Starved Belgian Draft Horse rescued from slaughter 1 year later. Update on Anna living her best life

[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] hello everyone and welcome to Fletcher Farms Amarillo I'm Julie Fletcher I can't believe I'm doing this video right now it does not seem like a year since We rescued Anna it's been so crazy that she's been here for over a year already We rescued her last August if you don't know Anna's story here's a little bit of Anna's backstory I found Anna on a Facebook post from last chance direct shipped horses Shayna who runs the program rescues these horses from the Kaufman kill pen and brings him to her home the ones that she thinks she can get adopted this was Anna's video that was posted on Facebook that went along with the pictures they were showing here that she was broke to ride however Anna had problems with her back left leg and you can see from this video how bad it actually really was and the problems that she was having with her legs you can see right here that she's really limping really bad on that back left leg after we had decided to rescue her and Shayna got her back to her Farm I asked for a better video to see how Anna was walking on that back leg and as you can see from this video she is limping pretty bad on that back left leg but she looked defeated completely sad and way underweight we were excited to get her back to our farm and get her on the road to recovery Corey took the six hour drive down to Kemp Texas to pick her up by himself I stayed back to take care of the rest of the animals but Anna was in such bad condition when he went to go pick her up foreign 350 400 pounds on her that's okay luckily she's going to the home that knows how to do this come on mamas come on come on there we go there we go he's got her home and she is in some rough rough shape this poor baby she is so skinny you can see every every rib she's super sweet but you can see every rib and really really skinny poor thing I know baby can see every bone in her body she actually has a lump over here on the side of her I don't know what that is but we'll have that take a look at that but she is all skin and bones she's the beautiful beautiful girl and we're gonna get you taken care of sweetheart yes we are since Anna's condition was much worse than what we thought I consulted with our veterinarian Dr Wagner and she said to just feed her Coastal hay for the first few days and see how she reacts to it with a horse that's been starved you don't want to feed them too fast because it can cause problems in their digestive system and that was one thing that we didn't want to do for this poor girl that had been through so much in his first few days on the farm were very confusing to her she wasn't quite sure what was happening where she was at or who all these other animals were but she was decompressing and de-stressing just like all the other horses do when they arrive here at the farm she figured out the water which was a good thing but we also did put an extra water inside because when Anna first got here we hit a cold snap and she didn't have any muscle on her body so we put an extra water inside so she would have somewhere to get water and stay out of the cold with her being so thin we installed a cowglow infrared heater for her so she would have somewhere to come inside and stay warm we hadn't had the chance to put them up so no time like the present and I definitely appreciated her heater because this is her standing underneath it about a week after Anna got to the farm her legs started swelling and she got this lump underneath her belly we weren't quite sure what was going on but we definitely needed that to come out and take a look at her so we got Dr Wagner scheduled as you can see from this picture her legs were severely swollen Dr Wagner came out to the farm that week to give Anna a complete wellness check she checked her heart and her lungs and made sure that she had good gut sounds everything was good so we did do blood Labs I wanted to find out what was going on with that lump underneath her belly along with why she had swelling in her legs there weren't any signs of injuries to Anna's legs causing the swelling and Anna's blood Labs came back saying that she was healthy nothing was wrong with her liver or kidneys and everything was functioning well she did not have an infection or anything like that so Dr Wagner believes that the inflammation in her legs was because of Transport Anna was transported from Ohio to Dallas and then from Dallas to Amarillo so she had done a lot of traveling and at her age that was probably really hard on her joints Dr Wagner wanted us to keep her moving and keep her active to help with the swelling and inflammation to go down the lump under her stomach was due to Anna still having milk in her sacks at some point she probably had a full not too long ago and that was contributing to the swelling that was in her stomach eventually that did go away and the lump that was on her other side that was on her rib cage Dr Wagner believed that that had to do with an old injury so we were just gonna watch it and make sure that it didn't get any bigger or change in any way and the state on the coastal hay diet for a little while longer and