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June, 2004 Monthly Report
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We are sorry to announce the sudden death of one of our mares, no conclusions as to cause. Dubhe had somewhat distanced herself from the other mares, but showed no symptoms of any sort, aside from being thin but no worse than any of the others. On Friday morning, June 25 she was alert and eating, the same thing in the evening and she was with the other mares.
The men found her down on Saturday morning and she’d obviously been in pain for a considerable time. Dr. Bailey and I went up immediately. She was dehydrated and was given fluids, Banamine and Naxell. She was not colicking. During the afternoon she seemed to rally, began to eat eagerly even though we had to roll her up on her chest and build a support chute in order for her to do so. Dr. Bailey and I left feeling optimistic. I returned two hours later with more bananas and the men told me she’d begun to thrash her head within half an hour after we left. By 10 that night she was dead. Though I requested one I was unable to get a necropsy.
Since it was a weekend we were unable to reach our zoo vet. I talked with her Monday and there are only a few assumptions that can be made without a necropsy. We’ll never know.
There is good news. The mares appear to have stopped losing weight. We are gradually increasing their grain. While we have not had much rain the forest is getting greener. We are moving ahead with the stallion area and we are about two weeks away from completing the fence line.
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