As a result of bad farriery, Mona was in pain and struggling to walk. Read how SPANA vets stepped in to alleviate her discomfort.
Mona the donkey was having difficulty walking, stumbling over her feet as she pulled a cart through the streets of Chemaia, Morocco. The otherwise healthy young donkey couldn’t keep her balance, falling to the ground on several occasions.
Her owner depends on Mona for his family’s survival, as she helps him make a small income pulling loads of rubbish to the dump just outside of town. Worried that Mona was becoming lame, he immediately took her to the SPANA clinic for advice.
As soon as she was led in, SPANA vet Youness could tell that Mona was the victim of bad farriery. Often, local farriers will set up stalls in markets to provide hoof trimmings. But if these farriers are not adequately trained, they sometimes do more harm than good to the sensitive parts of donkeys’and horses’ feet.
In Mona’s case, Youness could tell that while the front of her hooves had been trimmed, the back of the hooves hadn’t been cut back, leading to unbalanced hooves which were causing Mona real discomfort. With every step, she bruised the back of her feet, leading to inflammation and difficulty walking. If she didn’t get proper treatment, this would lead to swelling, lameness and possible injury as Mona continued to stumble and fall.
Youness got to work reshaping her feet, using a specialist tool to gently file down each hoof and redistribute Mona’s weight evenly. The damage to Mona’s hooves will take a long time to correct and requires visits to the SPANA centre every four to six weeks. Mona’s owner has promised that he will return regularly for follow-up treatments. Thanks to our help, her prognosis is good.
SPANA vets see many cases of serious lameness that could be prevented with proper farriery. By providing training to owners and local farriers, our teams are helping to prevent lameness before it starts. Thanks to your support, we can continue to improve the lives of working animals all over the world.
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