|
|
|
L i l y |
| Lily was born in April
1995. She had a dramatic start to her life! Her mother,
Alice the mountain pony had made a stricken escape from Beeston Horse
Sales. She had seemed destined for the meat market. She was
nursed back from the brink of slaughter by the H.A.C.K. Sanctuary.
Alice had been brought by an owner to be sold at Beeston. The
palomino pony escaped from the horse sales and sparked a cross country
pursuit which resulted in the owner declaring that the person who caught
her could have her. Eventually, she had to be shot with a
tranquiliser dart and was all set to meet a nasty end when Pamela and
Alison from H.A.C.K. arrived to take her back to the sanctuary.
Alice was a terrified pony who would not let anyone near her. She
cowered in a corner. In time, she started to make friends with
Alison, although she was still very nervous. It takes 11 months
for a pony to give birth and the sanctuary staff suspected she may have
been pregnant. She eventually gave birth to a beautiful foal the
sanctuary named Lily, without complication April 1995.
At three years of age Lily went out on loan to a very good loan home. It is believed that she was let out of her paddock on purpose by a mindless stranger. The mare then managed to make her way into a shed where she devoured a bag of 20 rat poison nuts. Lily faced massive doses of Vitamin K each day in order to save her life. The H.A.C.K. vet was on holiday at the time and there was no cover for such a case. The sanctuary staff had to start ringing round for help. At least seven vet surgeries were contacted before one actually agreed to help. The biggest problem was finding enough Vitamin K to inject into the horse. Rat poison destroys the clotting agent in the bloody and the animal then starts to bleed to death. Vitamin K is the agent that clots the blood so has a counter effect and until the poison is passed through the body and the immune system starts producing its own Vitamin K, Lily had to undergo being injected with large doses each day. The vet pulled out all the stops and travelled round to find the Vitamin K so desperately needed. Dr Derek Knottenbelt from Liverpool University was also willing to help with advice to the vet. Up to now, Lily is making a satisfactory recovery. It seems unlikely that she will be able to go out on loan again as in addition to all of this, she also suffers from Sweetitch, an allergy to midge fly bites and she needs special rugs, lotions and potions to keep her comfortable. We implore all horse owners to ensure that there is absolutely no way their animals can have access to rat poison, it should not be kept in the vicinity of horses at all.
|
|
|
