Texas

Texas A&M Veterinarians Work Around The Clock To Save Newborn Foal

Published

2 years ago

May 8, 2024

Texas A&M Veterinarians Work Around The Clock To Save Newborn Foal

Large animal internal medicine resident Sally Alpini and Dr. Amanda Trimble examine Vicky, a German warmblood filly who came to the Texas A&M University Large Animal Teaching Hospital in need of intensive care immediately following birth.

Photo by Jason Nitsch ’14/Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Queen Victoria, the German warmblood filly, proved her strength at a young age, just like her namesake, the United Kingdom’s former monarch who took the throne at only 18 years old.

Almost immediately after birth, the foal, nicknamed Vicky, became separated from her mother, Queenie, after rolling into an adjoining stall. Their few hours apart would have serious consequences because Vicky missed out on some of the special care a mother horse, called a dam, provides in the first few hours of a foal’s life.

When her owner, Dr. Gavin Britz, learned of the incident, he turned to the Texas A&M Large Animal Teaching Hospital (LATH) to nurse Vicky back to health, a two-week process that involved intensive care, special techniques and surgery.

While Vicky came to the LATH in great need of exceptional veterinary care, she left a healthy, spunky filly thanks to her talented veterinary team and dedicated owner.

Building A Legacy

Britz, a Houston neurosurgeon, has loved horses since he was a boy. He has participated in jumping and dressage competitions over the years, and his current focus is on breeding, specifically for the German warmblood.

“I’m setting up a warmblood breeding operation and bringing some of the best horses in Europe to America,” Britz said. “One of my close friends, a world-class German breeder named Stefanie Lohmann, owned Queenie before and said she wanted me to have her because she’s such a special mare.”

When Britz purchased Queenie, he wasn’t just getting the mare; she was also pregnant with a foal sired by Vitalis, a famous warmblood stud.

Because of transportation delays, Queenie didn’t arrive at Britz’s stable in Chappell Hill, Texas, until about two-and-a-half weeks before her due date. She then went into labor sooner than expected, giving birth a week early — late in the night on Valentine’s Day.

The barn manager found Vicky in the adjoining stall only hours later, but the foal had already missed out on colostrum — a preliminary form of milk that contains extra nutrients, antibodies, and antioxidants that is normally passed from mother to baby in the first few hours after birth.

“When we found her, the baby was not doing well,” Britz said. “We contacted the local vet, who said to bring her down to their hospital. After we took her there, they said she probably wasn’t going to survive, but we could try and take her to Texas A&M.”

Britz knew that the Texas A&M School of Medicine graduates whom he helped train at Houston Methodist were talented and dedicated to their craft, so he trusted that the veterinarians, staff and students at the LATH would exhibit the same qualities and would have the skills and determination to save Vicky’s life.

A mare and her foal in a stall at the Large Animal Teaching Hospital — Faculty, staff and students at the Texas A&M University Large Animal Teaching Hospital played a critical role in returning Vicky to health. The foal was weak and lethargic after being separated from her mother shortly after birth and required two weeks of intensive treatment.

Photo by Jason Nitsch ’14/Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Every Trick In The Book

When Vicky arrived at the LATH on Feb. 15, she was extremely weak, not nursing well and showing an abnormally lethargic demeanor.

“Vicky had what we call neonatal sepsis and failure of passive transfer — basically, she had a bacterial infection that was making her sick. She also hadn’t nursed and wasn’t getting the nutrients she needed for energy, so she was very weak,” said Dr. Amanda Trimble, a clinical assistant professor of equine internal medicine at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

“If a foal doesn’t get colostrum in the first few hours of life, developing sepsis is a huge risk, because they are born without an immune system, so they can’t fight off any insult to their little bodies unless they get important antibodies from the mare,” Trimble said.

Because Vicky was so young, Queenie accompanied her to the LATH and proved to be a very dedicated mother. The two were kept in a special stall that allowed the veterinary team to begin stabilizing the foal while remaining in sight of the mare.

Vicky received intravenous fluids and supplemental glucose to make up for the loss of nutrition; plasma for antibodies and immune system support; and antibiotics and anti-inflammatories to address the infection and pneumonia.

