Our Equine team last visited Spetses in 2009, to organise a seminar, where vets, vet students, members of welfare groups and locals interested in farriery, took part in three separate educative sessions on veterinary, farriery and dentistry care. Despite more than 10 years away, we were bowled over by the island’s warm welcome when we returned earlier this year to provide veterinary, dental and farriery treatment to 34 equines.
The majority of these 34 patients were working equines, used to pull carriages for tourists. Despite this, the animals of Spetses were in very good condition and seemed well taken care of, which is always reassuring to see especially given the length of time since our last visit! Nevertheless, our equine dental technician Alkis paid special attention to the horses’ long-awaited dental check-ups, while the importance of vaccinations and microchipping was also emphasised by our team; in fact, we even discussed ways to help implement better microchipping procedures and a regular vaccination programme.
Our team were also on hand to treat individual veterinary concerns, like the case of a serious frog thrush on a horse, which is a bacterial infection that affects the hoof.
All in all, our much-anticipated return to Spetses was a huge success, made all the more enjoyable by the residents’ warm welcome and hospitality; they were very willing to assist our team during treatments by handling animals and offering drinks to show their appreciation to the team working in the hot weather, while they also covered all the running costs of the team (accommodation, food, transportation). They even requested that we return again next year, which we’re already looking forward to!
