Foundered Mare Needs New Home

[DunPainted]

An elderly couple want to find a home for a 14 year old mare, 30.5", AMHR registered. At one time, she was driven in many parades. When they bought her in 2002, a week later she started going lame. Turns out she's foundered (they are very inexperienced and paid a handsome price) and has never produced a foal for them in four years. At the time of sale, the seller said Lily had produced 3 foals (only 2 show up on the AMHR books, one perhaps died due to foaling complications).

Having no idea about the issue, I told them perhaps the folks on the Lilbeginnings forum would have some suggestions. I've attached a couple photos of this sweet gal. The vet has the mare on 1/4 bute tablet daily (YIKES!)....yet she still has trouble getting around. I do know that her hay might be a bit too rich and she's given lots of "treats". She really has a difficult/painful time getting around and one wonders if some dietary or other changes might be helpful. In any case, they really want to find a good companion home for her.

QUESTION: What is a reasonable asking price for an obviously pet mare? Or, shall they donate the mare to a reputable agency and take the tax deduction?

Thanks for your input.

Cindy

 

[justaboutgeese]

She certainly does carry some weight. There will be a place for her with a person who wants a pal. Its going to be a job to get the weight off her if she is foundered enought to require pain meds like that. Her stance is not one of a horse with chronic founder so with luck she might be able to return to being somewhat serviceable.

 

[minimayhem]

She's definitely a very pretty mare. I think weight definitely plays a part. YIKES about the bute!! We had a gelding founder last August who is now making great strides with basically a change of diet and no treats.

Unfortunately I don't know what a person would be willing to pay for a foundered horse as it seems many will stay away from that problem. We plan on keeping our gelding forever as I don't want to chance someone not giving him all the love he needs because of founder.

If she didn't live so far we'd be half tempted to buy her, atleast that's what my hubby just told me!!

I forgot to mention the frequent trims (every 3 to 4 weeks) and being trimmed CORRECTLY (as our past farrier wasn't) has also made great improvements in just 4 weeks.

Do you know much about her trim schedules?? Her diet?? How is her temperment??

 

[Minimor]

Add me to the 'yikes' on the bute too! I'd be liking to take a bit of weight off her and get her feet trimmed exactly right & try keeping her off bute. It's hard to tell about her feet with the sand she is standing in--that could be affecting the way she is standing--but it appears that she may be trimmed to leave the heels too high. If the heels are too high, that could very well be contributing to her being sore yet.

We have a couple previously foundered horses here--as long as we keep them on 100% grass hay and keep their feet properly trimmed, they do very well. I might add they do also get treats--I wouldn't put them on a big ration of grain, but a couple handfuls of oats does not hurt them.

What to price this mare at--that's a tough call, because the price you can get for her does depend on who is interested in buying. Some people would expect to have her given to them, since they're taking a chance on her; other people would pay a small amount, a few would pay more if they really like her and her breeding. Unfortunately, since she hasn't foaled in 4 years, that will put some people off too. Perhaps she's been sore enough that she hasn't caught in foal or been able to carry to term (or has she been so sore she wasn't even bred some of those years?), and there's always the chance that there's something else going on with her too.

We paid $750 for a mare that had been foundered (due to foaling complications); the seller lost a lot of money on her, but she pastures all her horses and being on grass wasn't the best situation for this mare and she wanted a good home for the horse. She knew we would provide that. The mare was actually a bit sore when we bought her, but we're able to dry lot her here & give her the specialized care a foundered horse needs--I'm also experienced at trimming feet on a foundered horse, and she has flourished here. She came to us in foal and delivered a nice colt the first spring; she had the next year off, and then she foaled a filly early this year--carrying that filly seemed to be really good for her, as I had never seen her so spry as during this pregnancy! Now that she's nursing the foal she is on 2nd cut alfalfa & doing great (the alfalfa will stop when we wean the foal!!)--she is in perfect condition and isn't at all lame. Actually we probably would have paid more for the mare if we had to--we really liked her and felt she was worth buying; her founder was not severe, and we felt it was a non-issue.

 

[SBrown]

One of the first 2 mares we ever purchased had been foundered badly but we didn't know that when we bought her and were not told. We discovered it when she went lame. We kept her in a dry lot except during the winter months when there was not much grass in the pastures and she would still have episodes of laminitis for no apparent reason.

We have a wonderful vet who has worked a lot with miniatures. She cared for the horses at NFC Farms, Brewer Family Miniatures and many others in north Texas. She told us to feed her 1/2 cup morning and night a 32% feed that is highly fortified with vitamins and minerals made by Buckeye and 1 cup of whole oats AM & PM and we have gradually increased the oats to 2 cups AM & PM. She also gets good quality coastal bermuda hay when stalled. Absolutely no alfalfa or anything like Equine Senior that has a good percentage of alfalfa in it. She has flourished since we started this earlier this year. Earlier this spring she had a beautiful foal at 10 months gestation and though she needed domperidone to enhance her milk supply, the foal did great. She is now in the pasture during the day with her foal and then we bring her in at night.

When she was sore we were told to put her in a stall with deep bedding (we used Woody Pet) and that seemed to help immediately.

At least we found something that works for this mare and she looks and seems to feel really good. Would never know she had a problem.

We also have a farrier that keeps her correctly trimmed and keeps the pressure off her toes.

Caring for a mare that has foundered is nothing to be taken lightly but, in the best interest of the mare, I believe it should be disclosed to anyone interested in purchasing her so she receives the care she'll need.

 

[angie21467]

If they want to find her a good home, talk to Kay or Virginia with CMHR.

I don't know about a tax deduction, but if they donated her to the rescue

she would receive vet care and fostered until they found her a good home.

 

[minih]

Caring for a mare that has foundered is nothing to be taken lightly but, in the best interest of the mare, I believe it should be disclosed to anyone interested in purchasing her so she receives the care she'll need.

I agree, we purchased a mare that we bought last year and it was not disclosed to us that she had foundered in the past. We did not realize it until this spring when we had her out on the pasture when the new grass came in and she foundered on us. Called the vet and he told us that this is definately not her first time with foundering. If we had known she was prone to foundering, in the first place I probably would not have bought her since I am on limited space, secondly if I had I would have known to pull her off the field before the spring grass came in. She wouldn't have hurt like she did for nothing. She was also sold to us in foal, she wasn't, and she was in with my stallion for months, no baby. I don't think she can be bred either, after I bought her for a broodmare.

Oh well, that's a whole other topic. Everyone should please tell the truth in selling horses so they don't have to suffer needlessly.