood transfusions, jaundice, and other related problems with both mare and foal, they both came through with flying colors! After nine days at the vet, Friday afternoon the happy pair came come.

Dr. P always goes the extra mile to help with our horses. One night she came speeding to our stables to the aid of Belle, a mustang who had just arrived from the mustang reservation. Belle had spit her entire nose open after exploding into a fence post. No other vet in our area would come to our aid and work on her because she was a mustang. Dr. P worked effortlessly through the fence while TnT held Belle with ropes.

There are true heroes among us. And those of us who adore our horses appreciate Dr. P and her endless efforts to save rather than destroy a horse.

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MnC's Disclaimer: At no time is excessive force, cruelty or brutality used when training the horses pictured in this blog. Reinforcing pats and firm gentleness, along with calmness from the trainers, encourage the horses to do as they are asked.