“JoJo’s recovery was nothing short of remarkable, and because of this, I am convinced of F10’s efficacy”

On the afternoon of 22 October 2018, I received a call from a local farmer that a pony that he had seen a month earlier on his farm had reappeared, and seemed to be in very poor condition with severe wounds. The pony was not tame, and he was unable to catch him.

I went to the farm with one of the Cluny Animal Trust Animal Welfare Assistants and we were able to herd the thin and weakened pony into a cattle crush to examine him. We sent photos to a Johannesburg horse rescue to find out if they would be prepared to take him, as we are not equipped to take on a wounded wild pony long term. Their response was that the wounds were so severe, and infected, it might be kinder to euthanize him, but they would leave that decision to us.

After a short discussion, we called on the rest of the Cluny Animal Trust team to assist us to anaesthetise and further examine the young pony. Having no halter to hand, we fashioned one out of nylon rope, and managed to get it over the pony’s head, and with more ropes over his neck and torso, we held him to the side of the crush in order to find a vein to administer anaesthetic. Once he was down, I found that the wound was so necrotic that I was able to pass a hand through his neck and my fingers came out of holes on the other side!

With the assistance of the AWP’s we shaved, flushed with diluted F10SC Veterinary Disinfectant, debrided and placed drains in the wound, gave him some long acting antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory drugs, and sprayed copious amounts of F10 Germicidal Wound Spray with Insecticide over the entire area.

We concluded that the young colt was attacked at some stage in his wanderings by a stallion, as there were less severe, more obvious bite marks down his dorsal midline. A month or two prior to his appearance on the farm there had been a horrific motor vehicle accident one night, about a kilometre away, involving a car and a horse. I had euthanized the horse on the spot, with a broken spine, and herded two other horses into a convenient field, but apparently two additional ponies had fled the scene and disappeared.  The herders, supposedly Lesotho citizens had also disappeared before I arrived, so we were unable to get any details.  We presumed that this pony was one of the missing ponies from that group.

19 December 2018

We reported the stray pony to the police, but to date have not had any news of claimants.

Over the next 2 weeks, we sedated the pony (now named JoJo by my daughter) twice to do further cleaning and flushing with F10SC Veterinary Disinfectant and debriding of necrotic tissue, and sprayed the wounds with F10 Germicidal Wound Spray with Insecticide every second day. We gave one more dose of long-acting penicillin 3 days after the first dose, on 25 October 2017.After 5 November, when we removed the drains under sedation, we continued spraying the wounds with the F10 Germicidal Wound Spray with insecticide every 5 days or so for a month.  Thereafter the wounds were dry enough and healed enough not to require any further regular treatment. We still had to place JoJo in a crush to work with him, and being able to spray the wounds from a distance made treating him easy. He was an extremely defensive pony, and hooves flew, front and back when we approached him to work on him.

Over time he has become more trusting, and now we are able to handle him on a halter in a small paddock. His wounds have healed beautifully, and he is growing into a handsome young chap, thanks to the Cluny Animal Trust team, and the wonders of F10 Products.

Dr Katherine Barker (BVSc) Veterinarian and Trustee Cluny Animal Trust

10 January 2019

Jojo today