11 January 2018
A veterinarian says a horse that was found dead in a creek in Browns Summit last month was not shot to death as first thought.
Instead, the horse’s wounds likely happened after it died.
Kabir, a 23-year-old gray Arabian, went missing from John Wilson’s property in September.
Wilson searched with friends and neighbors for four days before he found Kabir about a half-mile away on a rural part of a neighbor’s property.
Photos of the horse’s body and wound appeared to show the horse was shot on its side.
“It was like a horror movie really,” Wilson said in an interview with FOX8 last month. “Because before I found him, I had looked in that same general area most of the time, but where he was at, it was all grown up [with brush] around the creek area. The only way I really found him was the buzzards.”
Guilford County sheriff’s deputies and animal control officers went with Wilson to the spot where Kabir died to file a report.
A few days later, Wilson was able to remove Kabir’s body. By that time, Kabir had likely been dead for about a week.
The veterinarian explained gas production from microorganisms in the equine gastrointestinal tract can cause a rapid “postmortem change.” The vet said many horses become bloated when they die, which can cause tissue to tear, especially where tissue is thin, like in the abdomen.
The vet said that gash was what Wilson mistook for a gunshot wound.
The vet said actual cause of death could not be determined. Wilson says he believed Kabir was healthy when he wandered off.
Wilson said he was able to give Kabir a proper burial earlier this month. He said the news it bittersweet — while he’s glad no one killed his horse, he’s still devastated that Kabir is gone.
Source: http://myfox8.com/2017/10/27/horse-found-dead-in-browns-summit-not-shot-as-first-thought/Founder | debi@netposse.com