Just about a year ago, a good friend gave me my horse of a life time, a ten year old Lusitano named Capaz. His move to me involved many life style changes for Capaz who had previously had a very att... Read More
Just about a year ago, a good friend gave me my horse of a life time, a ten year old Lusitano named Capaz. His move to me involved many life style changes for Capaz who had previously had a very attentive, safe life, but it was very solitary and in a stall. A big part of what my friend wanted for him was to have pasture time and herd mates. And that was his new life with me....and he loved it.
But there was something going on that was a problem for his system and he coliced twice in six months, both times with good sized impactions. The first time I was able to get him to a good facility three hours from my home where they resolved the impaction in a day and we made our way home and went back to life as usual. In May, we made the trip to northern New Mexico to participate in a trail clinic that I do each year with one of my horses. This was Capaz's turn as my new boy and I was sure it would be great for us both. He had been to this facility twice before for other events and had settled in well and was content and happy there. This time though, on the third day, he was obviously in distress, so I started to search for a vet. It was, of course, a Sunday. No vets were available to come to the ranch and the ranch manager connected me with Dr. Thal, who I had met years back at a friend's place in Santa Fe. I had been impressed with him then, especially his horse handling skills, as he was able to handle my extremely shot phobic thoroughbred calmly and kindly, something none of my local vets had ever been able to do. With this previous knowledge of Dr. Thal, I felt confident taking Capaz to his clinic an hour from where I was. In spite of it being a Sunday, Dr. Thal and his staff were there to receive us and got Capaz in immediately for evaluation. Another impaction....... which they dealt with in quick order by tubing him and doing a variety of other tests for his general condition. Capaz remained at Dr. Thal's in one of his hospital stalls where he was tubed a couple more times and the impaction was resolved and moved out of his system. At that point, Dr. Thal said that I could take him home, but he also suggested considering further investigation of what was going on in Capaz's system to cause two colics in six months. I chose to have Capaz stay with Dr. Thal to have him completely checked out and observed.
During this time, Capaz was observed, handled, exercised and tended to better than I could have hoped for. Dr. Thal kept me up to date with clear communication and it was all done with concern and a good sense of humor that made it clear to me that Dr. Thal loves his work and values the horses and their owners. During his stay there, we talked about the best plan for Capaz to go forward, happy and healthy. Dr. Thal helped me come up with a better feeding program part of which involved a change to a better quality hay ..... which my other horses are grateful for too!!!
I can't say enough in praise of Dr. Thal's facility and the care that Capaz got while he was there. The staff is wonderful.....they all really care and were wonderfully responsive to a high maintenance, worried owner ...... ME!! My boy is home now, enjoying good health, back with his herd. My only regret it that I don't live closer to Dr. Thal so that I can have such great attentive, skilled service on an ongoing basis. Maybe I'll start searching the Santa Fe real estate ads!!! In the meantime, I know that Thal Equine is there for me whenever I may need them. It's worth the drive for sure!! Read Less