One of our much-loved adoption donkeys has fully recovered after showing early signs of abdominal pain known as colic.
Alfie, who resides at our Belfast sanctuary, appeared off-colour to Equine Assistant Hannah Morgan. He wasn’t acting as his normal self, despite having a regular temperature, pulse and breathing.
Her concerns grew when Alfie repeatedly approached her for cuddles and wanted to spend his time right by her side.
“Despite this, Alfie was moving in and around his herd as normal as our visitors arrived,” Hannah says. “A few hours later, I repeated my usual health checks.”
Although nothing presented as out of the ordinary, Hannah noticed that once he had been let out into his field, Alfie was sham feeding.
This meant he was mimicking eating, but not actually taking anything in. For Hannah, this was a sure sign that Alfie was not feeling himself.
After relaying her concerns to Belfast Centre Manager Lorraine Nelson, it was decided they should call in their local vet to check him over.
After vet Joe O’Donnell examined Alfie, he discovered that despite his regular checks being normal, the 16 year-old donkey had a gurgly tummy, so he administered some pain relief and performed an internal examination.
The vet diagnosed a slow colic. As he could detect a little displacement in the internal examination, he confirmed this had the potential to turn into a surgical colic, a much more serious condition in the stomach requiring major surgery.
He advised that Alfie should be transferred to an equine colic specialist clinic in County Kildaire, where he could be managed. Shortly after, Alfie and his donkey friend Benjy travelled to the clinic in Troytown, southwest of Dublin.
Later that evening Alfie was examined by one of the vets at the Troytown clinic, who began his treatment for colic, and over the next few hours Alfie began to stabilise.
After greatly improving, Alfie remained at the clinic so he could monitored over the next couple of days.
Soon, Alfie and Benjy were on their way back to the sanctuary in Templepatrick, much to the relief of the team, who were delighted to welcome them back.
Lorraine says: “It is always a worry for when one of our donkeys are off colour, but following the expert care at the Troytown clinic, we were so pleased to be able to welcome Alfie and Benjy back home.
“It’s so lovely to see Alfie fully recovered and back to his normal self, and he seems to be glad to be back among his herd.
