Young Ray, is a six-month-old foal from the Matsaudi village in Maun, Botswana. When he is old enough, he will work on his owners’ cattle farm.
Sadly, Ray was attacked by a wild leopard, leaving him with multiple injuries over his body, including painful claw and bite wounds.
His owners – brothers Joel and Mpho Gubago – were extremely worried about Ray. But thankfully, the SPANA mobile clinic was passing through the village and came to the rescue.
Ray’s wounds were cleaned by the SPANA team and they also applied antibiotic cream to prevent the wounds becoming infected. They also gave him medicine to help with the pain and sprayed him with a repellent to keep flies away.
They stressed to Joel and Mpho how important it was to keep Ray’s wounds as clean and free from flies as possible to allow the best chance of healing.
SPANA’s advice
To prevent this from happening again, SPANA advised Joel and Mpho to bring their horses, especially the foals, into a fenced enclosure at night, so they can be guarded and kept away from wild animals.
The team conducted regular follow-up checks on Ray to keep an eye on his recovery. They were pleased to see that, after five weeks, his wounds had completely healed.
The brothers were very thankful to SPANA. They said:
There is nowhere to go for help. But we heard of SPANA and called you. SPANA helped us treat the injuries, gave us treatment to follow on with and showed us how to handle the horses more calmly.
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