When Major the donkey hurt her eye, vets at SPANA’s mobile clinic in Zimbabwe were able to treat her injury – and save her sight.
Major the donkey transports food to and from the local market in Chivi district, in the south of Zimbabwe, for her owner, John, and his family. As their village is in a remote and rural area, John would be unable to get to the market without Major’s help.
John took his three-year-old donkey to SPANA’s mobile clinic when he noticed that she had injured her right eye. Every week, SPANA’s veterinary team travel hundreds of miles from their base in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, to remote communities like Major’s that rely on working animals.
SPANA’s veterinary teams examined Major’s eye carefully. Major was unable to open her eye, which was weeping and swollen. They diagnosed an accidental blunt trauma injury and praised John for bringing her to the clinic because, without treatment, Major would have been in excruciating pain and could have lost her sight in that eye.
The vets cleaned Major’s eye thoroughly, then administered a pain-relieving medication and a topical eye ointment. They gave John a supply of the ointment and showed him how to use it safely so that he could continue the treatment himself – something he would have to do twice a day for a week. The vets also advised John to rest Major until her eye was fully healed.
John was relieved that Major would make a full recovery. He said: ‘My donkey is so important to my family. I don’t know what we’d do without her. She would not be able to receive treatment without SPANA. Thank you.’
Across the world, SPANA’s mobile clinics are reaching sick and injured working animals like Major. Our mobile clinics visit working animals in cities – such as the donkeys who work in the rubbish dumps in Mali, or the calèche horses who give rides to visitors in Morocco and Tunisia – and working animals living in remote and rural areas. Often, our mobile clinics provide the only access to veterinary treatment and care they will ever receive. Your support makes this vital work possible. Thank you so much for ensuring SPANA’s mobile clinics are fully stocked with the fuel, medication and equipment our vets need to transform the lives of working animals.
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