Reaching Working Donkeys and Horses in Rural South Africa

Due to your fantastic support, Blind Love in South Africa provided care and treatment for 38 donkeys and 105 horses at their recent outreach days in rural villages. 

DONKEY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

The first donkey outreach clinic was held on the 23rd of August. Once again, the day was bitterly cold with a howling icy wind blowing!

A young man called Austin assisted with the outreach day. He works for Blind Love helping with feeding, grooming and cleaning, and is also completing an Equine Welfare Course offered by the Cart Horse Protection Association. He checked all donkeys who attended for minor wounds, cleaning and treating these as necessary. Austin also checked the donkeys’ harnesses and distributed new ones as needed.

One donkey was seen who had unfortunately been burnt with boiling water. Her wounds were clean and were starting to heal nicely all thanks to a donkey owner called Michael. Blind Love have made Michael a local ‘donkey champion’. Every month, they leave Michael with a box of basic wound care items and he has been treating this donkey’s wounds daily. He also says more and more owners are bringing their injured donkeys to him to be treated, which is positive news.

Another little donkey called Malema was brought along to the outreach day after being stabbed on his back. The wound was cleaned and treated, and he was given antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Michael will also monitor this donkey’s progress and will let the Blind Love team know how it is healing.

The team treated one donkey who had skin mites that were causing her hair to fall out. The area was given a good wash with disinfectant and Michael was asked to put pink F10 ointment with insecticide on it daily.

One owner brought his donkey along who had been bitten on his scrotum during a fight with another donkey. The wound was clean and not infected, so the team sprayed it with wound spray and gave the donkey ivermectin. The owner was asked to keep an eye on the wound. Following treatment, the donkey took off at top speed, most indignant at having been treated!

Blind Love also saw quite a few male donkeys with bites under their necks due to fights with other males. These wounds were all properly cleaned and treated.

Along with this veterinary care, the team distributed 15 harnesses during the outreach day, and dropped off another three for the local SPCA to hand out.

You may remember the elderly rescued donkey, Wollie, we reported on last month. He and another elderly rescued donkey called Oubaas are both settling into their new life at the sanctuary beautifully. 

WORKING HORSES OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

August was another busy month for the Agripreneur Team in the Free State Province. Eight outreach clinics were held and 105 horses were checked and treated.

At the outreach day on the 10th of August in Thaba’nchu and Botshabelo, the team conducted farrier activites, including trimming and shoeing horses who needed them. Many owners have a basic knowledge of hoof care, and for many generations have trimmed and shod their own horses. Sadly, without the correct tools, shoes and nails, this has often led to injuries and has done more harm than good.

In the rural village of Kommiesdrift, the Blind Love team held an outreach day and also undertook much-needed farrier services. Manual tyre pumps were given to horse owners in Kommiesdrift as they have nowhere to pump their carts tyres. They really appreciated this!

Every horse attending an outreach day was checked for minor injuries and wounds, and these were cleaned and treated. Horses were also treated for internal and external parasites, including paste dewormers for spring. The team checked harnesses and other equipment too. Minor injuries like saddle sores from bareback riding after working hours were treated. The team are continuing to urge owners to rest their horses.

August is incredibly dry and brown and is a high risk time of year for veld fires, which are fuelled by howling winds. The fires ravage villages and often leave badly burnt horses in their wake who need to be euthanised. On the 22nd of August, Blind Love received a call from a horse owner in the village Moraga, saying the fires were raging but his horses were safe. Sadly, the next day he sent a photo of a mare who, in her panic to get away from the fires, had become tangled in barbed wire and died. She was also pregnant. The team are hoping there will not be any further victims during this fire season.

Blind Love have expressed their heartfelt gratitude to all AAA donors for your ongoing support of their essential programs for working donkeys and horses in South Africa.