Outreach Clinics in South Africa Improve Lives of Working Donkeys and Horses
In South Africa, your kind donations are having an amazing impact for working donkeys and horses. Our partner group, Blindlove, have detailed the ways in which these animals’ lives have been improved throughout January. Please read on below…
Our outreach programs for working donkeys in Grahamstown and working horses in Thaba’Nchu and the surrounding villages is to provide each animal with:
Internal and external parasite control,
Treatment for all minor injuries and wounds,
Check or replace all ill-fitting, old worn harnesses,
Provide owner support and education on how they can take small steps to improve the welfare of their hard-working animals.
At these outreaches, all owners, horses and donkeys who attend have their details recorded, along with treatments given. All animals are then checked for parasites (worms, ticks and flies) and treated accordingly.
Any minor injuries are also cleaned and treated. Owners are given advice on how to take care of the wounds and rest their animal if needed. Most injuries we see are caused by ill-fitting harnesses rubbing on shoulder and chest areas. We do see many saddle sores on the cart horses. This is from being ridden hard and long bareback when not working in the carts. We also see sores on the corners of mouths in both the donkeys and horses from old, ill-fitting bits.
At each outreach, we check and adjust harnesses and replace them, where needed, with our more humane ones. We also advise owners on how to add more padding when this is required, and how to take care of and clean harnesses when they are not in use.
When humane snaffle bits are donated to us by the public, we replace the old, poorly-fitting harsh bits.
When we can, we also provide much-needed feed to these working animals. In Grahamstown, we are grateful to have the Grahamstown Riding Club collecting hay for us, which we can collect and deliver to the donkeys. In Thaba’nchu, we have to rely on donations that allow us to then buy feed for the horses.
During January, we treated 57 donkeys at our outreach clinic. A total of 147 horses attended our outreach days in Thaba’nchu and surrounding areas.
WORKING DONKEY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
Our donkey outreach day was held on Saturday, January 18th. We had 57 donkeys attend on the day.
Apart from usual outreach activities we also treated a bad case of mange.
We also had three very young foals attend who had been attacked by dogs. Two of them had minor superficial wounds on their back legs but the third little donkey had been bitten on his face and had a chunk bitten out of his side. Thankfully, he was still able to drink from his mum.
Dr Meg cleaned up the little foal who had been bitten on his face and side. She treated him with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication and left instructions with our newly-appointed “donkey champion”: an owner called Michael. He was told to carefully clean the wound each day and spray it to prevent flies from laying eggs. He did an excellent job!
We also saw another donkey who had been stabbed on his lower eyelid and it was hanging off. With Dr Annie out of action until next month, we had to call the vets from Ikhala Veterinary Clinic to attend to these donkeys. She gave the donkey with the torn and stabbed lower eyelid a local anaesthetic in order to treat the wound. She decided the best option would be to cut the flap off as it would cause more trouble trying to attach it again. Thankfully, the donkey’s eye was not injured at all, just the lower lid.
A follow-up visit was completed the next Friday and all the patients were doing very well! The vet also had to treat another little foal who had again been bitten by a dog.
We were also able to hand out another 20 donated humane snaffle bits at the outreach.
WORKING HORSES OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
It was a very busy month for the Agripreneur Team who conduct our outreaches in Thaba’Nchu and the surrounding rural areas for us.
Outreaches were held on:
4th Jan- at the horse rank in Thaba’nchu - 17 horses attended.
6th Jan - at the horse rank in Thaba’nchu -14 horses attended.
10th Jan - village of Merino - 25 horses attended.
11th Jan- at the horse rank in Thaba’nchu - 11 horses attended.
17th Jan - at the horse rank in Thaba’nchu - 18 horses attended.
25th Jan - at the horse rank in Thaba’nchu - 16 horses attended.
25th Jan - Botshabelo - 46 horses attended.
Apart from the usual outreach activities, we were able to deliver 25 lucerne bales to the cart horses at the outreach on January 11th.
On January 15th, the team were called out to treat a young colt who had been bitten by a stallion. The team cleaned out and treated the bite wound and it is healing nicely.
At the outreach in Merino there was also a horse with a hoof abscess, which was cleaned out and treated. The horse is recovering well.
Farrier activities took place at the outreach clinic in Botshabelo and all horses who needed proper hoof trims were assisted. Being a Sunday (ie. not a working day!), it allowed owners to bring their horses from far afield without carts.
This map shows the areas covered by our outreach work in Thaba’nchu and the surrounding villages.
We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Animal Aid Abroad for your ongoing support of all these outreaches, which allow us to improve the health and welfare of these hard-working animals.