Silvermoon TLC

09/28/2024

Here’s an amazing challenge!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/gRMSp5FqjegCcJwD/?mibextid=WC7FNe

09/15/2024

“Heart breaking “
His cattle didn’t get a bid, they were fairly bloody poor,
What was he going to do? He couldn’t feed them anymore,
The dams were all but dry, hay was thirteen bucks a bale,
Last month’s talk of rain was just a fairytale,
His credit had run out, no chance to pay what’s owed,
Bad thoughts ran through his head as he drove down Gully Road.
“Geez, great grandad bought the place back in 1898,
“Now I’m such a useless bastard, I’ll have to shut the gate.
“Can’t support my wife and kids, not like dad and those before,
“Crikey, Grandma kept it going while Pop fought in the war.”
With depression now his master, he abandoned what was right,
There’s no place in life for failures, he’d end it all tonight.
There were still some things to do, he’d have to shoot the cattle first,
Of all the jobs he’d ever done, that would be the worst.
He’d have a shower, watch the news, then they’d all sit down for tea
Read his kids a bedtime story, watch some more TV,
Kiss his wife goodnight, say he was off to shoot some roos
Then in a paddock far away he’d blow away the blues.
But he drove in the gate and stopped – as he always had
To check the roadside mailbox – and found a letter from his Dad.
Now his dad was not a writer, Mum did all the cards and mail
But he knew the writing from the notebooks that he’d kept from cattle sales,
He sensed the nature of its contents, felt moisture in his eyes,
Just the fact his dad had written was enough to make him cry.
“Son, I know it’s bloody tough, it’s a cruel and twisted game,
“This life upon the land when you’re screaming out for rain,
“There’s no candle in the darkness, not a single speck of light
“But don’t let the demon get you, you have to do what’s right,
“I don’t know what’s in your head but push the bad thoughts well away
“See, you’ll always have your family at the back end of the day
“You have to talk to someone, and yes I know I rarely did
“But you have to think about Fiona and think about the kids.
“I’m worried about you son, you haven’t rung for quite a while,
“I know the road you’re on ‘cause I’ve walked every bloody mile.
“The date? December 7 back in 1983,
“Behind the shed I had the shotgun rested in the brigalow tree.
“See, I’d borrowed way too much to buy the Johnson place
“Then it didn’t rain for years and we got bombed by interest rates,
“The bank was at the door, I didn’t think I had a choice,
“I began to squeeze the trigger – that’s when I heard your voice.
“You said ‘Where are you Daddy? It’s time to play our game’
“’ I’ve got Squatter all set up, we might get General Rain.’
“It really was that close, you’re the one that stopped me son,
“And you’re the one that taught me there’s no answer in a gun.
“Just remember people love you, good friends won’t let you down.
“Look, you might have to swallow pride and take that job in town,
“Just ’til things come good, son, you’ve always got a choice
“And when you get this letter ring me, ’cause I’d love to hear your voice.”
Well he cried and laughed and shook his head then put the truck in gear,
Shut his eyes and hugged his dad in a vision that was clear,
Dropped the cattle at the yards, put the truck away
Filled the troughs the best he could and fed his last ten bales of hay.
Then he strode towards the homestead, shoulders back and head held high,
He still knew the road was tough but there was purpose in his eye.
He called his wife and children, who’d lived through all his pain,
Hugs said more than words – he’d come back to them again,
They talked of silver linings, how good times always follow bad,
Then he walked towards the phone, picked it up and rang his Dad.
And while the kids set up the Squatter, he hugged his wife again,
Then they heard the roll of thunder and they smelt the smell of rain.

Author : Murray Hartin
Don’t be afraid to reach out for help
#988

08/08/2024

What happened to all horse feedlot Kill pen rescues?
In 2013 people interested in rescuing horses that were being bought and shipped to slaughter in Oklahoma started going to Perkins feed lot a horse gathering rodeo company that buys horses nationwide company to buy the culled horses -the rodeo company buys horses that are being sold at auctions all over the country and this is an amazing way to find some great horses, as well as to allow people to sell horses that perhaps they could no longer afford to care for-
The sad thing was how many rescues exploited what Perkins was allowing and said they were cruel when in fact, they are very much pro rodeo pro livestock-
But an answer to the question when there are no buyers for the cull often older or unriden mix breed horses, no one can manage thousands of horses so until that is solved, they do sell to Mexico buyers and Mexico sells to Europe and China etc - where people still to this day,eat horse 😥
No matter how unappealing and sad that is, it is a circle of life until things change to where there’s not thousands of unwanted horses, things won’t change.
And when we wish for change, there can be un intended consequences like horses becoming so expensive that only wealthy families will be able to afford them, and children will never find the joy of loving a horse riding a horse arms near taking in the freedom and speed and getting lost on the wind !💕
The ability to ride horses is slowly being lost as the skill is no longer easily gained and rideable horses become fewer.
But I digress….
Then the people buying created Kill pen rescues and they recruited a bunch of us to be Hubs
Hubs had the job of picking up horses for FB buyers - there were 5 of us that were busy constantly-
We had customers all over the nation and even Canada
We had vets that came to our places as soon as horses arrived and we had Quarantine

