This weekend is World Veterinary Day (24^th April) and we couldn’t let it pass without celebrating the incredible work of our amazing vets and vet nurses.

With over 1,500 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules living at the Sanctuary, their work load is always busy and extremely varied, dealing with everything from dental check-ups through to life-saving surgery. Last year, in particular, has been testament to their dedication to all of our rescued residents as they have been on the frontline of animal welfare during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of their most recent patients is Golden Girl who was brought into the Horse Hospital, based at our headquarters in Norfolk, in October 2020. She had a painful abscess on her left mandible (jaw bone).

After checking that this was not caused by Streptococcus equi (the bacterial agent responsible for strangles), the vet team investigated the origin of the abscess and X-rays of her skull showed that she was suffering from a cheek tooth infection.

Main image - Xray of Golden Girl left jawbone..jpg

Golden Girl was given pain relief and antibiotics to help control the infection but unfortunately after a month of being monitored, the abscess had still not resolved itself so our Senior Veterinary Surgeon Nicky opted to extract the infected tooth through standing surgery.

Sadly, this still was not enough to resolve the abscess and Golden Girl had developed a sequestrum, which is a piece of devitalised bone that stopped the wound from being able to fully heal.

Thankfully as Golden Girl is only four years old, she was able to be treated further through surgery under general anaesthesia. Nicky then successfully extracted the sequestrum and we have all our hooves crossed that she will now make a full recovery!

If you’d like to help our Horse Hospital help more horses like Golden Girl, please consider donating by clicking here.

Thank you #RedwingsAngels