Chronology of a Rescue

18 Sep:  Sweetheart is doing great but still on antibiotics.  There are no visible plaques in the lower part of her nasal passages and her nasal tissue looks very healthy.  The puncture wound is completely healed.  Probably at least another 60 days of anti-fungal treatment to go.

8 Jul:  Sweetheart has been off the antibiotics for three weeks and is continuing to improve.  Another endoscope exam shows the fungal plaques are dying off and the puncture wound in her septum is finally healing.

17 Jun:  Sweetheart is taken off antibiotics.  There is concern that she has been on antibiotics so long that her immune system has been compromised.  She continues to show improvement.

4 Jun:  Sweetheart has shown dramatic improvement over the past months.  The fungal growths are dying off and slowly being expelled.  Her energy level is increasing.  Our vet tells us to expect up to another 6 months of the anti-fungals.  She is cultured again for bacteria.

6 May:  Sweetheart continues to have severe difficulty breathing and we discuss the possibility of having her put down with our vet if she does not respond to the Itraconazole within the next 30 days. Her vet bills now exceed $2000.  Our vet, in consultation with the Veterinary Hospital at the University of Missouri, says she poses no threat to the rest of the herd, except foals, so we can begin reintroducing her to the main herd since the foals are seperated with their dams.

19 Apr:  Sweetheart is in very poor condition, listless and having difficultly breathing. The cultures came back in showing a very significant Candida Famata fungal infection along with a serious e-coli infection.  The ketoconazole is proving ineffective against the fungal infection.  When the vet examines her nasal passages with an endoscope, she starts bleeding heavily and very large, soft bloody tissue is discharged.  Our vet has found a pharmacy in Arizona that will sell us Itraconazole at $4/day so we prepare to switch drups.  Sweetheart is placed on another antibiotic to handle an e-coli infection, but the other bacterial infections have been cleared. 

22 Mar:  Sweetheart took a serious turn for the worse.  Her nasal passages were largely blocked.  A slide microscopy showed fungal growths.  We had bacterial and fungal cultures collected.  Since fungal growths were visible, we started her on an anti-fungal--ketoconazole.  The drug was not our first choice, but the preferred treatment was priced at $20+/day with a treatment period of upto six months likely.  The bacterial culture showed six different bacterial infections.  Sweetheart is back in quarantine.

17 Feb:  Apache Sweetheart continued to have a nasal discharge and was very noisy breathing.  We took her to a different vet for a thorough examination.  His examination revealed a perforated septum that is likely the cause of her respiratory infections.  After contacting the former owner and his vet, it is likely that this infection has been a chronic issue since at least June of 2009.  Sweetheart is responding well to the antibiotics, but a secondary infection is likely as this wound has been open for nearly nine months.  Otherwise, Sweetheart is doing great.  She’s gaining weight and enjoying the freedom to run in the pasture.

18 Jan:  After consulting with our veterinarian about her continued nasal discharge, we began the process of introducing Apache Sweetheart to our herd.  We selected three horses, a relatively dominate gelding and two mares to turn out with Sweetheart.  There were some squeals and flying hooves but all of the horses settled down very quickly.  It will take 3 - 6 months for her to fully integrate into our herd.  There is a video of her introduction on You Tube.

8 Jan:  Apache Sweetheart makes it home!  Now we have to see what we got!  She’s a bit thin, but in remarkably good shape for coming through a sale barn.  She’s a friendly as we could hope for and easy to handle.  She’ll need a visit from our farrier once the temperature gets above -5 (wind chill).  She has a respiratory infection, but the vet thinks it will clear up easily enough.

6 Jan:  We finally contact both the previous owner (prior to being bought by a broker) and his vet.  Sweetheart is completely up-to-date on all vaccinations and has no known chronic health problems.  We got very lucky!

14 Dec:  The shipper is ready to pick Apache Sweetheart up at the shipper but Sweetheart does not pass the health check due to a snotty nose.  Fortunately, the shipper is able to get Sweetheart to a quarantine barn.  We are very lucky that the quarantine barn is very affordable though there is still the potential of more vet bills.  Instead of arriving here on December 15th, she will now arrive sometime after Christmas.

12 Dec:  A women we have never met, Lisa A., meets with the previous owner and is able to give us some background on Sweetheart.  She also gets the previous owner to sign the registration transfer papers, though there might be an issue in getting the transfer through since his wife who died several years earlier is on the papers.

12 Dec:  Three persons who read about Sweetheart generously contribute towards her shipping.  Without their help, we could not afford to rescue Sweetheart.  All of these people heard about Sweetheart through Trot.org.

11 Dec:  A very affordable shipper, Wilderness Ridge Farm, is found by Christy of AC4H.com.  Sweetheart should be picked up on the 14th and here by the 15th.  Our contract with AC4H.com to purchase Sweetheart from the broker is finalized.

10 Dec:  I saw a posting about Sweetheart

For more information, please contact us via e-mail at john@c-dhorses.com or call us at 417-473-1152.