Last night at approximately 1:30 am May Day passed on to greener pastures. It is with a heavy heart I tell you the story of May, a horse that has touched my heart in ways that I will never understand.
May and a herd of 18 thoroughbreds were living on a farm in New Jersey being starved to death. It has been said the owner of the farm threw out one bale of hay a week for the 18 horses who were slowly dying. After years of starvation they were all emaciated and starting to eat dirt and fences to stay alive. The man finally surrendered the herd to a group of people who vowed to help them. I won't say their names because I am unsure if they still want to stay anonymous. By this time three of the horses had passed away from starvation so the herd was down to 15 horses. They had been out with a stallion so pregnancies were defiantly a possibility. Project Sage got an e-mail with some pictures of the horses and I decide to go take a look. Myself, our shipper Ray, and Kim who provides our quarantine and rehab decided we would help two of these horses.
When I got to the location they were being kept at I had to hold back my tears. Starving horses are not something that you see everyday. You could see more ribs, back bones, and hip bones then you would see at a horse auction. I walked through the pen and spotted her. She was one of the skinniest horse there but wandered over to me and put her head into my arms. I decided she would be one of the mares we would help. I scratched her ears and kissed her velvet nose. I told my friend who had gone with me I would name her May Day, a name that was suggested by one of my blog readers. It fit her perfectly and I vowed to do everything I could to help her. It was suggested she was 16 which I posted with my original pictures.
Along with May we picked out a 2 year old TB filly and a 12 year old TB mare. So much for taking just two. We loaded them up onto Ray's trailer and they headed to Kim's to fill their bellies and begin their rehab.
Yesterday morning around 8:30 am Kim called and told me May was down. We called the vet out and it was determined May was between 25-30 years old and had a severe heart murmur and large growths in her birthing canal. The vet determined she had probably given birth within the last year and was also most likely suffering from EPM, a neurological disease. The list of problems May had was a page long. Kim stayed with her all day, covering her with blankets and warm bottles to keep her warm. Everything that could have been done for May was. She did not have the strength to stand on her own but we kept fighting for her giving her every chance possible.
I went to bed last night and prayed for May. I prayed god would give her a chance for me to love her and to give her treats. My phone rang at 1:15 am and I was told May was giving up. She was now in pain and it was time to help her cross the rainbow bridge. May was humanely laid to rest at 1:30 am.
Rest in Peace May Day. You have touched many people and I'm glad you were able to go with your dignity. We will forever love you sweet girl.
May's vet bill for the day ended up to be close to $800.00. Any help with this is greatly appreciated. Checks can be sent in honor of May to:
Project Sage Horse Rescue Inc.
63 S. Waldinger St.
Valley Stream, NY, 11580
OR you can pay pal a donation to donnakye@hotmail.com (yes our paypal is still down but they are slowly working on fixing it)
No comments:
Post a Comment