On June 14-16, after the request of local welfare group Animal Zone International, the Animal Action Hellas Equine Care team made their 11th annual outreach visit to the island of Amorgos , to provide veterinary, dental and farriery care to the island’s equines.
Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group. Inhabited since the Early Cycladic Era, Amorgos has a long cultural history and tradition. A small number of working equines are still used on the island for agricultural and transport tasks. The veterinarian Kostas, the equine dental technician Alkis and the farrier Tasos offered their services to 37 equines (25 donkeys, 6 mules and 6 horses), in 5 villages.
The team treated the Animal Zone International shelter’s elderly residents, that are spending with relief the rest of their life there, after being found unwanted or mistreated. One of the donkeys that was recently rescued from being mistreated by its drunk owner had hobble scars not only in the pasterns (where the hobble ropes are usually placed) but also on the cannon bones, as well as injuries on the tendons, which had certainly caused a lot of pain and lameness to the animal.
Since there is no dental technician or farrier on the island, almost all equines received dental and farriery treatment. Tabanus flies, horseflies and stable-flies encountered in several animals, and one case of ticks were treated with ecto-antiparasitic medicines and advice for prevention was given to their owners. One donkey happened to have colic the day before our team’s arrival. The local vet had already visited the donkey, but since he does not have experience on equines he gladly accepted our vet’s help, who treated the impaction colic successfully by putting IV fluids and medicines and the donkey returned in his stable healthy.
What was interesting to notice is that one third of the equines was found overweight compared to last year, when the percentage was 45%. More than half the animals were in ideal body condition in this visit, with just two underweight. Since the animals treated are more or less the same in Amorgos, it seems that the owners have followed our advice regarding correction of the nutrition.
We would like to thank Blue Star Ferries for offering free return ferry tickets and Seajets for offering 50% off for the team members, which is a great support for our actions. Special thanks also to pension Marousso, Michail Studios, and Ilias Pension for accommodating the team, Thomas Rent-a-Car for providing a car for the team’s transportation, the restaurants “Kastanis” in Chora and “o Nikos” in Langada, the cafe “Perasma Kastelopetra” and the pastry shop “Kallisto” for covering part of the team’s meals.
We would like to thank the Municipality of Amorgos for finding sponsorships, and especially the Deputy Mayor Popi Despotidi who, from the Municipality’s side, was the one who sought the sponsorships and who once more was willing to help in our action. Many thanks to Animal Zone International for covering part of the meals and last but not least, Litsa Passari, for undertaking the organization of the outreach and for taking care as always for our team’s needs.
