Name Needed for Foal that Marks 1000th Rescue for Mare and Foal Sanctuary
Equestrian News :: Everything Horse
The Mare and Foal Sanctuary has announced the birth of a beautiful filly with a big white star on her forehead, bringing their total rescued equines up to 1000, a milestone event for the charity that was founded in 1988 by Rosemary Kind.
As a way to mark the event, and to say thank you to the charity’s supporters, the Mare and Foal Sanctuary is asking the public to put forward suitable names for the filly.
The milestone event followed the foal’s dam, Fuzzy Bear, arriving at the charity along with two other ponies, Lotte and Taylor, who were also in foal. Lotte gave birth to Lio on April 23rd which was captured on video, while soon after Taylor foaled Tulip, on April 25th. The ponies were relinquished from their care providers after the RSPCA, and other agencies came together to prosecute the head of another equine rescue centre in Devon for causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
The new group joined over 650 equines currently receiving the charities life-long care package, all of which are either living at one of the Mare and Foal sanctuaries based in Devon or on loan to carers.
However, despite Fuzzy Bear’s filly being born in the safety of the charity on April 30th, she didn’t have the best start to life. Soon after the birth, both appeared to be well, with the foal suckling from her dam. Shortly after the little filly started to encounter difficulties, and the sanctuary’s registered vet, Richard Frost, was called in.
After routine consultation, care and treatment, the foal failed to improve and was taken, alongside her dam, to intensive care for further treatment. Once the team there discovered the problem, they were able to put a treatment plan in place that fortunately helped the foal return to full health.
Richard explained:
Their investigations suggested that the cause of the pain was a spasming of her urethra which was preventing her from emptying her bladder. A catheter was placed to allow her to urinate freely and she was monitored carefully over the next few days. Once the catheter was removed and it was clear that the foal could urinate normally, they were allowed to return to our sanctuary.
This has been a scary start to life for Fuzzy’s foal but there shouldn’t be any long-term damage and she should go on to be a strong healthy foal.”
The specialist care and treatment needed for the foal acts as a reminder to why donations are so important to the sanctuary. Recently, thanks to the supporters of the Newton Abbot based charity, £22,000 has been raised in light of difficulties faced due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sarah Jane Williamson, Chief Executive, commented:
Fuzzy Bear’s foal is doing well now, but only thanks to the lifesaving treatment she received in our care and with the help of the veterinary teams. We thank everyone for their donations and messages of support recently, and we want Fuzzy’s foal to be named by our supporters to demonstrate our heartfelt appreciation.”
Sarah Jane continued:
Reaching our 1000th rescue is a stark reminder of the specialist care we must still provide. Our work to rescue, rehabilitate and retrain horses and ponies who have experienced neglect and abuse has changed considerably in recent years, with the rise in the intake of groups of horses and ponies from difficult and complex rescue situations, often in collaboration with other charities.
We knew complications were more likely with our recent foals, as all their mothers were rescued from a case where the owner was prosecuted for causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
