Help Us Save Our Horse - Prayers For Ellie

Kathleen Taylor is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Kathleen Taylor and along with my husband David we are reaching out for your help so that we can continue to afford the much needed medical treatments for our 4 year old mare, our precious, Ellie whom has fallen victim to Botulism.

Our story started about 15 days ago when her 6 year olds brother, Dreamer, was found dead in the pasture, finding no reason as to what may have happened to him. Trying to just accept the loss, with the understanding that sometimes these kind of thing happen to livestock, we accepted it with a heavy heart. With the comfort of knowing that we still have his 33 year old grandmother, Orthie, his 25 year old mother, Tenny and his beautiful 4 year old sister, Ellie still with us, we counted our blessings.
Then, about 8 days later we get another call that Tenny was down in the pasture and couldn’t get up. Our hearts sank once again, but this time we were able to get the assistance of a veterinarian to assess the situation. She was showing all the signs of a horse struck with botulism. What?, Why?, How? became all the questions. Unfortunately she was in depths of distress. Due to the fact she was 25 years oldand suffering in front of our eyes we were forced to make that very difficult decision to end her suffering and put her to rest. Tenny was a wonderful mare & mother to her babies and we couldn’t allow her to suffer any longer. We were so heartbroken but knew it was the right thing to do. Ellie standing over her mother before we made the decision to end her suffering.

Botulism? Was that what took Dreamer & now Tenny...??? Blood was then drawn to try and figure this all out!

IMMEDIATELY Ellie was moved out of that pasture along with all the other horses in that field and all were “NOW ON A WATCH!”

Nothing like this had ever happened there before and all concerned we’re broken by the sudden turn of events. The next day Ellie probably didn’t understand where her Brother & Mother now disappeared to but she seemed to quickly make new pasture mates and seemed happy & healthy grazing in her new surroundings.

Ellie, on the right, happily grazing with her new friend!

In the afternoon, of her second day, of her “new normal” we received the call that Ellie had also fell victim to the effects of Botulism... lightening had indeed struck again... we were ALL broken-hearted watching Ellie suffer. But this time was different. Her vitals were still strong, she was young and we just had to try and save her...

Through the heroics of a wonderful Vet and the undaunted efforts of everybody there at the farm they were able to get her on the truck and transported to The University of Tennessee Vet Hospital where they have been doing all they can to Save our beautiful Ellie!

Ellie has been there for 8 days now and she is showing all positive sign of healing, which is a true blessing but very far from out of the woods! She is getting stronger every day but still cannot get up and stand on her own... she needs constant help of vet techs and a hydraulic sling to get her up on her feet...she tries everyday and shows small steps of improvements...but this will take time.
Ellie using the assistance of her sling to get her up on her feet

We believe all the thoughts and prayers of our friends & family have been her & our support system through this tragic loss of our horses and the cheerleaders to Ellie’s recovery! Keep those prayers coming.

But unfortunately, along with all prayers, care, hard work and efforts of all involved comes mounting $$$ bills for her care.

Those who know us know that we will do everything we can for our horses. So that is why we’re reaching out... we need help to save Ellie. Please give what you can! Being I have no way of knowing how much longer she will need to be hospitalized I have set a conservative goal of $25,000 to help cover her medical costs. If the bills don’t amount to that, any extra will be donated to the University of Tennessee Vet Hospital program .

Please keep Ellie in your prayers so that she may be victorious in her struggle to heal and be happy & healthy again!
Our beautiful Ellie before she got sick!!