For the past two months, WVS India have been expanding their work with street horses and working equines in the region surrounding Ooty, by providing monthly field clinics to help treat the animals and educate horse owners on proper care.In January, 22 horses were attended to at the field clinic, with many of the animals suffering from traumatic injuries and hoof problems. This is often caused by poor hoof trimming or incorrect shoeing. Therefore, alongside treatment of the horses, the WVS team have been educating owners and helping train local farriers in proper hoof care techniques to ensure they see less injuries of this kind at future clinics. All the horses were also de-wormed and given tetanus vaccinations as routine preventative care.
One of these cases however, was a little more complicated. The WVS team set to work examining the horse that was suffering from a large tumour attached to the vulva. The team decided to operate under general anaesthesia to remove the tumour. The surgery went well and the horse recovered quickly from the anaesthesia, meaning it was able to be carefully walked home, where the team would check up on it the following day.
The next day, the horse’s wound was healing well and the animal was already showing vast improvement. The owner was shown how to keep the wound clean and educated on the importance of flushing it regularly with clean water. Despite the limited facilities, the owner was very interested in learning as much as possible about how to better care for his horses and the team will follow up with his case at the next field clinic.
Surgery such as this has only been possible thanks to the permission granted by authorities to use a designated space for the field clinics, offering the team the space and time to run thorough checks on each animal and provide surgical treatment where necessary. Without these field clinics, many of the horses would go untreated, and animal welfare in the region would not see as much improvement.
But thanks to the team at WVS India, these animals are now much healthier, receiving monthly check ups free of charge to the owners, and communities are gaining knowledge on the best care for their horses.
We look forward to hearing how the team get on in the next clinic!