Outer Banks wild horse that refused to move for 24 hours was bitten by venomous snake

It’s always a bad sign when a wild horse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks stands in one spot for an entire day.

A caller reported such a situation Sunday to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, and an investigation revealed the horse was a 2-year-old filly named Valor.

She appeared to be favoring one of her front legs, suggesting it might be broken, the group said in a Facebook post Wednesday.

“We were devastated at the prospect of the herd losing such a young, vibrant mare,” herd manager Meg Puckett wrote in the post.

“She was immediately seen by the vet and we determined that she had been bitten by a snake. It was probably a dry bite (no venom), but the puncture wounds had gotten infected,” she wrote.

Puckett did not say what type of snake bit the young horse, but venomous copperheads and rattlesnakes roam the Outer Banks and have even been filmed swimming in the ocean off its beaches. The bite occurred somewhere on the northern-most part of the Outer Banks, near the Virginia border, she said.

Reports of venomous snake interactions with tourists are rare, but the islands’ feral horses are more at risk, as they tromp over dunes and into maritime forest in search of fresh water.

Bites can be deadly, but Valor got treatment in time, Puckett says.

“X-rays showed that there were no breaks or anything else going on in the leg, which was promising. However, it would be fatal should the infection spread to the tendon sheath or joint. The wound was cleaned and treated, and she received IV fluids,” Puckett said on Facebook.

“By Monday morning, Valor was putting weight on the leg, eating and drinking normally, and mad that she was locked in a stall. All good signs! ... Valor is not out of the woods but we are becoming more and more optimistic that she is going to make it.”

There is bad news, however.

Valor cannot be returned to the wild with the rest of the herd that roams the northern leg of the Outer Banks. She will instead live out the remainder of her life on a farm run by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund for injured and elderly horses. It’s also home to wild horses that regularly strayed onto roads, where they can be hit by cars.

“After only a few days of treatment she is acclimated for humans and being fed,” Puckett said of Valor. “This is not a decision we take lightly and we only remove horses that are critically ill or injured and would not survive in the wild. Removal is a last resort decision.”

A campaign to raise money for Valor’s medical bills has raised more than $7,000 as of Thursday morning.

This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 7:24 AM with the headline "Outer Banks wild horse that refused to move for 24 hours was bitten by venomous snake."