Rescue stories
Dora's Long Road to Recovery
An emaciated mare brought a host of tiny companions with her when she was rescued by Redwings Field Officer in Essex in June 2008. After months of extra veterinary treatment and support, she is a stunning horse who catches the attention of everyone who meets her.
Redwings Field Officer for the south east of England, Jo Franklin, was contacted by the RSPCA to ask for help with a very underweight mare. Jo immediately set off in a horsebox from her base at our Ada Cole Rescue Centre near Harlow to assist at a property in Brightlingsea.
Dora's ribs, spine and pelvis were all very prominent when she was rescued.
A veterinary surgeon called by the RSPCA to examine the mare had stated that he believed her condition to be so poor that she needed removal from her present location to receive the care she clearly needed. The mare, named Dora by Redwings' staff, was loaded onto Jo's box and transferred to our Ada Cole Rescue Centre for further examination and some much needed TLC.
Dora's condition was scored at 1 on the 0 - 5 scale used by vets and welfare professionals (0 being total emaciation, 3 being ideal, 5 being obese). This meant that she was very thin and her poor weight was seriously affecting her mobility, internal body functions and ability to keep herself warm. In some cases, weight loss can be remedied relatively quickly with a carefully thought out diet of good quality, high fibre feed. However, tests showed that part of Dora's problem was a huge burden of parasitic worms that were flourishing in her digestive system.
Many of the new arrivals at Redwings are suffering from some level of worm burden, which can usually be resolved within a few weeks with a targeted program of de-worming drugs. However, the population of worms in Dora's system was one of the biggest our veterinary team have ever seen. The level of a worm burden can be gauged by counting the number of worm eggs in a horse's droppings and the laboratory that tested a sample of Dora's dung found several thousand eggs in just one gram of faeces.
Dora is a strikingly beautiful horse - with noticeably large ears! She was judged to be around 20 years old at the time of her rescue.
A course of de-worming drugs was prescribed immediately. The type of drug and dose was carefully worked out in order to be most effective in Dora's case. Our team knew that such a large worm burden would not be solved immediately as the life cycle of the worms would mean that more courses would be needed to coincide with the maturing of eggs and larvae that would not yet be affected by the wormer. The vets overseeing Dora's case did not realise, however, just how long it would take to finally get Dora's worms under control, but months later, the last of the worms seem to have finally been eradicated. Sadly, Dora has also been left with permanent damage to her digestive system as a result of the activities of so many worms living inside her. But in Redwings' capable hands, she will be nurtured and monitored carefully, as well as receiving the regular de-worming drugs that could so easily have prevented her suffering.
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