Timber

Sad news from Shiloh today...


Early this morning, Felipe found Timber (one of the Sanctuary horses in Big Vacation Village) down. (Timber was up and eating with his friends last night and all was fine.) After getting him up, it was discovered that one whole side of his body was covered with huge scratches and swellings and his one fetlock joint was completely cut up. We medicated him for pain and sedated him so we could take a closer look at his wounds. As we were cleaning him up, he urinated dark sticky blood.


We immediately loaded him into the trailer and headed to the clinic.


Dr. Dorenkamp examined his fetlock joint first since we were afraid the joint capsule was compromised. Sadly, it was. We could even see his bone through the wound. We had to make the sad decision to euthanise Timber, he was already crippled (he arrived at the rescue with a old broken pelvis). He would not be able to stand the treatment for the joint and would have ended up with two crippled legs.


He was put to sleep on the grass and went down with a large mouthful of green grass and kind words and hands.

We all wanted to know why he was down in the first place, Timber could always get up if he laid down and the spot he was found in the pasture is not his normal area that he hangs out in. Dr. Dorenkamp performed a necropsy. We wondered if he had a kidney stone which caused him to go down and to urinate blood. He couldn't find one but he did find his bladder full of blood. We concluded that he must have had a seizure for some reason late in the night, which caused him to thrash and scrape up his one side so badly.

Timber was with us at Shiloh for about two and a half years and enjoyed a good horse life with us. (He had been found dumped in the desert.)He always lived in the pasture and was best friends with another crippled Sanctuary horse, Juniper.


Rest in peace, Timber...

As sad as it is to say good bye to Timber, life goes on at Shiloh... Thanks to Sharil for taking the following photos today.

Fred Mertz.

Inca by the Feed Room.

Wanderer Cortez by Big Vacation Village.

The Bunaglows was busy today. All of the horses decided to go into the same pen. We leave all of the pens open to the attached turn out and the horses wander around together.

Sausage Patti found some cool mud by Mesquite Manor.