Local group rescues horse shot twice in eastern Ky

VERSAILLES, Ky. (WTVQ) — A Nicholasville rescue group was contacted Tuesday night about a stray horse in eastern Kentucky shot, not once, but twice in its backside.

The pictures, too gory to show you, had the Kentucky Equine Adoption Center (KyEAC) acting fast and the horse was quickly transported to an equine hospital in Versailles.

The group named her Tammy. She comes from Perry County.

“Someone had evidently dropped this horse off in her yard somehow she came home and the horse was in her yard bleeding profusely from the two wounds in her butt,” says Karen Gustin, executive director for the KyEAC.

Gustin says she was contacted right away by a rescue group there, unable to get her the care she needed.

“Clearly she needed help and clearly there was nobody else to do that over there so we were happy to step in,” says Gustin.

She says unfortunately there just isn’t enough equine vet care in eastern Kentucky.

Initially, they didn’t know she had been shot.

“When I first saw the pictures it was hard to tell what it was. There was just blood streaming down the back of her buttocks and when she got here they cleaned her up and you can see there’s two very distinct puncture wounds from a gun, a shotgun,” says Gustin.

An x-ray showed it was a shotgun. You can see the little pellets of buckshot inside her still.

“Ya know this certainly could’ve gone a lot worse and the horse could’ve still been seriously injured depending on where those pellets ended up,” says Dr. Bryan Waldridge, a vet at Park Equine Hospital at Woodford.

But, Dr. Waldridge says she’s going to make a full recovery.

“She’s stable. She’s doing well, she’s pretty sore initially and we got her on some anti-inflammatory that will help with muscle soreness but she eats well. No fevers and otherwise a pretty happy horse,” says Dr. Waldridge.

But the vet costs are pricey and the non-profit rescue group needs your help to care for Tammy.
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“She has months of rehabilitation in front of her and it would be so great and generous if people could help us take care of her,” says Gustin.

Click here if you’d like to donate or you can visit the KyEAC website at this link.