| Donate to the Nicholas fund on-line through Paypal: All donations are tax deductible |
Sadly, the fate of our equine friends is many times uncertain. Horses get traded, sold, and abandoned so often, they seem like baseball trading cards. When I was a kid, my mother, while I was away at college, surely not meaning any harm, gave my whole collection of valuable cards away not realizing their value. Unfortunately, this is the common fate of many of our four legged friends, sometimes for cost-of-feeding reasons, sometimes for relocation reasons, and sometimes, and all too often, as the result of uncaring jerks shirking their responsibility. The latter is how Vacquero, renamed Nicholas,”the Saint” of love and compassion thanks to the thoughtful Stella, came to us. Once again, we’re able to rescue a great horse as a result of thoughtless humans. Through the tireless and selfless work of Gwen, our devoted Phoenix volunteer, he is safely with EV and is getting the care he should have had YEARS ago. Here’s what happened…
Between 4 and 5 years ago, Nick was the sole survivor of a horrific fire, so horrific that he was the only horse to make it out of the barn alive, but not without severe injury. His entire back was scorched, leaving all the skin to resemble white barnacles on the underside of a boat. His back looks like what you have left the morning after you have a roaring fire in the fireplace, white ash-colored bubbles. For just one moment, imagine the PAIN!
If flames don’t kill a horse in a fire, the pneumonia afterwards usually does. But, Nick was meant to survive, and he did, well, sort of…it seems that his subsequent owners, which apparently included a “rescue”, did little to help him recover, and knowing his beautiful personality, this volunteer finds it hard to believe. He ultimately ended up among 11 other horses owned by a couple that soon divorced leaving the horses in a lurch. Little if anything was ever done to relieve the pain or attend to the problem. His back has been like this ever since, full of bleeding scabs after rolling, and nothing to ease the pain. Apparently many times the owner ran out of money half way through the month leaving the horses with no food!
Nick is one of the sweetest horses we have, and as most of you know, we have many great ones. Horses seem to have the unique ability to forgive and forget and hold the next owner harmless. Nick was ignored as far as the rehabilitation process, nothing was done apparently to remedy his badly scorched back, imagine the pain! For four years he has endured what most of us would rather succumb to, but he didn’t, and we are now lucky to have him. This six-year old sorrel gelding has a lot of life to live, and we want to help him live it. Karen found him a new expensive, almost untried, medicine discovered by Mo, another hardy volunteer. This spray is helping Nick’s hair grow back where none existed!
To help offset the cost, you can make a donation below, or agree to sponsor Nick for $50 a month.
** A special THANK YOU to Petkingbrands for their donation of Zymox, the spray that is helping fight the infection on Nick’s back. For more information about Zymox, log on to www.petkingbrands.com.
Donate to the Nicholas fund on-line through Paypal:
All donations are tax deductible
