The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has bid farewell to a horse named Caramel as she recently returned home after months of treatment at the animal rescue.
Caramel’s ordeal dates back to Valentine’s day morning when a Cape Town worker, on his way to work, saw a horse stuck in the pit of a septic tank. He hurried to notify his boss who immediately phoned and logged a call with the Cape of Good Hope SPCA.
The animal rescue’s Tracy and Theo from the Horse Care Unit were urgently dispatched to lend a hand. They said the community members had been trying to pull her out without any success and they told the SPCA officials that the horse’s name was Caramel. “When I arrived I honestly thought the horse was dead. She had been stuck in the septic tank since the previous night. Apparently, kids had let her out of her paddock,” says Tracy.
The officials said when they arrived, Caramel was an exhausted, dehydrated mare in shock. A local farmer who regularly helps them out, came to help with a front-end loader to help when they alerted him to the situation. They eventually got her out of the septic pit about an hour after their control received the call while Theo was communicating with the community and putting their minds at ease about their equine friend.
They had to carry her into the horse box as she was too exhausted to walk or even stand and brought her back to the SPCA where they immediately put her on a drip and medicated her while she was still lying in the horse box. “Our vet was very worried about pneumonia as the likelihood of her having inhaled some of the contents of the pit in the septic tank as possible,“ said SPCA.
However, after about an hour, Caramel stood up on her own in the horsebox. “Though her body temperature was worryingly still very low, her will to fight for survival and recovery was obvious and we were able to add another drip line to get more fluids into her.
“Once the drips had finished giving her the fluids she needed, we rinsed her off and attended to multiple cuts and abrasions she had sustained while fighting to get out of the septic tank,” they said.
Caramel was then put in one of the stables in the Horse Care Unit and she immediately started to nibble on a handful of oat-hay. Caramel’s owner stayed with her throughout the entire traumatic ordeal as she is a valued member of the community and loved by her family.
As the days went by she just got stronger and stronger, and it was a happy day recently when the animal rescue bid Caramel a fond “farewell” as she set off back home at last.
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Picture: Unsplash