Gemma's story:

On January 23rd, we were contacted about an emaciated mare who had been quite literally abandoned on a feed lot overnight. She was a walking skeleton - one of the worst cases of emaciation we've seen in over 11 years of rescue (at 15 hh, she weighed a mere 615 lbs...absolutely skeletal). So much so the feed lot didn't even want her; they were going to shoot her unless we took her. Despite her dismal physical condition, she had a light in her eyes that we couldn't ignore. We knew we had to give her a shot at healing, even though the odds of recovery were slim at best. We named her Gemma, as her sweet and charming personality and love of human affection, makes her an undeniable diamond in the rough.

If you've been following Gemma’s story on our Facebook and Instagram, you already know that once we rescued her, she went straight to West Coast Equine Hospital for life-saving, emergency treatment. Unfortunately, we soon learned that emaciation was just the tip of the iceberg for Gemma. Her hind legs were so weak that they couldn’t support her weight for more than a short period of time.

After a barrage of diagnostics and tests, the vets determined that Gemma has Equine Motor Neuron Disease (“EMND”). In order to give her a fighting chance, we moved her into WCE’s sling-equipped hospital stall.

It had been very touch & go for a few weeks — we were so focused on her care, learning more about her condition, and figuring out how to give her the best shot at recovery (even attempted to have her put in an FDA trial for stem cells). EMND can have a very poor prognosis, but high dose Vitamin E therapy is a proven way to combat the devastating effects of ENMD. We immediately started Gemma on 6000 IU of vitamin E, but we needed to give it time to work. The vitamin E therapy was working at first, slowly but surely, but she plateaued and began to regress rapidlyover the span of a week. Gemma went from having to spend 24 hours-a-day in the sling to being able to stand for a full 12 hours, on her own! But when she suddenly plateaud and went back to not being able to stand more than a few minutes without full-body support, we were gravely concerned about her future, and even whether or not she would make it. (Sometimes, putting horses through medical treatment can be its own form of cruelty) We consulted with Dr. Kemper and she assured us that EMND doesn’t cause physical pain, and given that Gemma has always been happy and eager to live, we decided to give her one final chance at recovery.

A week and a half ago, Dr. Kemper increased her daily vitamin E intake to 8000 IU. Miraculously, Gemma has started showing the best signs of improvement yet - she is able to spend some entire nights out of the sling! Although the outlook remains guarded (there’s still the 40% rate of success), and we can only pray for continued progress at this stage, our girl is nothing short of a miracle!

We don’t undertake this type of intensive medical intervention lightly. In many instances, the toll the treatment takes on the animal far outweighs the benefits and can even cause further suffering in our experience. However, in Gemma’s case, she has always shown a tremendous and undeniable will to live (and so much love to give!).

Our girl has such a fighting spirit. We are constantly in awe of her courage. This journey has been such a rollercoaster of emotions for us - we are all rooting for her to pull through.

It’s a long road to recovery, and without the help of WCE this would not have been possible. This is a very costly and intensive endeavor involving round-the-clock care and monitoring, and the use of a very valued hospital sling. At most veterinary hospitals, we would be paying 3-4x the rate. With WCE, our rescue team, followers and donors, we hope we can make this happen on the grassroots level.

However, giving Gemma this chance at life does not come cheaply. As of the end of February, Gemma’s bill was $4,000 and growing. Since she is responding strongly again to vitamin E treatment, we feel that we owe it to her to give her a few more weeks of treatment which costs approximately $750 a week. In total, we need to raise a minimum of $7,000 to cover Gemma’s expenses through the end of March. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation towards Gemma’s care. This special girl is worth it!

Donations can be made to our GoFundMe or direct to West Coast Equine Hospital [phone redacted] (during regular business hours).

Please follow our updates for further info and photos/videos of Gemma's inspiring fight for survival.

Auction Horses Rescue is an all-volunteer, 501c3 non-profit rescue in good-standing with the IRS, meaning donations to AHR are tax-deductible and every cent goes directly to the horses (and donkeys!). Since our start in early 2012, we take ethical rescue seriously.