Drilling Years Of Build-Up From A Donkey's Sinus |

Now I don't treat too many donkeys in Richmond, but I'm always up for a challenge. The patient resides at a sanctuary that looks after abandoned donkeys. Hello Derek. Hello Scott, how are you? Welcome to the Isle of Wight. Welcoming Scott is the sanctuary's manager, Derek. We've got 93 donkeys. Wow. They lead a fantastic life. These donkeys are part of the heritage of this island. They pulled the milk floats, they worked the beaches of Shanklin and Sandown and Ryde. These donkeys didn't ask to be made homeless. They didn't ask to be abandoned. And we're determined that they'll have a proper home here because without us feeding them and looking after them, they have nothing. Well, they seem very happy and very healthy, but I hear that you've actually got a donkey that's not too healthy, is that right? There's a donkey we'd like you to see today called Poppy. Okay. She's one of our most popular donkeys. Right. She's been struggling with a clogging up of her sinuses, causing her a lot of discomfort, And we just simply can't unblock her nose. And so it's been a tough few weeks for her. Oh, you are nice. Like you a lot. Yes. Even with your gunky nose. Farm manager Julia has been looking after Poppy. But the donkey's deteriorating condition has now forced her to choose more invasive treatment. So how long has she had a snotty nose for? A couple of weeks. We've noticed there was a little bit of discharge. So we used to clean her nose. But then the discharge didn't stop. It was more and more and more. Poppy is suffering with something called sinusitis, which is an inflammatory condition of the nasal passages. It can be caused by a number of different things, anything from just a pure infection or as a result of something more sinister like cancer. OK, let me introduce you to our vet. Always willing to expand his expertise, Scott will be learning some new veterinary tricks from equine vets Kate and Lara as they try to unblock Poppy's nose. We've brought the x-ray along to show you. I think it gives you a really good visual idea of what's going on. And we can see we've got the white line across here, which is fluid and pus accumulating underneath. So that's a pool of snot, basically. Pretty much snot pus general mankiness that we need to get out. So what we're going to be doing today is drilling into that sinus and releasing all that gunk, flushing it all out and making her feel a lot better. So we're actually going to drill a hole into Poppy's head? We're actually going to drill a hole into Poppy's head through the skull, take a bit of bone out, have a look inside her head. Oh my goodness, we've just fallen in love and now you're going to affect her looks. On the Isle of Wight, Scott's assisting with an operation to clean out rescue donkey Poppy's badly infected sinuses. Equine vets Kate and Lara make up the surgical team. She is going to have a hole drilled into her nose, but she's not going to be knocked out fully, which just shows how resilient and how tough these beautiful creatures really are. Ready for this? Ready as I'll ever be, yeah. The concern is the donkey's infection may be caused by a tumour in her nasal passages. The only way to know is to go inside and take a look. All right, I'm ready for it. Just go with the flow, yeah. So just if you guys tell me if you're happy with the positioning. Pushing this drill into Poppy's head, it's quite a frightening experience because you think, you know, how far is this going to go? It will take a little while, so it's not an instantaneous thing. Procedures on farm animals are often done under local anaesthetic to avoid the risk of a general anaesthetic and the stress of moving them from their normal environment to a hospital. That's the hardest bit, is getting started. Oh, Poppy, my God. He'll feel it as it goes through. You almost get a pop and you get a relief of the pressure as you're pushing on it, so he'll suddenly dive in and then he'll be through into the sinus. OK, she's going back. Oop! OK. Oh, my God. There you go. Jesus that was gross. Oh my god that was revolting. I'm sorry sweetie but that was horrid. Does it feel like it's free? Finally I popped through and it's quite a sickening feeling but now we can have good access into the nasal cavity and see what's causing that infection for Poppy. It's amazing. So I'm just using the endoscope and I can see normal healthy mucosa which is sort of the membrane covering the nasal cavity and then a bit of a pool of gross stuff. We haven't found any tumours or anything nasty so hopefully it's a really good result for Poppy. It does seem like this is a fairly classic sinusitis and with good flushing over the next week and antibiotics Poppy should make a full recovery. Good girly Poppy. A draining tube will stay in place for a few days to make sure