Buster's story

Buster is an orphaned mini colt that I brought home fall of 04. He came down with pneumonia about a month after I got him home. I brought him 900 miles right after his mom died. So he was weaned at about a month old and I really think the combination was just to much for him. He was loosing weight even though he was eating about 4 flakes of 4th cutting premium alfalfa everyday. He put on a really long brittle looking coat and his energy was really down. I called the vet out and he had him on Tri Sulfa for 3 weeks.

We ran the time out on the tri sulfa and I took him off it, a week later he crashed. I walked out the door and he was down and didn't even have the strength to lift his head off the ground. I paniced, it is not in my nature to let any animal die on me and it was really obvious that he was going to if things didn't change for him. I called the vet and raced around the kitchen digging out my first aid box and everything remotely horse related that I use for my horses Started digging through looking for anything that would give him quick energy, and a quick boost to help get him up on his feet again.

I always use Vetlines Equilytes, great for helping with forms of dehydration, full of electrolytes and amino acids. I use it with most foals that I bring in the first few days they're home to help them with the stress they've been through. Weaning alone is stressful enough, then they hit those sale barns, sometimes the same day. That's stressful for an adult horse, it's terrifying for a foal that's just lost it mother as well. I also grabbed the Buckeye's foal aid, Probios, Super B plex and the powdered mares milk. Mixed it all together with the a little bit of water until it was about the same texture as the Foal Aid, Stuck it in a syring and raced out to give it to him.

About the time I was done giving him his first dose the vet showed. He took one look at him and said he really doubted that he was going to live. Gave me a script for a stronger med for him and told me good luck, call me if he's alive in the morning. About 10 minutes after he left his wife called to see what he said about him. When I told her she told me to get him in the house and throw him in a warm shower with the massage on to help get the fluids out of his lungs.

Adreniline was up, grabbed him under one arm and into the bathroom we went. Threw him in the shower and raced out for some straw to bed him down with inside, got his bed made and pulled him out of the shower and put him in my bathtub to dry, then I ran out for some hay and made him another dose of the Vetline equilytes combination. I proceeded to give that to him every 2 hrs as well as his new meds and stopped to add a prayer and ask for prayers online. He was perkier after the shower and the second dose of the paste and I started to have some hope. He even stood long enough to eat a little bit.

He made it through the night and the next.

We had an early storm brewing outside and he stayed in the house for 7 days. He also got the paste every 2 hrs as well for 2 weeks.

Buster is alive today because of the combination of care, the meds and the paste. I can't begin to say enough about the good things that are in those products and I put this up as a reference in case anyone should ever need it. I don't think the meds would have worked fast enough, if I hadn't used those products to give him the quick easy to digest energy.

I've had horses in my life for close to 30 yrs, I've lost one, I've rescued 100's of horses, I lost my mare to West Nile in 02. I am not in the habit of letting any animal die, I've nurtured dozens of orphans and lost none. Life is to precious, to precarious to just let them die if there's any chance they can be saved. It is nothing for me to wake up every 2 hrs to feed an orphaned baby, no matter what species. A baby is a baby is a baby and they all need a mothers love and nurturing to survive those first few months.