Rosa 1997-2022
In October 2021 we were called out by an elderly lady whose donkey couldn’t stand up by herself. Once the donkey was helped up, she was strong and OK. She asked if we could help by taking the donkey as she was struggling. We arranged a visit and what we found was really quite shocking.
Rosa, aged 24 was skin and bone. The lady had had the dentist and a vet visit and, although the dentist did some necessary work we aren’t quite sure what the vet did other than recommend some dietary supplements. We said yes to taking her of course. This poor girl needed all the help she could get.
She arrived to a lovely soft bed in the barn, as much hay as she wanted and got small regular feeds and vitamins until we knew what we were dealing with. The vet came and the tests started, but despite numerous tests, bloods, worm counts and constant vet visits the most we were able to ascertain was that she was anaemic and had a low red blood cell count
From the time she arrived at HeeHaws, she failed to thrive and her appetite was practically non-existent, even though she was walked for hours each day to graze by Carina and the devoted volunteers. She needed help to get up when she laid down and eventually, she couldn’t poo for herself, requiring intervention to manually remove the faeces.
We had an echographie done on-site which showed no masses but lots of bullet-shaped shadows in her gut. We took the decision to send Rosa to the clinic at Bordeaux for more extensive echographies and other tests and she was transported there as soon as possible.
After further investigation, it was found that Rosa had lots of tumours in her tummy and unfortunately, she didn’t respond well to the medication. She had also stopped eating. So with great sadness, we had to say goodbye.
She was loved so much while in our care and will stay in all our hearts forever. We loved you so much, Rosa 
