Pee-wee
Rescued: July 27, 2017

Terribly thin and in a truly awful state, Pee-wee was found abandoned without any food or water and simply tied to a tree in Lorca, almost two hours south of us. A neighbour reported the case to police, who thankfully acted.

We received the call for help from El Refugio del Burrito donkey rescue centre, which does not take ponies. At the time, we were struggling financially. But we were told this poor pony would simply be left on the street if we did not take him. How could we ignore such a terrible case of suffering?

Preliminary veterinary inspections soon showed that Pee-wee was not only skeletal. He also had a mouth infection, many rotten teeth, blood coming from his penis and an abscess or tumour pushing one eye out of its socket.

We immediately administered antibiotics and began focusing on feeding him up and building his strength. We decided on the name ‘Pee-wee’, as he’s such a tiny little guy and also had quite a few problems with his “waterworks”.

At first we believed Pee-wee had a urinary tract infection and may have also passed a kidney stone, hence all the bleeding from his penis. But just three weeks after his rescue, we checked Pee-wee in his stable only to discover blood everywhere. We immediately rushed him straight to Hospital Veterinario San Vicente – CPVR (Alicante horse hospital).

A cystoscopy revealed no obvious injuries, but vets decided to perform a castration as they believed the problem was related to Pee-wee becoming sexually aroused.

The vets also conducted several head scans on the mass pushing Pee-wee’s left eye out of its socket. We are so lucky to have such skilled veterinarians with high-tech equipment near our centre.

Eventually, we received great news. The growth over Pee-wee’s eye was not a tumour – it was actually simply fluid. After the vets drained an incredible 50ml from the area, Pee-wee’s eye returned to sitting perfectly flat. We have no way of knowing what caused this; it may have been a foreign body that got under Pee-wee’s skin before his rescue and caused an infection.

The vets also found that the first molars on both sides of Pee-wee’s mouth were broken. Poor little guy. He was about 8 years old when rescued and has clearly lived with all of these problems for years. We know for sure that he’s a little fighter.