The new foal finds a possible mum.

This has been a very stressful and upsetting day.The Vet came early this morning and checked all the ponies over.As I feared, the black gelding could not be saved and he had to be put down.He also put down our dear old Chloe whose weight loss recently was indicative of organ failure.Just one of those Prestatyn ponies now survives, little Titch, he will be greatly saddened by the loss of Chloe but he has another friend in Ross so will not be alone.
The remaining 7 ponies from the home in Anglesey have all got badly overgrown and infected hooves, all need remedial treatment and will be on pain killers until this is sorted out, some are on antibiotics, one has abscesses on his back, most need to be on box rest for at least a month and all in all they are in a very poor state.The little grey mare, however should make a good recovery so although crippled at the moment her prognosis is good.All of them have lovely temperaments which makes it easy to handle them so at least we do not have to struggle with half wild ponies.
The new foal arrived late last night, today I contacted the National Foaling bank and by three pm. a possible surrogate mother was found.A shetland mare in Ormskirk lost her foal this morning so Roy(the manager of our Caernarfon shop)and his daughter are taking our boy to the distressed mum. We are all keeping our fingers crossed it will work out.It is not always successful so it has to be very carefully done.Little Celt, our last foal was lucky, his new mum took to him very quickly but sometimes the mare continues to search for her own familiar offspring.
The National Foaling Bank has been uniting orphans and bereaved mares for many years and it is wonderful to have this to turn to but I must say that I have been horrified at the number of mares dying after giving birth and coupled with the knowledge that so many ponies are surplus to requirements and face an untimely end I feel that the situation is way out of control,it seems like everyone who owns a mare is compelled to breed from her. I wish they could think about the sheer numbers of unwanted foals/ponies/horses sold for meat every week in the Uk alone.

There has been so much going on with the horse side of things that I have not mentioned the cats so much but at the moment all is ok on that side with the exception of the lack of good homes being offered.