Harper a donkey foal and mother Daisy were treated by Elaine Claffey and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital internal medicine team. Harper underwent a colic surgery and foreign body removal and Daisy GI upset.
Towels don’t fit through donkey bowels, as vets treating a miniature filly found out.
Specialists at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, US, had to operate on three-month-old Harper, as it turned out she had eaten a whole towel.
A spokesperson for the hospital said Lexi Tarpy, manager of Stone Ridge Stables, brought Harper in after she developed a fever and showed signs of colic.
“We brought her in here because our vet said it was an emergency situation,” Lexi said. “Come to find out when they went in for surgery, she ate a towel — an entire towel.”
Vets performed an exploratory celiotomy, a surgical procedure to enter the abdomen, and removed two pieces of towel that were blocking Harper’s colon.
“Removing foreign bodies from the digestive tract of an equine like a horse or donkey is uncommon,” said Elaine Claffey, assistant clinical professor of large-animal surgery.
“They’re usually pretty good at sticking to the things that they should normally eat; we don’t do as many foreign body removals as a small animal veterinarian would because dogs, as we know, are indiscriminate eaters and eat all sorts of things that they shouldn’t.”
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Picture by Lexi Huck
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Harper’s condition improved quickly after the surgery but her dam Daisy then went downhill.
“Daisy arrived the day after surgery to allow Harper to nurse and put them back together,” Dr Claffey said. “But she developed a couple of fevers and had some medical issues, developed a little bit of enteritis, which is inflammation in the intestines.
“When we recognised she had these additional illnesses, our internal medicine team took over and took primary care for her case, which was great, because we really needed their expertise for her.”
Daisy was treated with IV fluids, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication and both she and Harper made a full recovery.
“It’s been hard because we couldn’t come up and see Harper and Daisy so often but they were in great hands, and we’re ready for them to come home,” Lexi said.
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
