Plucky could use some good thoughts. You may remember that her original name was "Lucky" but her owner said the only luck she's ever had was bad so we changed it. She's shown us the truth of that statement, as she tends to take things to extremes. Itchy head? Scratching it causes her to nearly scalp her forehead and 30+ staples in the middle of winter. That kind of thing.
Right now she's struggling with an upper respiratory infection. We brought in two horses from another rescue in April for the Showdown, and when they arrived they had dropped some weight from their initial photos - and within a couple days both had developed a snotty nose and cough. They'd been at the other rescue for a month or two, so who knows what happened, whether a new intake there brought in a cold or something or if the trip and exposure to a new place caused them to get sick. Either way, they both developed a cough and snotty nose, and one of them recovered quickly and went on to training, while the other took longer and also showed aggression so stayed here. She was eventually put out to pasture but apparently wasn't quite done being sick, because the horses she became friends with, Plucky and Turbo, have both since developed the same snotty nose and cough. Lucy is now fine, as is the rest of the herd, and Turbo just has an occasional cough. But Plucky has been fighting this for about a month now, and just isn't getting better.
To help her out, we've brought her in to stall rest, have started her on antibiotics and are keeping a close eye on her appetite and breathing. She's doing ok but is definitely not feeling great.
We QT auction horses for 3 weeks, but often are less strict about horses coming from a private herd or other rescue, as they aren't exposed to as many things usually. And respiratory things can be pretty common. It is NOT strangles, just a bug, but we don't want Plucky's luck to turn it into pneumonia. So we watch. She's in a stricter QT now than the auction horses, but she's actively ill and obviously this bug has a long shed and contagious period.