Doc Grace Owes had just started with my long time emergency vet
Along the way we were also blessed with
veterinarian Audrey Turbeville and
vet tech who is now also a vet in school down in Tishomingo
Veterinarian Carola Dal Morrison !!!
EMA Doc Johnson -
Doc Johnson had taken care of many emergency horses for me over 20 years from car wrecks, shooting and cruelty
He was also my longtime vet for llamas and camels -

Anyway the reason we non rescues got involved as Hups was as equine liaisons to rescues and try hard to educate non horse owners who were now buying rescues.
When we first saw it happening, it was noted. They were not following proper health certificate guidelines. Our goal in part to start with was to prevent illness from spreading nation.
Every hub made sure if a horse was picked up immediately went to the vet or the vet met them at their lot.
This was to stop the spread of shipping, fever, strangles, and pigeon fever as well as many other very contagious diseases and infectious viruses, etc.
Our other goals was to help with adding value to vet education and building up a slowing livestock veterinarian industry -
You need to understand these rescues had 10s of thousands suddenly following
What Perkins was doing was absolutely a good thing for the entire horse industry. Just in the Horse education for veterinarians to be able to treat things and never seen it was fabulous. I would put the vets that were treating at that time in the top category of vets that have seen and treated almost everything and have an amazing background of experience because they were allowed to treat it without money being the only thing that was important.
Many small farms love their animals immensely but they just don’t have the funds or it doesn’t fit their business profile to treat something that won’t become 100% healthy. That cool but putting a small farmer out of business with one vet bill and having a family do without food is also cruel.

Then the rescues recruited people to just manage the pages and funds and reservations with hubs and transport to hubs -
Again, another amazing group of people willing to spend their time just going through messages and managing pages for the love of horses-
It’s important to understand there were good people as well as bad people just like anything in the industry, but most of the people started out with good intentions.

We all knew it would grow swiftly but no idea how fast or out of control -
Most every state has laws hand in hand with federal on transport of equine and health papers -
So we would revive a call from page managers 24/7 to see if we had a spot to board- then customer would call and we’d give rates and either they would arrange for us to pick up or we would hire a hauler -
By law it had to be transported directly to vet from the pens or to a location vet would come to -
That’s how EMA crew and especially Dr Grace became the vet of choice and because of the amazing buyers who in many cases always wanted to own a horse but not necessarily ride -many were willing to spend whatever it took and people were compelled to “save a horse from slaughter truck”
Many times several people would go in to purchase the horse just to save it and then they gave to rescue which had sad unexpected consequences.

So they put all the information on each horse they bought from “Kill “pen and many of them just put pictures - then they started fund raising for the horses and often for vet fees -
It seemed the worse a horse was the more money it brought which also had consequences-

One of the great things that happened was buyers were paying vets to soothing many livestock people would not be able bc afford -
Eye surgery’s, injury’s, handicap issues, broken bones , special ferrier and therapy/ amazing things running well up to $10,000 plus
We tried to be respectful and responsible as well as realistic to outcome to help people make decisions-
The awesome part of how much work EMA received anything’s they learned to cure -

As a hub we managed care and when horse was clear QT and able to travel a hauler would be called - and client would pay bills with PayPal
I for example sent pictures and video day of arrival, during and day leaving so owners could stay involved - some horses were so sick they stayed months -
Some owners had health issues and we ended up with horses and then had to find homes otherwise we’d have been quickly overrun /
It wasn’t but a year from start that auctions in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas had suctions that hired rescues or created rescues to market to people wanting to save a horse . That led to terrible hoarding by some unethical “rescues”
We’ve seen 10-30 horses starved at rescues and had to rescue from rescues.
When FB put a stop to the way rescues had been running it was a hard quick stop /
For a couple of us we still have old clients that call us for serves but no where are we near the days when we were constantly on the road running, hauling, hiring vets , hauling feed , dealing with dozens of clients and horses weekly /
It’s a real shame because there was a lot of good, a lot of jobs and education-plus it took a lot of horses out of “ kill pens”
A few of the really good ones are still running -
Family Horses by Rebecca and Sons does the best job of any - She gives honest evaluations and finds awesome horses with amazing potential-

Our little hub is still located in Spencer Oklahoma
Silvermoon TLC we only short term hold we do NOT do long term boarding .
~ Tonni Canaday
Owner Silvermoon TLC

11/29/2023

This story brought me real comfort!

