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Nizar the carthorse was struggling to walk – every step had become agony as he made the long journey to the SPANA Tunisia centre at Kebili. The seven-year-old male horse dutifully helps his young owner Abdul to take his family’s farm produce to market every morning. The meagre income eked out from this work helps support Abdul, his wife and their four children; without Nizar’s help the family would have no way of making an income in rural Tunisia.
One morning, while Nizar was waiting patiently for his owner to sell his produce, an older territorial male carthorse attacked Nizar, biting him deeply in his shoulder. Abdul flushed the injury with water but the wound was much deeper than Abdul realised. Within days, the cut had become infected and the flesh around the injury badly swollen and hot to the touch. As the infection worsened, Nizar grew more and more lethargic – without access to the right medication, Abdul knew that his only horse would just get worse, possibly even succumbing to his injuries.
Borrowing a neighbour’s truck, Abdul drove Nizar the long distance to the SPANA centre where, with the help of the entire team, the animal was gently coaxed out of the vehicle. The vets got to work cleaning and disinfecting the wound, immediately soothing Nizar.
The vets showed Abdul how to clean Nizar’s wounds twice a day to prevent any flies from laying eggs in the infected area. They taught Abdul how to dress Nazir’s wound with local honey to disinfect and protect, and how to prevent Nazir from being attacked again. Finally, the vets took the opportunity to educate Abdul on proper nutrition and harnessing so that Nazir could work more comfortably when he recovered. The young owner was very worried about his animal and came to the centre whenever he could to check in on Nazir’s health. After a month’s recovery in the calm of the SPANA centre, Nizar’s wound had healed and he was ready to return to Abdul’s farm.
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