Zuri

From where she lounges in her shelter, Zuri hears the rattle of the gate chain as it un-clips to let you in. She greets you with a nicker, perhaps wondering if you’ve brought her a mash, or a flake of hay, or a hand capable of a scratch on the neck. Zuri is like one of those motion-activated decorations — if you walk within a certain radius of her, it’s likely she will call out to you with a string of sweetly enticing nickers, an aria that makes it difficult to not adjust course to go and match her horse hello with a human one.

When she’s not siren-calling, Zuri is likely slurping down her senior mashes or daintily picking alfalfa flowers off their stems. This girl can be particular about her meals, but it’s hard not to appreciate a discerning palate. If she had a coffee order, it would likely change frequently: one day a bone dry cappuccino, one day a drip coffee, black. Those aforementioned nickers might be attempting to clue us in to her exact specifications, but without direct translation available, we do our best to adjust to her whims. It’s what any ole horse (especially any old horse) deserves.

Zuri is a gold-star member of our grooming program. Her sweet and trustworthy nature have made her an easy horse to train volunteers on, and so far we have heard no complaints on her end regarding the frequent currying. She has also taken her first steps into our walking program, designed to keep her active through the winter. Even in the face of new environments and uncertain situations, Zuri remains respectful of the human on the end of her line. Unflappable? Not entirely. But responsible and reasonable about her flaps? Very much so.

Zuri is the kind of horse who is easy to fall in love with, a mare whose inner beauty is easily seen in the deep pools of her eyes, and heard in the sweet ‘huh-huh-huh’ of her nickers.

Transformations are par for the course here at SAFE, but as they often happen so incrementally, it can be challenging to remember the ‘before.’ When Zuri was first seized by Animal Control back in March of this year, she was about as low on the body condition score chart as a horse can be. She had several health issues crop up following her intake, likely caused at least in part to deferred maintenance. But thanks to the dedication of her amazing foster home, and to the care she has continued to receive since arriving at SAFE, these days Zuri is nearly unrecognizable. She has turned into a happy, healthy, horse again, and a beautiful one at that. She is shiny and, dare we say, even a bit on the plump side. One aspect of Zuri that hasn’t changed is her personality. She has remained kind and gentle through it all, really proving how resilient horses are — even when they shouldn’t have to be. But one thing is for certain, Zuri will never want for food or water or care ever again.

A mid-90s baby, Zuri is one of the oldest members of our herd. Before her arrival, she was nursed back to health by one of Pierce County Animal Control’s amazing fosters, who brought her body condition up from the 1 out of 9 she was seized at. Considering the rough shape she began in, as well as her advanced age, Zuri came to SAFE looking if not quite like a million bucks, then not far off.

However, being a lady of a certain age does present its challenges. One afternoon, a volunteer groomer of Zuri’s went out to her paddock to give her one of the brushing sessions she had come to expect several times a week, only to find her down in her shelter. Because of her proximity to the wall, we initially believed her to be cast, but after carefully repositioning her and her reluctance to get up, we feared something else was the matter. Our vets were quickly on the scene, as her heart and respiration rates were both quite elevated. Shortly before they arrived, she did get up, but her initial steps were wobbly and uncoordinated, and her vitals remained very high. Our vets examined her and found her to be dehydrated. They gave her banamine and intubated her with fluids. Though she had good motility and gut sounds, we were advised to pull food for the night in the event that what we were seeing was a colic. We also set up one of our cameras to be able to monitor her throughout the evening.

Over the course of the next week or so, we watched Zuri carefully for signs of further episodes. We dutifully recorded her vitals multiple times each day to monitor her pain levels and kept track of her manure output each morning and afternoon to make sure everything in her GI was working as it was supposed to, and for the days immediately following the event, set alarms during the night to check on her. Thankfully, she seemed to be improving, and we were able to rest a little easier feeling that the episode was behind us.

However, a few weeks later, Zuri experienced a similar episode. A volunteer found Zuri down in her paddock, though it appeared she was resting peacefully. When they returned a little while later to feed her dinner, she was still down, and her respirations were elevated – though not nearly as significantly as they were the first time. She was hungry for her food, but did not seem motivated to get up and eat, preferring if it was placed somewhere she could reach from her place on the ground. When she did get up, she took those same baby deer steps as before, as though her legs had fallen asleep and she needed a moment to ‘walk it off.’ Her appetite was present, as were her gut sounds, which made us feel as though the cause of this behavior was not colic-related, but rather tied to a lack of physical mobility. In short, we deduced that she was getting ‘stuck’ on the ground.  When we consulted with our vets, they agreed, and suggested we start her on the anti-inflammatory Equioxx, which we did ASAP.

Since that initial loading dose, Zuri scarfs up her daily Equioxx-stuffed carrot with gusto. No further episodes of her struggling to rise or getting stuck on the ground have been reported, and she has brightened somewhat in her demeanor. These days she is enjoying her time out on grass, and the multiple grooming sessions she receives weekly by our volunteers, who love this sweet old lady as much as we do!