11/24/2023

Please please remember that just because someone calls themselves a 501c3 rescue & transport - doesn’t guarantee anything!!!
The lack of oversight and fights between livestock/agriculture industry and “rescue “ groups continue to prevent any real action .
The agricultural community I know would never allow this !

11/20/2023

Danger of smart electronics and pets … perhaps even people ?
Copied & pasted-
I never would have thought of electronics. Sharing from a friend's post below.

PSA: We adopted our dog, Rowdy, from the shelter 5 years ago. He was already an adult dog, so we estimate he is about 11 or 12 years old at this point. I love this dog. He is the sweetest soul and my BFF. For the past week or so he hasn’t been acting like himself. He licked a raw spot on his foot. He was panting constantly. He was pacing. Sunday morning, the pacing and panting got so bad, and I was REALLY nervous that there was something seriously wrong with him. For 45 minutes, he panted like crazy and constantly paced back and forth. He was keeping his tail tucked down all the time. His ears were pinned back. He would not settle down and he wouldn’t eat. We tried everything. I ended up giving him a trazadone that he takes sometimes when he goes to the groomer. It seemed to take a little bit of the edge off, but not much. He still wouldn’t eat and still wouldn’t settle. I took off work on Monday so I could take him to the vet. We did bloodwork and x-rays. Knowing he is a senior dog, I was trying to prepare myself for the worst case scenario. I was glad to see his bloodwork was great except for some elevated liver enzymes. The x-rays showed he was a little backed up but no major issues. He got an anti-nausea injection and some Gabapentin to help with some tenderness in his back and to hopefully help keep him calm. When we got home, he was ok for a little bit, but eventually started pacing and panting again. We walked around the neighborhood for a long time and he used the bathroom a lot. He seemed pretty happy about that and was in good spirits until we got home and he refused to come back in the house. Every time I took him out that evening, he would hunker down like he didn’t want to come back in the house. When my vet called and I gave her the update, she suggested there may be some new electronic device in the house that was emitting a high frequency noise that is hurting his ears. We had just put new smart outlets in the house about a week ago. His pacing and panting were worse when the lamps were on, so I unplugged all the smart outlets. He stopped panting, stopped pacing, and ate his food. His tail was even up and wagging again. When I plugged the smart outlets all back in and asked Alexa to turn on the lamps, he immediately started panting and pacing again. My husband used an app to test the frequency of the smart outlets. It was off the charts. We've left the outlets unplugged for two days and have confirmed that it is definitely the smart outlets that are causing his stress and discomfort. He's back to being a totally normal dog now. I really thought this was the end for Rowdy based on the way he was acting. I am so thankful for Dr. Newell at BoonesCreek AnimalHospital for figuring out this simple solution. If your pets are exhibiting similar symptoms, you may want to consider checking your electronics first. I cannot express how relieved I am that he is ok now. 😭♥️🐶

11/13/2023

10/24/2023

MISSING HORSE NAMED UNICORN - MADILL, OK AREA | NETPOSSE ID #7869
Download and print flyers from the links below. Post everywhere. https://netposse.com/?7869
Description: 16h Appaloosa mare, Blue flecks in eyes
Taken by a man in North Texas, taken to Joshua TX, to be sold again. She may be in Indiana or Illinois to be sold yet again. Horse was sold under false pretext. She is NOT a rope horse, this mare is loved and was on a lease agreement. She was sold along with many other horses from that facility.
Law enforcement as well as Texas Rangers are looking for these horses!

10/14/2023

09/11/2023

This is NOT my horse or one in my care - I posting to share the life saving info !

