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 A Heartbreaking Decision

 Sometimes being an animal owner requires you to make tough decisions. Alison Hall, along with her young children Holly and Harry, faced the ultimate nightmare earlier in the year.

 “The hardest day of my life came when I had to break my children's hearts and let go of our much loved miniature Shetland Mooky.

 

Mooky came in from the field slightly lame. After a discussion with the vet he was put on to box rest as a precaution. But within days he was much worse and X-rays then showed he had pedal bone rotation and he had gone down with laminitis.

 

This was absolutely gutting as I've always been very cautious, knowing that native ponies can be susceptible to laminitis. I’ve always followed the veterinary advice of restricting his grazing and diet to keep him from gaining too much weight, and never having laminitis it was a bit confusing that he should now come down with it.

Blood tests were taken and revealed that Mooky was also suffering with Cushings disease and metabolic syndrome. He was medicated following the diagnosis and support shoes put on.

 

As the weeks went on he improved, looking happier in himself. But then one morning he went backwards, quite dramatically. Mooky had contracted an infection from inside the foot which was causing his sole to crumble away. At this point he was on maximum pain relief and had been for a while.

 

His quality of life was obviously going to be very poor in the future and the pedal bone was a ticking time bomb seriously close to coming through his foot. It became clear that I had to make the decision to let him go, it was not fair to put a 10-year-old pony through any more of this. He was uncomfortable and his future was bleak.

 

When we said good bye, he was in good spirits considering the pain he was in.

Mooky did not owe us anything, he was an amazing pony whom we all loved dearly. He taught Holly to ride, and turned his little hooves to all sorts of activities including polo, mounted games and dressage, and he had given Holly the chance to be crowned champion on many occasions in the show ring.

 

Mooky you were one of a kind, we were so proud of you. Thank you for being our pony and huge part of our family, we’ll remember you, always.”