We have recently taken in several serious cases which have required specialist veterinary care – and this will be ongoing. Veterinary expenses are substantial and are depleting our funds at a time when we are still recovering from the last lockdown, during which our charity shop had to close for several weeks.
Our latest two rescues could not be more different, but both need help which only ARCH was prepared to offer. Zingaro is a three-year-old PRE stallion, once a valuable asset with a long life ahead of him. Fabiola is a 30-year-old mare, of no value to her owner and coming to the end of her life.
Zingaro had sustained a major injury on a metal fence which had slashed into his shoulder. His breeder was not prepared to pay for veterinary attention and was threatening to put him down. We felt he needed to at least be given a chance and, since his arrival, he has been treated daily by our vets. X-rays showed that there is nothing broken but time alone will tell whether his injury has severed the nerve as well as damaging the muscle. He is a beautiful and remarkably gentle young boy, who is putting up with painful treatment very stoically. Fingers crossed that he will recover.
Fabiola was an urgent rescue by SEPRONA. She was tethered out in bad weather and apparently abandoned. She had severe breathing difficulties which, at first, were thought to be caused by pneumonia. In her youth she must have been a stunning mare with a beautiful buckskin coat (now riddled with lice). It became apparent, when she did not respond to medication, that her problem was not in her lungs. She was struggling to breathe and wheezing loudly, nostrils flared and flanks heaving.  Volunteers were relieved to find her alive on her first morning at ARCH. An endoscopy revealed that her larynx was totally paralysed on one side and partially paralysed on the other, the vets told us that she could have died at any moment. Fabiola has had an emergency tracheotomy and is now breathing easier. This will remain in place for a month in the hope that the paralysis (possibly caused by toxic plants) will improve. Like many of our older rescues, Fabiola is a fighter and wants to live.
We are fortunate to have such expert vets to call on and also to have our own Elly Brooks with her extensive equine nursing experience.  A Facebook appeal has helped to raise some funds but their treatment will be long and expensive and we would be so grateful if our followers could help to support Zingaro and Fabiola.