I went out with one of the Donkey Sanctuary crews to a session in Sakkara village the other day. As we were driving along, the driver suddenly stopped the truck by the side of the road and called out to a boy on a donkey. The donkey was limping. Everyone piled out of the truck and the farrier (a vet, a farrier, and a harnessmaker travel on every trip) took out his tools. He looked at the donkey's feet and began trimming the sole of one, revealing a developing abscess in the sole. An abscess is the result of a bruise from a stone that creates a pocket of pus and quite a bit of pain for the donkey. Once the farrier had trimmed down to the abscess, the farrier pulled out a pot of sugar and betadine that had been stirred into a sticky paste. He slopped a tablespoon of it onto a pad of cotton and then put a patch of duct tape over the cotton. The duct tape keeps the cotton dry while the betadine and sugar mixture draw the infection out and sterilise the wound. With the cotton pad, the donkey is comfortable enough to walk.
The Donkey Sanctuary in Egypt works under the umbrella of the Donkey Sanctuary UK and provides mobile services to working donkeys in Egypt for no cost to the owners. They also provide educational services to teach owners how to care for their animals. They are really a wonderful group.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
A Helping Hand
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10 comments:
Very interesting!
im visiting egypt at the moment and i have actually cried in the streets here witnessing horses and donkies with their bones nearly jutting out of their skin due to being overworked and starving.
its so good that some people actually care about these creatures.
Lovely captured moment of humanity giving thanks.
WOW , poor donkey though...Aideen (aged 11 and animal mad) loved this !
What a wonderful service.
And a good donkey to stand still for the foot treatment.
Sugar, eh? I'll have to remember that.
Nice picture. Makes you feel good.
What was the reaction of the lad to all the attention and care given to his donkey? He doesn't look so happy in the photo.
Thank you for relating this to us. Fascinating. And you make it so visual with your words as well as your image.
I hope that donkey enjoyed the rest of his day!
The villagers were a bit suspicious when three foreign women piled out of the truck. I'm sure that they thought that one of us would start accusing them of abusing the poor thing. When it turned out that I spoke Arabic and was happy to chat to them and I explained that I own donkeys and really love them, everyone relaxed. The boy was given a new halter for his donkey and was quite happy at the end.
Bravo! Thank you for this post... it warmed my heart.
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