Once Vicky was stabilized, the veterinarians noticed that she still had a dull demeanor and decided to also apply a technique called the Madigan squeeze, which can stimulate neural pathways that are normally stimulated during birth.

If the natural process doesn’t happen correctly, which can occur during a rapid delivery, the foal is left in a lethargic, sleep-like state, similar to how it was in the womb — a condition known as neonatal maladjustment syndrome.

“Essentially, it’s like we re-birthed her,” Trimble said. “We apply a nice, steady pressure around the thorax for 20 minutes, and it feels like going through the birth canal again and something resets.”

After several days of intensive, around-the-clock care, Vicky’s overall condition began to improve, but a new problem also arose — her umbilicus, the location where her umbilical cord had been located, started showing serious signs of infection.

“Her umbilicus wasn’t completely normal the first week, but we weren’t as concerned as we were about the sepsis initially. We wanted her to stabilize before we took her to surgery,” Trimble said. “But during the second week, it got really big — almost tripled or quadrupled in size — so I called Dr. (Dustin) Major and our surgery team. Together, we concluded we couldn’t wait any longer and that it needed to be removed immediately.

“The thing that we worry about with umbilical infection is that abscesses can form internally, and because of where all the blood vessels go from the umbilicus, the infection can spread to other organs as well,” she said.

Major, a clinical assistant professor of large animal surgery, removed the now-unnecessary umbilicus and its internal vessels to ensure the infection was gone, after which Vicky improved and was soon fully recovered.

Aptly Named

Vicky had not received her official name during her time at the LATH, but once she was discharged and sent home, Britz knew just what to call her.

“She was born on Valentine’s Day, so that was part of the ‘V,’ along with having the sire Vitalis,” Britz said. “Because you always name the baby after the mother, you then get Queen Victoria. You’ll know she’s from my line because my other top mare is called Queen Elizabeth.”

Many faculty, staff and students were involved in ensuring Vicky’s recovery. In addition to Trimble and Major, Drs. Bridget Savitske, Jake Trautmann, Sally Alpini, and Abigail Blanton contributed, as well the internal medicine and soft tissue surgery teams and several fourth-year veterinary students.

Reflecting on the experience, Britz is thankful that he trusted the LATH with Vicky’s recovery.

“I was very impressed with the veterinary care and, particularly, with the communication,” he said. “I told the CEO of my hospital that we, as physicians, can learn something from the way Texas A&M handled the communication and made sure I was informed about everything.”

Likewise, Trimble is grateful that Britz and his barn manager ensured that Vicky arrived quickly.

“Infants can get sick really quickly; they can be fine one day and then the next day they might need this level of care,” she said. “Fast recognition is important, as well as knowing the normal milestones that a healthy, happy foal should be meeting. If they’re not meeting them, having the owner or the caretaker recognize that and getting them veterinary care is key to the foal surviving.”

A foal nurses its mother in a stall at the Large Animal Teaching Hospital. — Vicky nurses her mother while on the way to recovery during a two-week stay at the Large Animal Teaching Hospital at Texas A&M University.

Photo by Jason Nitsch ’14/Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

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Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Published

6 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Recruiting a running back out of the NCAA transfer portal wasn’t clean and simple after the winter window opened last week, but the Texas Longhorns were able to land a huge commitment from Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown on Thursday.

The 5’9, 196-pounder has one season of eligibility remaining.

Texas offered Brown out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana (Calif.) when he was a top-100 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. A consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 3 running back nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings, Brown committed to home-state USC without taking any other official visits.

Brown’s career with the Trojans didn’t go as planned, however — after flashing as a freshman with 227 yards on 42 carries (5.4 avg) with three touchdowns and 16 receptions for 175 yards (10.97 avg) and three touchdowns, Brown moved to wide receiver as a sophomore and only appeared in two games, recording three catches for 16 yards and a touchdown.

Wanting to play running back again, Brown transferred to Arizona State in 2024, but was limited by a hamstring injury to 48 yards of total offense.

In 2025, though, Brown finally had his breakout season with 186 carries for 1,141 yards and four touchdowns, adding 34 receptions for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Brown forced 53 missed tackles last season, 67 percent of the total missed tackles forced by Texas running backs, and more than half of his rushing yardage came after contact.

