Friends of Yolo County Animal Services

In November of 2007 , Yolo County Animal Services was called to investigate because satellite TV installers thought they saw a starved horse 3 miles up the canyon behind a double locked gate access area. The Yolo County Animal Services team investigated and followed a horse trail 5 miles up the dirt road. Officers saw the outline of an extremely starved horse by a wooden shack. There was no visible food or water. They could see that he was licking the moss and lichen off the rocks to survive. His feces contained dirt and dried leaves. This was clearly a case of neglect and cruelty, so an investigation was started. After an 8 week investigation, no owner or information was uncovered.

The horse was named “Teddy” because he had so much hair, like the Buckskin horses and was taken to the Large Animal Clinic at the University of California Davis. The clinicians were amazed to see a horse in such bad condition. He weighed 737 pounds and should have weighed 1400 lbs; he was between 20 to 27 years old. What was ironic was that Teddy had new shoes; he apparently had been shod about 4-6 weeks earlier. The clinic kept Teddy for 3 days and had him slowly put back on food and water. The clinicians said Teddy could be picked up and taken back to the Yolo County Animal Services where he would need to be continued on a slow reintroduction to food and water for another week. By the end of a week, Teddy had gained 100 lbs. and was showing his sweet, easy-going personality. Teddy loved to be petted and brushed. Within a month , Teddy had gained 290 lbs and the Animal Services team could start looking for a foster home with a potential adoption for him to live out the remainder of his life.

At the end of January, 2008, Teddy was taken to his new foster home on a horse farm in Yolo County where he had a big stall and was given plenty of attention. Teddy was very much loved at Animal Services and his new foster family said the volunteers and officers could come out a visit him whenever they wanted to. Some of them visited every 3 weeks and would go out and groom him and walk with him on the country roads.

In March, Teddy became suddenly ill and was in obvious pain. The veterinarians came out to look at him and started him on pain medicine and ran blood tests. On March 18th, 2008 the results came back showing that due to his previous lengthy starvation, his body was experiencing post starvation episodes and his organs were shutting down. The veterinarians recommended that Teddy be put to sleep. On March 20th , Teddy was taken to the Large Animal Clinic at UC Davis and was humanely euthanized.