Following their rescue in mid-June, the seven new arrivals from Bodmin Moor have been receiving round-the-clock care from our farm teams.

Nonetheless, for one young colt – newly named Arthur by his carers – his recovery has not been straight forward, and he took a sudden downturn on Thursday 30^th June.

Arthur is suffering from a severe worm burden and is incredibly weak meaning he was unable to stand for any length of time; indeed, he was so poorly that on the Friday he was given just a 10% chance of survival by our welfare veterinary surgeon Nicola Berryman.

However, Nicola wasn’t going to give up on him and so put him on steroids and arranged for him to have a blood transfusion – kindly (and bravely) donated by another Sanctuary resident, Odie.

At our horse hospital, Little Arthur received 24-hour care, needing to be manually lifted day and night as he was still so weak, and while receiving intravenous medication a member of our veterinary team stayed by his side to keep watch over him and for signs of any adverse reaction to treatment. 

His friend Dozmary also never left his side and we were all so delighted when he made it through the weekend.

We are doing all we can for Arthur, who is now off the drip, bright, alert and eating well, but by no means out of the woods.

Read Arthur's latest update here.