The owner of a filly who sustained a horrific wound after a helium balloon became wrapped round her neck wants to raise awareness of the damage such balloons can cause.
Nine-month-old Won More! was grazing quietly in the field where she had spent all last winter when the unicorn balloon blew over the hedge on Monday (13 April).
It became wrapped round her neck and flapped, panicking the youngster, who tried to jump out of the field – and staked herself on the post and rail fence.
“It was a horrific thing to happen,” the filly’s owner Esme Humpston told H&H.
“One of the people at the stud she’s been staying at saw it happen and it was all so quick – when they’re panicking like that, they just run blindly.”
The filly, “Wonsie”, underwent three hours of emergency vet treatment as the hole, in the right side of her chest, was stitched and a drain fitted. She is likely to need daily veterinary care in the immediate future, as well as three to six months’ box rest and physio treatment.
“The vet, from Hampden, was super but he said ‘I’m very sorry, you’re going to get an eye-watering bill’, and I said my eyes were watering anyway; I just want her to be ok.
“The vet said it was very serious, and when a vet says that, you know you’re in trouble; if it had been on the other side of her chest, she would probably have died.”
Esme wants to raise awareness of the damage balloons – and sky lanterns – can do, referring also to a recent campaign to release lanterns to support the NHS.
“If this is the damage a balloon can do, can you imagine if it had been a lantern?” she said.
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“I know it was a freak accident but people need to be aware; they often don’t think that what goes up has to come down.
“The ironic thing is that it probably belonged to a little girl who loves ponies; a pretty unicorn balloon that nearly killed my own unicorn.”
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