then we slowly started adding Alpha Pro to her diet we started out with two pounds of alpha Pro per day and then increased it by a pound every three days so we were working up to Anna eating 30 pounds of alpha Pro per day to put weight on her since Anna was weak and underweight still we didn't want to turn her out with the rest of the herd but Dr Wagner recommended that we take her on walks every day because we needed to keep her legs moving to get rid of the inflammation that had built up in those back legs so Anna and I would take a three to four hour walk every single day and that helped with the inflammation in her legs Anna is sporting her beautiful new halter that somebody sent her as a gift we really appreciate it going for a little walk in this pasture area that's over here next to the barn it has a lot of green grass that she can eat do what she wants and get a little exercise we finally got a Manger moved into Anna's stall so she doesn't have to eat off the ground so we put her Alpha Pro in here in the big big tub and then she's got her hay over there so she doesn't have to eat it off the ground and then she won't waste as much and it was still severely underweight but she was making progress every single day she got a little stronger and by September she was already starting to look a lot more healthy foreign since winter was quickly approaching since it was September Cory and I needed to come up with another plan because I wasn't going to be taking Anna for walks in the middle of winter so we took some temporary panels and fenced off part of the paddocked area so Anna could go out into the pasture and graze by herself obviously we did give her some hay out here but she was able to go out in this area fenced off from the other horses but she was able to have contact with them but not to a point where they could interact and she could get hurt the inflammation in Anna's legs wasn't getting any better so Dr Wagner came back out to the farm to do some more blood work and just give her a checkup again his lower legs seemed to be the most swollen from her hawk or her knee all the way down to her hoof was very inflamed that was the part that Dr Wagner was just examining so she thought that she was developing some arthritis possibly and if it continued to swell we would have to bring her in for some x-rays to find out what was going on in those legs and it was starting to limp on her back left leg and that's why Dr Wagner suspected maybe it was some arthritis that was developing the reason we didn't bring Anna to the vet's office and just had Dr Wagner come out to the farm was because we thought a trailer ride would be too uncomfortable for Anna and it would cause her more pain and inflammation in those legs so if the swelling and inflammation continued even after the blood work came back normal we'd probably have to bring Anna in for X-rays at some point Anna's blood work came back normal again so Dr Wagner did start Anna on some prevacox which helps with pain and inflammation for what was going on in her legs so we were going to give that a try and see if it helped her out we had to bribe Anna to get into the stock for farrier day she was in desperate need of a trim however since Anna was so weak still in those back legs and they were swollen and she was in pain she did not want to lift her feet so we had to come up with Plan B we took her out of the stock and Kimmy rounded her toes with a Sawzall and cut off the parts that needed to be cut off it worked out quite well and to this day we still do the same thing for Anna she uses the Sawzall and cuts down her toes when they get a little bit longer works out well and they might not be beautiful but it makes Anna functional every day Anna continued to get stronger it seemed like she had a new will to live and she actually looked a little bit happier when she first got here she looked so defeated and sad we were just glad that she was starting to settle in and enjoy her life here on the farm do your belly did a good scratchy spot sweetheart oh my goodness I know you got a scratchy spot like Cami does by November Anna looked like a completely different horse than what she looked like when she got here in August she seemed happy she was healthy and on the road to recovery she enjoyed her time out in the paddocked area and getting to know all the other horses on the farm when winter came and she got her winter coat she was extremely fluffy as you can see here in the winter when the horses grow out their winter coats we do make sure that we keep them brushed and groomed on a regular basis their coats are designed to hold in heat and if there's dirt or debris in their coat it might not hold in the heat properly so we do make sure that we keep them groomed at all times during the winter and no one seems to mind the extra attention and love Anna's eating lunch today with Charlie I'm trying to get her used to eating uh closer to the other horses so Charlie hasn't tried to kick her or anything like that so I've got her eating in freya's Stall so today we are trying a new adventure right since Anna was on the road to recovery and she was Stronger now we did get her turned out with the other horses and released out into the pasture area so she could get exercise