Melody
Rescued: August 17, 2014
Passed away: June 26, 2016
During a busy summer open day we received a call from Almoradií police – they’d been contacted by a Spanish woman who had found an abandoned horse tied to an orange tree.
We responded immediately and were absolutely horrified at what we found.
This 15-year-old malnourished mare had melanomas – a common occurrence in grey horses in Spain – that had become infected through neglect, triggering an allergic reaction within her body and causing intense irritation on any bite, cut or wound.
This made Melody rub and scratch herself everywhere. The intensity was so great around her tail area that she had actually broken off her tail bone, probably about a month before her rescue.
Back at our centre, we immediately put Melody on caliercortin, a steroid that calms the irritation, along with antibiotics. Then began the long process of bringing her back to health.
Within just a few weeks, Melody was already looking much better. Free of the allergic irritation, she became much more comfortable. With daily cleaning and treatment to her tail wound and melanomas, the swelling dramatically reduced and the infection came under control. A severe and infected cut on her front leg also responded well to treatment.
We were so happy to see her settling in really well, like so many of our other residents who have endured and survived horrific ordeals.
By October, Melody was improving so much that new flesh had begun to grow around her wound. She put on so much weight that we had to adjust her fly rug three times to make room for the expansion! She also became quite lively, calling out to all the other horses.
It is truly amazing how, given the chance, these incredible animals respond to love, care and, of course, to the skills and knowledge of our fantastic equine veterinarian Dorothea Dudli von Dewitz.
Very sadly, though, Melody developed a severe internal infection in 2016 and deteriorated so rapidly that we had to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep. We were so very sad to have lost this brave mare. Gone but never forgotten.
