Dexter
Rescued: December 22, 2011
Passed away: February 4, 2014

Dexter was abandoned in Almoradi, he was found wandering on a round-a-bout on a main road by three Spanish brothers. They took him to the police but received no help. They decided to take him to their plot of land in Catral, they hadn’t realised that he was a mule and not a horse, they quickly realised that he was really ill as he collapsed. That was when they looked for us to help. When we got him to the centre we found that he had a lot of problems, his biggest was pyro-plasmosis (a parasite passed into the bloodstream by ticks) the treatment can only be used on horses and not donkeys which gave him a 50% chance of surviving the treatment. We had to treat him three times, the first time made him ill for a day, second time he was ok, third time he died and had to be resuscitated with drugs very quickly, we were very lucky that we managed to bring him back, after that we didn’t risk any more treatments, he isn’t completely cured but the three treatments that he did received were enough for him to live normally again. He now roams free range around the centre and is very popular on the open days, he has a big personality.

During the summer 2013 Dexter suffered a mild stroke that we hoped he had overcome but sadly this was not the case. Very slowly he was developing a type of equine senile dementia which progressed rapidly over the last two days where he became unaware of his surroundings and was unable to control his movements.

For the last hours of his life he chose to be with his best friends the donkeys. He was in no pain or stress at the end and we quietly put him to sleep. We treasure every moment this wonderful animal shared his life with us here at the rescue centre and he will be in our hearts forever.