Tommy the orphan foal
This is the story of Tommy, an orphaned foal who has had a dramatic start to life at our refuge in Marrakech.
Day 1 Sunday 11th October
In the late evening a female donkey had been brought in on a cart, in the last stages of tetanus induced paralysis.
But sadly, this case had a slight complication. She was also in the last stages of pregnancy.
So, there was an immediate emergency caesarean-section, before we had to put the mare to sleep. Dr. Boubker, was able to carry the little bundle of uncertain life into the ‘intensive care’ ward – that had been set up about thirty seconds earlier.
A little grey colt foal, all legs and tummy, but at least breathing, was laid on insulated matting, wrapped up in towels, and rubbed and caressed to encourage his fragile hold on life.
But what could we do? Does tetanus cross the placenta? Apparently not, but the toxins from the infection might.
We managed to telephone our long suffering and patient Chairman and veterinary mentor and advisor Professor Derek Knottenbelt at the Liverpool Veterinary School, for some very welcome advice.
The mother’s colostrum would be toxic, but we could take a blood transfusion from another young donkey to extract the plasma which would help his seriously challenged immune system. And tetanus anti-serum would be good, just in case.
We thought we’d call him Tommy.
Tommy just 30 mins old.Day 2 Tuesday
He’s quite premature and no sucking reflex. So, to feed him we've had to do it by naso-gastric tube, every two hours.
Now, you can imagine, feeding the tube across his trachea as often as that, it would be very, very easy to get a drop of fluid down into his lungs - a potential disaster. Pneumonia is the last thing he needs, and last night he had quite a temperature. He's on antibiotics, and this morning his temperature was back to normal again.
Day 5 Friday
The temperature/pneumonia worry is always there, but touch wood, he's fine at the moment. Still being fed by nasal-gastric tube, every two hours, day and night, but he's getting stronger every day. They hope that soon he will develop a proper sucking reflex, but of course nobody knows just how premature he might be. Sucking is much better for the digestion than a stomach tube.
But he is getting stronger every day. I asked if he was standing properly yet, and Dr. Boubker replied, "Standing? He's running about! We're having a problem keeping him in his hospital quarters".
Tommy is doing well thanks to the vets and volunteers at our Marrakech refuge Day 9 Monday
He's much better - even sucking milk all on his own now (that's a terrific step forward). Though apparently, with all this energy, he's making a real nuisance of himself, bouncing around and getting into mischief all over the place - knocking over the vet's trays while they're trying to work on other animals. But of course everyone has fallen for him - especially the two volunteers. But with ears like that, who wouldn't?
With every day that passes he's stronger. He’s had quite the start to life and we are so pleased that this story has a happy ending.
You can help us to keep our work going strong and being there to help animals in need like Tommy with a donation today.
November 27th update:
Tommy is doing really well - now he's nibbling at grass and hay, as well as still getting milk - gives him almost too much energy. He wants to play all the time - and really enjoys it when the daily school visits bring lots of children for him to play with.
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