At the end of April Palmera presented her baby to morning volunteers – a huge and amazingly long-legged filly foal. After nail-biting months of waiting and constant worry over Palmera’s laminitis, everyone was so happy to welcome her to ARCH. The day after she was born, after such a short life, we had to say a sad goodbye. The little girl initially was very weak and had problems sucking because of a badly overshot jaw, but it appeared that she was on the road to recovery. Sadly, the following morning it was apparent that she was going downhill. She stopped sucking and became very lethargic. Our vet, Rocio, put her on a drip, but she did not respond to treatment and, after several hours, her short life was over. Her devoted mother and the equally devoted ARCH team were unable to save her.
An autopsy revealed that the foal had internal abnormalities. These could have been the result of Palmera’s problems during pregnancy. Whatever the reason, sometimes nature has a way of telling us that survival is not the best option.
We are now going to focus our attention on Palmera and give her as much loving care as possible to help her recover physically, mentally, and emotionally. Sometimes our work brings us tragedy, but we always try to the best of our ability to give our rescues the best life possible.