The long road begins

Horse #8 was one of the horses that the sheriff's department allowed PER to find homes for. We were very grateful that we could be a part of keeping them from running through the auction and possibly going to another bad home or even slaughter.

When this horse was rescued on that cold February day, she was already in danger of dying. The veterinarian carefully examined the herd of 20 and pointed out nine that needed to be removed immediately and placed in shelter or they possibly would not survive the brutal cold temperatures along with the wind and sleet that was only going to worsen through the night. Even after she arrived at the vet clinic, we didn't know if she would survive. Her pasture mate, in the stall next to her, was in worse condition, hanging in a sling, because she was too weak to stand on her own. Sadly, she eventually had to be humanely euthanized.

After a few days, the vet told the county livestock officer that the red Arabian could go home, but after being at the impound for a short time, she got down and could not get back up. Her caretakers managed to get her back to the clinic, where she remained a few more days. On the second attempt to go home, she went down in the horse trailer and was immediately taken back to the clinic.

After a longer stay, she finally was able to leave the clinic. But, while at the impound, one of the pressure wounds on her hip busted open, leaving her vulnerable to infection. The livestock officer applied medicine to it daily.

When she arrived at PER, she was still in very bad shape. Since her survival was still questionable, we decided to keep her at our facility, instead of placing her in another home, which would have placed a huge responsibility on someone. We weren't sure if they would be able to commit to all of the extra care she would require. It was a good idea to keep her, because, sure enough, the hip wound got infected.



We were fortunate at the time, since our vet, Dr. Hank Lee, was due out that day to do yearly vaccinations on the other horses. He was able to treat her right away. He lanced the wound to drain out the infection and inserted a drainage tube. He left us with antibiotics.

Since she is an Arabian, we named her Amirah (pronounced "Ameera"), which in Arabic, means "Princess". She has a long road to recovery, but we expect she will survive and blossom to become beautiful and healthy! We will keep you updated on her progress.