Moon’s Rescue

Near the end of a long day, another call came in to the range management group, Wild Horse Connection’s president, Corenna Vance. A young filly was standing at a water source behind a private property all alone. Corenna called one of the LRTC rescue team members to go assess. Knowing it didn’t sound right, she put the team on standby in case the filly needed to be picked up. Sure enough, the approximately three month old filly was still standing there and no family band was anywhere to be seen. With darkness approaching, the team was called in. The first arriving members positioned themselves so the filly couldn’t take off across the range alone. They quickly noticed that she had pretty bad diarrhea. It was apparent this little girl was sick, but she still didn’t want to go with them willingly. They had to walk her up a hill, through a fence opening, then down a hill and across the private property and down to the driveway where the trailer would arrive to load her. It was a slow move to get her down with a neck rope and butt rope. Once loaded, she was transported to LBL Equine Rescue where they set up a pen for her by herself due to her symptoms, but where she could see other horses. With the help of AWHC documenters, they were able to identify the filly and her family band. Her dam’s name is Desert Orchid, and with her crescent moon shaped star, she was named Orchid’s Moon, or Moon for short. The next day Moon stopped eating and drinking and was running a fever. The rescue team was called again to transport her to Comstock Equine Hospital where she spent two nights. She had bloodwork and was started on several medications and fluids. Moon was released back to LBL on several medications and with full contagion precautions, just in case. While she had improved, she was still spiking a temperature. She had more bloodwork that indicated she was still fighting an infection and was put on another round of antibiotics. It is clear this baby would not have survived without the caring eyes of the property owner who reported her, and the fast action of the range management group and the rescue team. And of course the ongoing care she gets at LBL Equine Rescue! Unlike Sinclair and Carter who were only a couple of days old when rescued, Moon had over three months on the range to learn to be a wild horse and she wasn’t afraid to show it with flying hooves at medication time. However, she quickly learned to enjoy being loved and scratched on - as long as the person doing it wasn’t trying to take her temperature or give her another shot! She will get follow up lab work by the vet after she finishes her antibiotics and hopefully her levels will continue to improve. Donations to WHC will help with veterinary bills, feed and care needs for Moon, and of course Sinclair, Carter, and Goliath