on her own she did really well her first day she did however get a little bit lost and confused on how to get back into the barn area so I did have to go out there with a halter and bring her back in but she's figured it out now and she does enjoy her pasture time when Paisley arrived at the farm Anna seemed to like her right away they kind of stuck around together and they would eat hay together however Anna does have her moments when she just doesn't want to be bothered by anybody since Anna was integrated with the herd and we didn't need to divide the paddocked area anymore we reused those panels and made some feeding stalls for the horses so we put Anna and Paisley in these little runs so they wouldn't be able to try to hurt each other however Anna was going to still try to hurt Paisley everybody enjoys Alpha Pro so much and nobody wants to miss out on dinner or breakfast so separation is definitely required because once the horses all see the alpha Pro everyone starts getting a little bit kicky so separation is a must around here around dinner time and it takes meal times very seriously sometimes she likes to share and sometimes she doesn't most days she doesn't like to share and this is an example of kind of what happens with her and Paisley We Do put out hay in a bunch of different places so we don't have all the horses piled up in one area to cause fights with the addition of all the new horses we're going to definitely have to add more feeders this winter in January we brought Anna down to MVP because she was still limping on that back left leg pretty bad and we wanted to get it checked out and make sure nothing was going on with her leg what we did find out was that Anna has a bone spur in her stifle joint which you can see right here from her x-ray so Dr Wagner was actually out on maternity leave so Dr Barclay did a steroid injection into her stifle joint since getting the injection in her stifle joint Anna does seem to get around a lot better so what we'll do it when Finn arrived on the farm Anna took a liking to him right away I was so happy to see her making an actual friend however she did like Paisley but most days she didn't like Paisley so I was really excited to see her with Finn she followed him around everywhere they did everything together as you can see they're standing out of the rain together with the donkeys and they were just best friends and I was really happy to see her making a friend and having a companion to hang around with in the winter time the other mares get a little pushy with Anna just because she is kind of weak and lower on the totem pole so we did bring Anna and Finn in in the evenings for an extra flake of hay when we first got Finn he was a little bit of a problem child but he was always sweet with Anna and I just love that they had such a connection right away my favorite part was watching them groom each other when friends come to visit they never get out of brushing this is Larry who's one of our friends that was visiting from out of town grooming Anna and these are just some pictures of Anna from her time here on the farm I didn't want to put a bunch of pictures but these are just a couple that were my favorites [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] you're the only smart one using the shade you're the only smart one I know banana we're gonna do a video about you today you don't want to do a video well we have to do a video you want breakfast first okay let's get breakfast ready for breakfast Anna still eats 30 pounds of alpha Pro per day she gets 15 pounds in the morning and 15 in the evening Alpha Pro is a pelleted Alfalfa that's mixed with vitamins and minerals and it's made into a mash so we soak it in water and it makes it easier for them to eat so that's what she's eating here and she does love her Alpha Pro for breakfast and dinner thank you one dinner Maybe one year later Anna has made a complete transformation and it's all thanks to last chance dark shipped horses if it wasn't for them and networking these horses that are in the kill pens Anna's fate would have been a lot different but that's what Anna's been up to and pretty much everything that she's gone through since arriving here on our farm she was probably the one horse that scared me the most because I honestly did not think she was going to make it through the night she was in such horrible horrible condition when she arrived here but we got her on the road to recovery and got her healthy and she's living out her best life now and that's just amazing to us and we're so we're so glad that we were able to do that for her and give her the retirement that she deserves so I am walking across the 43 Acres right now to go find Anna and of course she is all the way down at the other side of the pasture so I'm walking down that way now well we've made it clear across the pasture this is The Back Fence right there if you can see it where the donkeys are that's our back corner of the property then but this is the back side of our property they usually come out here during the day to graze that's Freya and that's our girl Anna's are you in a banana and it hates the stick the camera on a stick so we'll see how she tolerates this since the addition of all the geldings they've kind