26 May 2023

Celebrating our nurses this Vet Nurse Awareness Month!

Redwings provides a home to 1,500 rescued horses, ponies, donkeys and mules across the UK.

With such a large population, we encounter a large variety of equine ailments and illnesses that need treating and managing to keep our herds happy and healthy. Thanks to our supporters, we are fortunate to have our own veterinary facilities at Redwings HQ in Norfolk where we can care for our residents ourselves, and we could not provide such a high quality of care without our brilliant vet nursing team.

We have vet nurses on site every day of the year, and even throughout the night when needed. On any day our vet nurse team can be found assisting in our theatre, in the laboratory processing blood and faecal samples, administering medications, taking x-rays, applying dressings and bandaging wounds, and checking on poorly ponies to monitor their progress.

From complicated to routine tasks, our vet nurse team are an essential part of daily life at the Sanctuary, providing care to our poorly ponies and our residents who require lifelong care. One such resident is Golden Girl (pictured above).

Golden girl has poor confirmation, making one of her front legs “wonky”, and frequently suffers from foot abscesses. To keep her comfy, protect her hoof and keep the abscess clean, Golden Girl has to wear a foot poultice. This is a type of dressing placed on a horse’s hoof to draw out infection (you can learn more about poultices here). Our vet nursing team visit her every day to change this poultice, check her hoof, and assess her comfort and lameness.

Golden Girl came to Redwings as an unhandled three year old with food aggression issues. This made her unsafe to handle around food and presented difficulties with socialising her with other horses while she required feeds or medications. She had not interacted with many people before her rescue, and because of her size (16.2 hands high), she presented a risk to her carers.

Our dedicated behaviour team quickly began training with her so that our teams could handle her safely and carry out basic care tasks. This was particularly essential due to her frequent visits to the Horse Hospital where she required handling for treatment.

Our vet nurse team have been continuing her training using positive reinforcement to allow them to work on Golden Girl’s feet and legs without danger. Through patience and rewarding training, the team have created a routine for Golden Girl and have built trust that allows them to complete their tasks with her safely.

Thank you to our fantastic team for helping to keep Golden Girl, and all our herds, healthy and happy!

You can support our amazing veterinary nurses so they can help more horses in need. Donating £5 per month could fund dressings and bandages to aid healing for horses like Golden Girl.

Click here to find out how you can make a regular donation. Thank you #RedwingsAngels!