It's Been a Busy Week
(11 - 16 July 2004)

We take, on average, three or four calls each day from either individuals or organisations concerned about the plight of a horse or pony. To give a better idea of what that really means in practice, we include here a snapshot of some of the calls that needed our help in a week.

Another call to another badly emaciated moorland mare with foal at foot. Our first task has been to worm and de-louse her before turning our attention to a programme of careful re-feeding. Little and often for the first few days until we could be sure that she could tolerate more. Then, slowly offering larger meals at longer intervals, gradually introducing short feed and pro- biotics (to help her to digest her food).
One of the reasons that this mare is starving is that she was very heavily infested with worms. It is a problem we see a great deal of - and one that is entirely preventable with a proper management programme that includes regular worming. There is more infomation and advice about dealing with worms in our 'About Equines' section.
The picture above shows that the worms and lice had robbed her of any store of fat she had a long time ago. After that was gone she started to convert her own muscle and tissues into nutrients to support her foal, herself and, of course, the thriving population of parasites she carried (and unwittingly passed on to her foal). Fortunately the worming medication worked well, she passed this 10" long worm and hundreds more like it shortly after it was administered. SWEP will keep both of them until they have recovered and regained their weight. After that we must return them to the moor as they don't belong to us.

This time the call was from someone concerned about the welfare of a mare in a riding stables. She was in a stable when SWEP arrived, although it was evident that she had been kept in an adjacent field because she had numerous cuts and scratches that we assumed had been caused by barbed wire. A later inspection of the field confirmed that there  was badly maintained wire and barbed wire fencing, much of which was broken and some areas had been completely knocked down.
Of more immediate concern were the wounds to her abdomen and thigh. We were told that she had recently had surgery to remove sarcoids. She had lost one udder and a large amount of flesh from her inner thigh . The wounds were being bathed and aloe vera cream applied as instructed by their Vet. It is SWEP's  policy to call for independent veterinary advice on such occasions. In this case the second Vet said that the prescribed treatment was adequate. After a complete inspection of the premises it was felt that although the condition of the horses was satisfactory, the stable management standards were generally poor. We found horses standing on fouled bedding 2' deep in places, and although not as bad, the mare's bedding was also dirty.