Helpless, starving and in pain – too many animals are at risk of being abandoned because they’ve gone blind. Please help us stop this happening to more working animals.
Blinding dust, whipping, ill-fitting blinkers – any number of things can cause agonising and sight-threatening conditions. SPANA treats over a thousand working animals every single day and in some countries where we work, almost half the animals we see are suffering with eye problems.
SPANA have launched an appeal to help them tackle this potentially life threatening problem
Even a minor eye infection can lead to blindness if it isn’t treated. The harsh realities of life in most developing countries mean working animals that lose their sight are often abandoned. Unable to fend for themselves, they can starve to death.
This appalling and all too common loss of life is completely preventable. It only takes a small amount of antibiotic ointment to save an eye, but such is the demand for vital life-saving medicines like this, supplies constantly need replenishing.
Saving Gomura’s sight
A young horse called Gomura was brought into our centre in Ethiopia. Gomura had already lost the sight in one eye and now his other, ‘good eye’, was weeping.
Thankfully, Brehan had brought Gomura to SPANA just in time. If left much longer, the eye condition would only have worsened and could have led to permanent sight loss. Our vet used a fluorescent dye strip and detected a large ulcer which was making Gomura’s eye very painful to open.
He was given painkillers and antibiotic eye drops, then a doughnut bandage was used to protect his eye from any rubbing whilst it healed. Our vets also showed Brehan how to keep Gomura’s eye clean to prevent further problems in the future.
Thousands of equines are suffering with eye problems – and far too many are losing their sight needlessly. The fate for these donkeys and horses is nothing short of horrific. It’s awful to think what would have happened to Gomura if our hardworking vets had not been there to save his sight.
