Unfortunately we have some sad news to share with you all about Veronica. On Friday the decision was made to have her put to sleep as her quality of life had deteriorated and couldn’t be improved.
Those of you that have followed her story from the beginning will know that she was in a terrible state when she arrived at Bransby Horses. Her hooves were overgrown, she was emaciated, her coat was matted with lice and her teeth were poor. Veronica was in fact much older …than we were initially led to believe and was in her late 20’s.
Her teeth were badly aged and she had very little grinding surface so she was not coping well with eating long forage and her system was also starting to struggle with processing forage as her droppings were loose. This was making it difficult to keep condition on Veronica, even through summer.
Veronica also had arthritis in both of her knees and this was managed to a certain degree with pain relief and limited turnout. If she was out for too long she was struggling to walk pain free. Trimming her feet was also very painful for her in regards to the movement of her knees and we had reached the stage where we would have to sedate to trim her hooves.
The recent wet and cold weather made Veronica’s arthritis much worse and on Friday she was weight shifting and unable to cope with the pain, despite the vet prescribing the maximum dosage of pain relief. The attending vet had been monitoring her lameness for a while and seen her gradually deteriorate.
Veronica received the best treatment from the farrier, dentist and vet but sadly she couldn’t gain weight and began to suffer which meant she was no longer able to stand comfortably or enjoy time out in the field with her friend Surprise.
We are just thankful that for the last few months of her life she knew comfort and the kindness of humans; we dread to think what she had been through before arriving at Bransby Horses.
Thank you so much to everyone who followed Veronica’s story and supported her care with kind donations. She will be greatly missed by staff and supporters.
