In December 2022, a local friend rode past a little donkey whose feet were in the worst state yet that we’ve had to deal with.
As soon as we heard, we got straight onto it, and with the help of a few people, we were able to get our lovely Gareth round there. It was a delicate situation with the owner as he was elderly and not in good health. We met Pauline, the sweetest kindest girl, hobbling on her terribly deformed feet. Gareth did all he could, and already this darling girl was feeling better and nowhere near as lame. We gave her some pain relief to help her with the transition from long deformed hooves to shorter ones. Sadly the front one is so bad that she needed X-rays to determine what had happened to the bones, so Gareth and the vet could see what state they were in and would have a better idea on how to proceed.
We tried to persuade the owner to sign Pauline over as he was often hospitalised, but he refused.
We couldn’t just walk away, so with his permission, we made her another paddock at his property that had more grass and a shelter. She was much more comfortable. We wormed her and had her feet trimmed regularly. We visited 4 or 5 times a week to give her decent hay and a groom. She was very lonely, just stuck in a field on her own.
We could only hope that one day he would let her come to HeeHaws, where we could give her a lovely paddock, donkey company, and lots of TLC.
We worked very hard for this poor girl for 8 months. We invested lots of time, hard work, and money to keep her comfortable, and then one day, she just disappeared, as did her owner. We found out she had been moved but we didn’t know where. When we did find out, there was nothing we could do to help her.
Then suddenly, one of the HeeHaws team, Christine, had a break through, and managed to track her and her owner down. He finally agreed that we could bring her here.! We moved very quickly to get a team together, and within a day or 2, she finally arrived at her new home!!
Melanie, our vet, visited that same week, and Pauline was vaccinated and wormed. Gareth also came and trimmed her hooves as best he could.
We are so relieved that she is finally here, where she gets daily care. We intend to explore every avenue possible to see whether anything can be done with her hoof to make her more comfortable. We have a few ideas, so watch this space for any updates.
She gets lots of cuddles from all the volunteers, and she just loves any attention. We did try her with other donkeys, but she kept walking away. Maybe she feels a bit vulnerable as she can’t move quickly. She seems very content though just being surrounded by lots of others.
Isn’t she just beautiful – we are just thrilled! ❤️
If you would like to sponsor Pauline please click here