the sinuses are totally cleared. Despite the fact that she's now got a hole in her head she's probably thinking yeah this is a good day. Wow, well she's had some bad days clearly. Are you okay? Yeah, you're lovely. Well, you know, you probably looked nicer, but yeah. At the Isle of Wight, Poppy's recovering well from invasive surgery to clean out her infected sinuses. Good girl, eh? Good girl. Nasty surgery. Didn't ruin your appetite, did it? Good girl, and you don't have a snotty nostril anymore. Wow. I'm just so amazed at how strong and brave and stoic these creatures are. I've drilled a hole into this poor girl's face and she's still nuzzling up to me, giving me kisses. She must be feeling better. Good girl. Come on, man. Let's get you in. In we go. Come on, man. Aw, look who it is. She is. There we go. Hello, Poppy. And now Poppy is up to having visitors. Sanctuary manager Derek has dropped in with one of her best mates. How are you? And everybody looks very concerned over the wall, I can see. Yes. Yeah, there's been quite the audience today. I've felt under pressure but hopefully I've delivered. Brilliant. I'm very lucky to come here to work with these incredible vets and to see Derek and all the great work that he's doing here. These animals need these people and together it's a beautiful relationship. They're beautiful animals and they're really lucky to have a wonderful place to live. Thanks for having me, and I hope that Poppy makes a full recovery. That's great. Thanks, Derek. You look after that girl for me. Bye, Poppy. I've got a rare weekday off today, so I'm heading out to Oxfordshire to meet a lovely gentleman called John, who's going to show me some pretty special animals, not ones that you see every day in Richmond. Horselover Emma has wanted to visit the Island Farm Sanctuary for some time. Oh, John, this is fantastic. Look at them all. Yes, yes. They're all great friends. This donkey paradise is John's passion. He's been the manager here for more than 20 years. Have you named them all? Yes, that's Mrs P, that's Mabel, that's Speckles. That's very impressive. That's Daffy over there, the big one over there is Daffy. So a friend of mine had told me about John and the donkey sanctuary and being fascinated with them and my horsey background, I had to come and see what it was all about. This is Princess. She's one of our oldest residents. She's been here since 1986. Oh, hi Princess. She comes from a horse fair. She'd been left up there, towed to a hedge for a week when we went to collect her. Every donkey's life, to me, is worth fighting for. And there's no donkey too old that we don't try to give it the best life. And if it's not very well, we try to get it well. She's got some seedy toe, which I'd like you to have a look at. Absolutely, I can do that for you. So Princess's seedy toe was really quite yucky. Donkey hooves don't smell that good at the best of times, so add an infection and that's something that'll turn your stomach. She does have that nice thrushy smell that you get, doesn't she? And you can definitely see where it's eaten away through the white line. It's eaten into the hooves. You can really see the groove in there, can't you? Yes. What would you recommend? And probably at this hour, I would say probably just an antibacterial if you've got any to hand. So John just takes in these poor donkeys that have been through so, so much in their lives and they've just got a history of abuse or whatever it might be. And the love that he gives to them, it's like he's just trying to wipe their memories clean by giving them a fresh start. It's really special. All right. On to the next task. On to the next one. Right. Emma is in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside, lending a hand at the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary. John, who have we got here? This is Tracy. Hi, Tracy. She's been with us for about eight years now. But I think she's developed a bit of conjunctivitis in the eye. I wonder if you could just have a look at it. Oh, that'll feel much better, won't it? Let's get rid of all of that for you, sweetheart. We only scratch the surface, really. there's an awful lot more out there which we could save but we just work hard to to keep it all going that feels a lot better Tracy doesn't it yeah of course it does as I'm talking to John about all these different donkeys and where they've come from the more I just want to bow my head to him and just on behalf of all of them I think say thank you to him because he's an absolute hero row to them. Are you going to marry me? Are you going to marry me? Beautiful lady. I hope that more people will be able to come down, help out and just see the life-changing work that goes on here. Lots and lots of cuddles, yeah. Real big kiss. That is one happy donkey. We could all be so lucky. Hi. Hello.