I am Re-posting this. This didn't happen to me. I just thought it valuable info.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUCEMENT:
I've been very busy the last few days with trying to save a horse that got bit in the nose by a RATTLESNAKE. (I've not been trying to ignore anyone.)
For those of you that live in an area where there are venomous snakes.... Listen up......
If a horse gets bit in the leg.... it's Bad... but, if they get bit in the face, especially the nose... it's Life Threatening, and can be Deadly... FAST!
The nose swells up, the nostrils close up, and the horse will SUFFOCATE! A horse must breathe through his nostrils. They Can't breathe through their mouth.
I didn't see this horse get bit by the rattlesnake... but, when I found the horse, he was suffocating! I knew what must have happened.... and I knew what I had to do, and do it FAST! I had to get Air to my horse!
The nostrils were so tightly closed... the only tubes I could fit up his nostrils were the size of a pencil, which sure didn't give him much Air..... but, it was enough to keep him from dying. After he could get a Little Air.... he quit thrashing around so bad, and he was not in as much of a Panic. Then, I prepared some lengths of garden hose to put in his nostrils. I tried to trim the edges so they wouldn't be as rough... because I knew is was going to be tough to get them in place. A frightened horse in a lot of pain doesn't want anyone to touch him, much less push a lubricated garden hose up his nose, when there is barely enough room for a pencil.
By this time, I had him in the stocks to minimize his movement so I could try to get him more air.
I slid the water hose along side the tiny hose, and although I made him bleed... I knew I had to get him more air. After both bigger hoses were in place... he was frantically trying to breathe deeper, and the pain from putting the tubes in made him breathe heavier and it was still hard to breathe through the larger hoses..... but, at least he could breathe. The hoses are held in place with tape, but putting tape on a painfully swollen face has it's own set of challenges.
Once I knew he was getting air... the next step was getting veterinary help.

Well, this happened Saturday, and around here... the vet was closed.
A visitor to the ranch that drove up for her appointment ... arrived as the tubes were put in the nose. She called her friend in Texas, who was a Vet, and after the vet confirmed we already had tubes in his nose.... she told me the horse needed Dex, Banamine, and Pen G. I had several things on hand, so I did what I could do for him with what I had.... but, still needed to get my local vet here...

Many phone calls later, and leaving messages, and eventually reaching the Mother of one of the vets... I found out that everyone was out of town, but should be back later that night.

My horse's face was swelling even more, and he was becoming unrecognizable. (Photo from when tubes were put in) He swelled to twice that size at his worst.
When a horse has been bit by a venomous snake, it is critical to keep the horse calm and as quiet possible. I kept him in the stocks with a fan on him.
Note- A horse bitten by a venomous snake, should NEVER be sedated.
His lips, mouth, and tongue swelled so much that swallowing was impossible. I let him try to lick water from a hose, but he couldn't swallow it. He so wanted to eat and drink, but this was impossible.

Later- the local vet arrived.... and after taking one look at the garden hoses sticking out of the grotesquely deformed face.... he looked at me and said I saved his life by getting the tubes in his nose when I did....
Meds, I.V. Anti-Venom, I.V. fluids, and Antibiotics were given. The road to recovery had begun.
I stayed with my horse most of the night, keeping him calm, and quiet.
The licking of water seemed to keep him happy, and was a distraction from being hungry.
Day two- The vets came back for more Anti-Venom, Meds, and I.V. Fluids. The swelling was now improving some...
Now on our 3rd day.... the swelling has improved enough that the nasal tubes have been removed, and although breathing is still far from normal... he can breathe without the tubes.
His upper lip and muzzle are still extremely swollen, but he can drink from a tub now, and I.V. fluids are no longer needed.

Eating is difficult, and water soaked alfalfa pellets (Mush) can be licked up. Eating will take a back seat to fluids for now.

He will have to be on Antibiotics for an extended time, because Snakes carry large amounts of bacteria in their mouth/fangs and this can be fatal.

I hope none of you reading this post ever have to experience what I've been through the last few days. But, I hope this information was helpful, and that if you or someone you know has a horse bitten by a venomous snake in the face.... you will know what to do until the vet can help.
Please Share to reach others that may benefit from this information. If one horse is saved.... it is worth it.

08/23/2023

What a great idea !!!

08/12/2023

🐴 Assistant Barn Manager 🐴
Lazy E Ranch has an Assistant Barn Manager position available at our Yearling Farm.

Duties include:
•    Observation of horses
•    Halter breaking weanlings
•    Daily grooming
•    Feeding
•    Assist resident veterinarian and staff with medical treatments
•    Horsemanship experience required
•    6 days/week
•    Starting pay $650/week

This is a full-time position with benefits including health insurance and 401k. Housing included.
Email resumes to [email protected]