Lily, one of the foals from the Carnation seizure, was rescued along with her dam, Willow in late February 2008, and seemed to be thriving. But in mid May 2008, we noticed that Lily wasn’t acting her normal fiesty self, and discovered she was running a temperature of 104.5 degrees. Attempts to lower her temperature were unsuccessful and so Lily was admitted to Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish WA. There it was discovered that not only did she have an infection, she also had an alarmingly low platelet count. Lily was suffering from an auto-immune disorder that was preventing her bone marrow from producing blood cells. She was placed in isolation and treated with steroids in an attempt to kickstart her immune system, but her body was just too ravaged from the effects of starvation and parasite infestation. After 8 days with no improvement, it was decided to let Lily go. On May 24, 2008, she enjoyed a walk in the sunshine and a belly full of grass and clover before she was put to sleep. Lily was loved deeply by many people and she will be badly missed. It is heartbreaking to lose a horse this young with so much promise. Our only consolation is the fact that her abuser was sentenced to nine months in prison, and for that we thank King County Animal Control for their hard work on this horrible case.