Brown ran a sub 4.5 40-yard dash and sub-11 100-meter dash in high school and flashed that explosiveness with runs of 75 yards and 88 yards in 2025, so Brown brings the speed that the Longhorns need with 31 yards over 10 yards, as well as proven route-running and pass-catching ability.

At Arizona State, the scheme leaned towards gap runs, but Brown has the skill set to be an excellent outsize zone back if Texas head coach Steve Sarksian decides that he wants to major in that scheme once again.

With one running back secured from the portal, the question becomes whether Sarkisian and new running backs coach Jabbar Juluke want to add a big-bodied back to the roster or are comfortable with rising redshirt sophomore Christian Clark and incoming freshman Derrek Cooper handling that role.

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Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Published

19 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

article

Texas lawmakers are lighting up social media with opinions about the fatal shooting of a woman in a car in Minneapolis by an ICE officer on Wednesday morning.

Reports from officers differ drastically from those of uninvolved eyewitnesses — the official DHS stance is self-defense against a “domestic terrorist,” while bystanders tell a story of an innocent woman trying to leave peacefully.

The political internet arena Texas is divided along party lines. Republicans generally condemn Minnesota leaders’ reactions to the shooting, while Democrats are calling for ICE to be investigated for the possible murder of a civilian by an anonymous officer.

Texas Republicans react

Among the most vocal of the Texas GOP members after Wednesday’s shooting, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston) was quick to question Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s dismay at the incident. Hunt posted the following to X, formerly Twitter:

“We’ve hit a breaking point in this country when an ICE officer is rammed by a lunatic in an SUV and the Mayor of Minneapolis responds not with condemnation, but by telling federal law enforcement to “get the f*ck out!”

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 22: Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hunt, currently in the running for U.S. Senate, later reposted a Fox News video of Gov. Tim Walz’ reaction. Hunt compared Walz to Jefferson Davis before posting a full statement later in the evening that reads, in part, as follows:

“The radical left isn’t turning the temperature down, they’re cranking it to 450 degrees. When leaders normalize this kind of rhetoric, the outcome isn’t hypothetical. It’s dangerous. It’s reckless. And it puts lives at risk. If violence follows, responsibility doesn’t belong to the officers enforcing the law, it belongs to the politicians who lit the fuse.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was more to the point with his criticism of Minnesota leaders, reposting a different video of Walz and referencing the recent fraud scandal within the state.

Walz in the video said Minnesota is “at war with the federal government.” Cruz replied, “Is that why y’all stole $9 billion?”

Texas Democrats react

The other side:

State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), another candidate for the same U.S. Senate seat as Hunt, rang in from the other side of the aisle.

“At our town hall last night, I called for a full investigation into ICE,” Talarico said in his post on X. “Today, an ICE agent shot and killed a civilian. We should haul these masked men before Congress so the world can see their faces.”

State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, during a campaign event in Houston, Texas, US, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Talarico is jumping into the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas, taking on a former

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, yet another Senate hopeful, also expressed his ire for the actions in Minneapolis.

“As a civil rights attorney, I’m outraged by today’s ICE shooting in Minnesota that took a woman’s life,” Allred said on X. “No family should lose a loved one this way. No community should live in this fear. ICE has become a rogue agency — operating recklessly, terrorizing communities, and now taking lives. To every community terrorized by these tactics: I see you. I stand with you. And I won’t stop fighting until you’re safe.”

Minneapolis fatal ICE shooting

The backstory:

An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

Federal officials are claiming the agent acted in self-defense, but Minnesota leaders disagree. The shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. in the area of East 34th Street and Portland Avenue. The woman died at the hospital.

Witnesses told FOX Local that a woman got into a red vehicle and there was one ICE agent on either side of the vehicle trying to get in, and a third ICE agent came and tried to yank on the driver’s side door. One of the agents on the driver’s side door backed away, and then opened fire, shooting three times through the driver’s side window, witnesses said. One witness said the vehicle wasn’t moving toward the agents. However, federal officials said ICE officers were “conducting targeted operations” when “rioters” blocked officers. One of the “rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Officials said an ICE officer who was “fearing for his life” fired “defensive shots” to save himself and his officers, killing the woman.