of broken into two different groups and a thin Freya Lena usually all stick together and then the donkeys they stick by the donkeys but this is Miss Anna she had a bacterial infection on the back of her hoof so that's why her foot's wrapped which she doesn't ever keep it wrapped for more than five minutes but she stays out here and grazes all day long and she's doing so much better her Mane's grown in she looks so different from when we first got her to what she looks like now it's a long way you're such a beautiful girl yes you are the leg swelling has completely gone away too that she had from when we first got her and that lump that was underneath her belly went away as well so what Dr Wagner said that those were are exactly what those were but now that she gets the exercise that she needs she's doing really good and just living her best life and enjoying retirement and spending time with the other horses she usually hangs out with Finn but thin these days hanging out with Freya so I don't know what's going on with that drama you know he's a pretty girl you are foreign obviously from her stifle joint issues but she still makes it around and gets to where she needs to go and obviously she can make it across the 40 acres and she does really well so we're so glad that she's here and that she's enjoying her life of retirement as you can see her back has filled in a little bit I know am I being rude I'm sorry she still does have the lump on her side right here Dr Wagner believes that that's an old injury it never gets any bigger or any smaller so we're not overly concerned about it but we definitely do keep an eye on it foreign we hope you enjoyed this video and wanted to say thank you to everybody that has sent us our gifts from our Amazon wish list and alphapro and donations and everyone that participated in the bonfire t-shirt fundraiser thank you all so much we ended up selling 200 t-shirts which is absolutely amazing so we're so glad that y'all participated in that and that you were supporting our foundation and we're so happy and it makes me it warms my heart because there's going to be 200 people out there with Grandpa's face on their on their t-shirts so that's really exciting for us thank you to everybody that did participate in that fundraiser and for everything else that you all have done for us we're truly grateful for it and we can't thank you enough for all of your support ways to support our farm you can purchase goat milk soap that's available on our website I'll put a link in the description below Misha bars are made with ingredients you can pronounce pure high quality food grade and organic natural plant oils are mixed with therapeutic grade essential oils along with goat milk straight from our goat Misha all our soaps are handmade in small batches using the cold process method all our soaps are available at Fletcher Farms amarillo.com head over there now and check out all our soaps we have available we always need feed we go through about 175 pounds per day roughly of alpha Pro to feed all of the horses here on the farm so we definitely always need Alpha Pro feed our local feed store hfnc has supported us from the beginning and has helped us out with people that want to send us Gifts of alpha Pro here is their contact information even to purchase a gift of alpha Pro to send to the horses you can contact them and tell them you wanted to add Alpha Pro 2 our account and they'll put those bags on our account and also you can make a tax deductible donation to the big hoof Foundation we still do have a temporary website I am getting I am getting closer to almost finishing the website for the big hoof Foundation but we still do have a temporary website on Fletcher Farms Amarillo for the big hoof Foundation if you wanted to make a donation donations go to support the horses all their medical care and anything that the horses need so that's where your donations are going to all these horses here on the farm so if you want to make a tax-deductible donation I'll leave a link in the description below on where you can do that Dr Hardy who came out a couple weeks ago to do acupuncture around the horses if you didn't see that video check that out for sure it was definitely interesting she gave me some supplements that we we should be giving the horses that have arthritis so like Anna with her arthritis we started giving her beautless which is Devil's claw with Vitamin B and yucca and it seems to be helping we've been giving it to him for about two weeks now so um it seems to be helping them a little bit with their joint discomfort so all the horses get that along with MSM and that goes into their feed along with electrolytes and things like that and those are all on our Amazon wish list so if you wanted to support us that way I'll put a link in the description below with our Amazon wish list again thank you all so much for watching we truly appreciate your support and more updates coming so stay tuned we'll see you soon thanks again for watching bye [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Fletcher Farms Amarillo, LLC.

Views: 533,490

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Id: r7e2gB65SfU

Length: 29min 51sec (1791 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023