Foal discovered with tin cans attached to foot
Tintin and Snowy (C) World Horse Welfare.
A foal rescued by World Horse Welfare found with tin cans tightly fitted over his foot is said to be recovering well after his ordeal.
The charity's field officers were called to a field in Essex to investigate a foal with a piece of metal wrapped around its leg. On arrival, they found that the field was strewn with rubbish and contained several horses, including the foal and mare that had been reported.
Despite the mare being friendly, the foal himself was unhandled and extremely skittish, making it difficult to examine his condition.
Becky Bedson, the field officer who initially went to check the horses' welfare, had to call for assistance, and the foal was soon safely secured.
Explaining the situation, Becky said: “In the end we didn’t need to sedate the foal, which we discovered was a male and later named Tintin, as when we corralled him with Snowy, his friendly mum, we were able to check him out.
“Under the mud and long winter fur we were able to see what looked like a strip of metal around his lower leg and it was decided to move him and his mum to a nearby vets, as we didn’t know what we would find underneath once we removed the metal.”
When the foal was placed under light sedation, the veterinary team discovered two complete tin cans fitted over his foot. Though these were tightly secured, the foal had managed to avoid serious injury and the tins were removed.
Following a lack of response to an Abandonment Notice posted on the field, World Horse Welfare signed Snowy and Tintin into their care at Hall Farm, Norfolk. The pair are said to be getting on well at the centre, with Tintin getting more used to being handled, and will continue with their rehabilitation.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