A video of the shooting shows a red Honda Pilot blocking the roadway as an ICE squad approaches. When agents approach the vehicle, the Pilot attempts to drive away, moving towards an agent. When that happens, the agent fires three shots at the driver. Police say the driver was struck in the head. The agent appears to mostly avoid the vehicle as it speeds past and ends up crashing into a parked vehicle.

The Source: Information in this report comes from public statements made by Texas lawmakers on social media. Background comes from FOX 9 coverage in Minneapolis.

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Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

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Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

A Texas teachers union has sued the state over what it said was a trampling of educators’ free speech rights when hundreds came under investigation for their comments after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

The Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers filed the federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner Mike Morath on Jan. 6, the union said. The suit claims investigations into at least 350 teachers after Kirk’s death were “unlawful” and that a letter issued by Morath to superintendents around the state targeting “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” prompted punishment and retaliation against teachers.

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth-focused organization, Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump. Shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has been charged with his murder.

After Kirk’s death, a wave of backlash came in response to online posts condemning his views or otherwise criticizing him. Right-leaning public figures and prominent social media accounts called for firings of people whose posts they deemed inappropriate.

Morath’s letter on Sept. 12 directed superintendents to report “inappropriate conduct being shared” to the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division, which investigates teachers for allegations of misconduct, the Texas AFT said in its suit, which was reviewed by USA TODAY. The union said teachers were investigated not for speech made in classrooms, but for posts made on their personal, often private social media pages.

“In the months since, the consequences for our members have run the gamut from written reprimands and administrative leave to doxxing and termination from their jobs,” AFT Vice President and Texas Chapter President Zeph Capo said at a news conference.

The Texas Education Agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Jan. 7.

Lawsuit claims teachers were disciplined for exercising free speech

The lawsuit filed by the Texas AFT claims that teachers in public schools have a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and that their speech in their personal capacity, such as on social media, is protected. The suit claims that teachers’ rights were violated when they were investigated or faced disciplinary action for their posts about Kirk. It also alleges that the policy to report teachers for “inappropriate” content was unfairly vague.

“These teachers were disciplined solely for their speech, without any regard to whether the posts disrupted school operations in any way,” the lawsuit reads.

Teachers whose cases are mentioned in the lawsuit were kept anonymous, Capo said, to protect them from further harassment. Many teachers are fearful to express any more opinions, effectively silencing their speech, he said.

One of the teachers, who made a post described in the lawsuit as one that “simply raised questions about the circumstances of Mr. Kirk’s death and did not promote violence in any way,” was shared by a lawmaker who used it as part of an election campaign and called for the teacher’s dismissal. The high school English teacher, who has taught for 27 years, was placed on administrative leave and later fired. She settled a wrongful termination claim with the school district, the lawsuit said.

Another teacher of 16 years and a military veteran who previously won “Teacher of the Year” in his school district and made posts criticizing Kirk for his views on Black Americans is under an ongoing investigation by the state agency, the lawsuit said.

“We denounced Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we denounced violence after Uvalde. We denounce violence,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “What happened in the next few days (after Kirk’s killing), wasn’t about violence or denouncing violence, it was about muzzling the expression of constitutionally protected nonviolent speech.”

Dozens lost jobs over posts about Kirk

In the wake of Kirk’s death in September, USA TODAY counted dozens of examples of people who lost their jobs, were suspended or investigated over posts or comments they made about the conservative podcaster, including educators, lawyers, doctors, first responders and others.

They include a dean at Middle Tennessee State, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, who was fired for a social media post saying she had “zero sympathy” for Kirk; a Marine who called Kirk a “racist man” who was “popped”; and Jimmy Kimmel, whose ABC show was temporarily suspended after he made comments about Kirk.

Some educators who lost their jobs filed lawsuits alleging their free speech rights were violated. A teacher in Iowa who compared Kirk to a Nazi; a South Carolina teacher’s assistant who posted a Kirk quote and said she disagreed with him but called the death a “tragedy”; and an employee of an Indiana university who said Kirk’s death was wrong and condemned some of his beliefs all filed suits on free speech, according to reporting from the USA TODAY Network. Each case kicked up a flurry of social media outrage and calls for the educators’ firings.

In Tennessee, a tenured theater professor at Austin Peay State University was reinstated after originally being fired for comments he made online after Kirk’s killing, the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently reported.

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