fastrack
Well-Known Member
We lost one of our favorite mares today...Reeces Thunder Bey, a 7 year old mare. She was healthy, if not a little overweight, and we believe in foal to 27" black & white for 2011.
My husband found her lying in our barnyard lot where the mares come in from pasture for water. He was turning another mare out and saw "T-Bey" laying in the pasutre. He thought she was laying enjoying the sunshine, but thought it strange when she didn't even wiggle an ear when he turned the other mare out. She was dead. He couldn't find anything obvious, rolled her over, still nothing. Then he found large pools of blood in the area around her. Examining closer, he saw some blood on the edge of her mouth, opened her mouth, and it was full of blood. She looked fine earlier in the morning when they went out to pasture.
Our vet believes it was a blood tumor. He said he has only seen it twice before, once in a quarter horse, and once in a cross country peformance horse. He's never heard of a mini having a blood tumor. I didn't talk to the vet, but George said there is no telltale sign, nothing to look for. It just happens. He is a vet for international cross country and said they just happened to catch the horse during one of the check stations, or they would have lost that horse too. The horse past all stress tests too. There were no outward signs at all.
Wish I could at least tell you something to watch for...or something we can do differently so it will never happen again, but I can't even learn anything from this loss. T-Bey was one of our first show horses and will be sadly missed, especially by our grandchildren who spent hours working with her and showing her as a yearling, 5 years ago.
My husband found her lying in our barnyard lot where the mares come in from pasture for water. He was turning another mare out and saw "T-Bey" laying in the pasutre. He thought she was laying enjoying the sunshine, but thought it strange when she didn't even wiggle an ear when he turned the other mare out. She was dead. He couldn't find anything obvious, rolled her over, still nothing. Then he found large pools of blood in the area around her. Examining closer, he saw some blood on the edge of her mouth, opened her mouth, and it was full of blood. She looked fine earlier in the morning when they went out to pasture.
Our vet believes it was a blood tumor. He said he has only seen it twice before, once in a quarter horse, and once in a cross country peformance horse. He's never heard of a mini having a blood tumor. I didn't talk to the vet, but George said there is no telltale sign, nothing to look for. It just happens. He is a vet for international cross country and said they just happened to catch the horse during one of the check stations, or they would have lost that horse too. The horse past all stress tests too. There were no outward signs at all.
Wish I could at least tell you something to watch for...or something we can do differently so it will never happen again, but I can't even learn anything from this loss. T-Bey was one of our first show horses and will be sadly missed, especially by our grandchildren who spent hours working with her and showing her as a yearling, 5 years ago.
