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Redwings received a desperate plea from one of our partner rescues in December of 2024. There was a little old Arabian gelding at an auction yard that had a ship date of the next day. He was very thin, a body score of 2, and had horribly overgrown hooves that made it hard for him to walk and he constantly tripped. He was being bullied badly by the other horses in the auction yard and had sores all over his body from kicks and bites. In addition he had a puncture wound on his right shoulder and an old untreated injury on his right hind leg that was very swollen.

When he arrived at Redwings we entered the trailer to unload him and were immediately overwhelmed by the strong odor of decaying tissue. It smelled like there was something dead in the trailer. We quickly unloaded him, hoping the smell was from with in the trailer but realized that the smell was coming from the horse. We examined him and discovered that the puncture wound on his shoulder had been there for quite some time and the tissue was all necrotic. The infection was very severe, and we knew we needed to act quickly and arranged for our vet to come out.

The vet sedated him and began the lengthy procedure of cutting away all the dead skin and tissue. Once he was finished the poor horse was left with a huge open wound that needed daily treatment and a round of very strong antibiotics. The vet also placed a drain in the wound to help us keep the wound flushed while it healed. Next the vet examined the wound on the hind leg. He determined that that wound would also require surgery to remove tissue, but that we should wait for the antibiotics to kick in and for him to get stronger. His hooves would have to wait a few more weeks before we could trim them due to the discomfort from the two wounds.

He was such a model citizen throughout the lengthy treatments and daily antibiotic injections that we felt he deserved a strong name that reflected his inner strength and beauty, so we chose the name Malik which means lord or king. Malik's recovery is ongoing, it will take many months for him to make a full recovery. Malik will be a permanent resident at Redwings.