Marid gets a pedicure

Recently, Marid the donkey was brought to the SPANA centre in Amman, Jordan with a bad case of overgrown hooves. Marid’s owner, who supports his family by using his donkeys to help tend his small flock of sheep, had travelled over 80km to seek medical attention for his animal and SPANA’s vets were ready with their expertise.

His owner didn’t have the appropriate tools or expertise to trim six-year-old Marid’s overgrown hooves, which were two inches too long and had begun to cause pain whenever Marid walked. Marid, whose name means “rebellious” in Arabic, helps herd sheep in a rural area of Jordan and without an operation he was struggling to work pain-free as he travelled across the rocky terrain.

The vets instructed Marid’s owner on the best hoof-trimming techniques to prevent this from happening in the future. A key part of SPANA’s work is in educating owners about how to prevent illness and injury from happening in the first place. The messages they communicate are spread to other animal owners in the region, meaning that SPANA can reach even more animals in the process.