Joey fizzes back to full health

Fifteen-year-old Joey, who resides at Slade House Farm in Sidmouth, stopped eating after he lost his elderly mum Josie in November last year.

Joey soon developed a large gastric impaction – a solid blockage of food in his stomach. With the food unable to pass through into his small intestine, Joey’s situation was looking serious.

Cracking open the cola

Veterinary Surgeon Jamie Forrest says: “Our vets rushed into action – giving Joey an abdominal ultrasound and conducting a process called gastroscopy – putting a camera up his nose and into his stomach.”

They then devised a plan to treat Joey’s belly blockage. “Intensive treatment was required to resolve the impaction,” Jamie says. “As well as pain relief, we flushed Joey’s stomach with cola several times a day to dissolve the solid.

“We used six litres of full-sugar cola a day, spread out over three treatments, for four days, to soften and dissolve the impactions in his stomach so the ingesta could once again travel to his intestine.

“In essence, the cola acted like a drain cleaner. It eats away at the firm matter and eventually softens it to a point where it can pass.”

As part of the treatment, Joey was placed on a restricted diet to prevent his stomach impaction from getting larger.

The sugar in the cola also helped reduce the risk of Joey developing a condition called hyperlipaemia.

When a donkey stops eating enough to fulfil its needs, they enter a state of ‘negative energy balance’ – meaning they use up more energy than they are taking in. The body requires energy for the vital organs and so they start to break down fat, mobilising fatty acids into the blood stream.

These are transported to the liver to be broken down into glucose for energy. If the release of fat continues, fatty acids build up in the blood and eventually saturate the liver and kidneys. The resulting damage to the organs will lead to organ failure and eventually death.

“In Joey’s case, we were concerned about the risk.” Jamie adds. “It would have been quite likely that he developed hyperlipaemia had we not intervened.”

The cola was administered by our vet in carefully controlled conditions via a tube up the donkey’s nose that led directly into his stomach. Cola should never be given to healthy donkeys or without being administered by a qualified veterinary surgeon.

A positive experience

During Joey’s treatment, he was tended to in his barn by dedicated groom Kayleigh Yelland and farm supervisor Laura Attwood.

He was put on a shavings bed instead of his usual straw bed to ensure he didn’t add further to the impaction.

Kayleigh says: “Joey had been with his mum his whole life, so it was such a massive change for him. He had become quite nervous and didn’t want to be around anybody.

“Every time we went to see him, we wanted it to be a positive experience.

“I didn’t want Joey to associate visits from us with the veterinary treatments he was receiving. I used positive reassurance to help him along – I would go in and scratch his neck, reassure him and then walk away. By repeating this, it helped him understand that we were here to help and comfort him, not just add to the veterinary procedures.”

Jamie adds: “In normal circumstances, we would have transported him to our state-of-the-art donkey hospital at our Brookfield Farm in Honiton. But we felt it was better to treat Joey in familiar surroundings, as he had already undergone a huge amount of stress losing his mother.”

After four days of treatment, Joey looked much better, and another gastroscopy revealed the blockage had cleared.

Now, Joey is back to his happy self – and he is enjoying the company of a new long-eared friend.

Bonding with Ben

During his treatment, Joey struck up a friendship with another bereaved donkey called Ben.

Ben recently lost his closely bonded companion, so was introduced to Joey by the grooms as they had both shared similar experiences.

Kayleigh says: “Ben had lost his friend Bob not too long before Josie’s passing, so our idea was to introduce him to Joey.

“By buddying the two together, we hoped their shared experience of loss would allow them to comfort each other.

“Their friendship is still flourishing, it’s early days. But I really do think their future as friends looks promising.

“For example, Joey will eat out of Ben’s bucket because he wants to be next to Ben! Then Ben will follow Joey around.”

With Joey now back to full health, he has thrown himself back into life at Slade House Farm.

Jamie adds: “We are really pleased with Joey’s recovery. It was touch and go for a while whether we continued treatment, as the impaction was quite severe.

“Thankfully, he pulled through. We thought he had the strength to survive the whole time so we persevered with the treatment, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.”