Talking Taylor part two: Living with loss

As she continues on her path to potential rehoming, even a good-spirited, healthy donkey like Taylor isn’t infallible to the odd hiccup along the way.

Despite passing her initial assessment with flying colours, the 19-year-old donkey recently endured a small scare that threatened to derail her prospects of finding a forever home outside The Donkey Sanctuary.

The hurdle wasn’t entirely unexpected; Taylor had rejoined the herd at Woods Farm after spending half a year at our state-of-the-art donkey hospital at Brookfield Farm in January last year.

She moved to the hospital alongside her companion Brett, an 18-year-old gelding who required ongoing treatment for a chronic sinus infection.

Unfortunately, Brett’s illness became unmanageable and it was decided that the kindest course of action was to gently put him to sleep, which happened in July.

Since Brett’s death, Taylor has returned to Woods Farm.

To this day, she hasn’t taken up a friendship with any other donkey.

Flying solo

Taylor’s preference towards human company most likely stems from her stint at our donkey hospital.

That’s the verdict of Curtis Goding, one of our veterinary surgeons who has been monitoring Taylor as she progresses on her rehoming journey.

“Taylor had been out of the Woods group of donkeys for a long time,” he explains. “When she went back to the farm after Brett was put to sleep, we watched her closely to make sure she settled back in the group and stayed healthy.

“The time Taylor spent in the hospital resulted in a huge level of exposure to humans, all in positive ways.

“Brett was receiving intensive care most days, so she would have been familiar to being handled by the hospital grooms and received lots of enrichment to keep her mind stimulated as her companion received treatment.”

Since her return to Woods, Taylor has reintegrated into sanctuary life well considering she only had Brett for company for six months.

However, despite the positive reintroduction to the Woods herd, Taylor showed minimal interest in forming a new companionship with other donkeys.

As a result, she was selected as a candidate for rehoming by Curtis and his team fairly soon after her return.

“Taylor’s situation was quite unique because she was at our donkey hospital for such a prolonged period of time,” Curtis says.

“She would have settled into the routine of hospital care; this would have involved certainly being attended to by hospital grooms in the morning.

“Taylor also had a very familiar handler in Fern, one of the hospital grooms who gave her plenty of attention while Brett received treatment.

“She would have received scratches and treats. All of her experiences were individualised for her, so her life would have been quite different on her return to Woods.

“My sentiment is that since returning to group, Taylor has not been as happy as she was during her hospital stay.

“Going out on rehoming may be in her best interests as she’ll receive the close human companionship she craves.”

Handling a health scare

Taylor’s hiccup occurred in January this year; Curtis was notified that she had been losing weight throughout winter.

She had dropped to 203kg – only 11kg above her lightest-ever recorded weight of 194kg in 2022.

“We do see weight loss more commonly in our donkeys in the middle of winter,” Curtis says. “However, Taylor was bereaved so we needed to rule out hyperlipaemia.

“Due to the ordeal she had faced and the weight loss we were seeing, we carried out blood tests that revealed she had very mild liver disease – her bile acids were elevated.”

The Veterinary team put Taylor on a new feed and made a note to re-check her blood three months later.

The wait looked to have paid off – when Taylor arrived at Brookfield in March, she had gained weight. However, the blood tests painted a different picture.

Taylor’s bile acids had increased further, prompting the need for a liver biopsy to ascertain the underlying disease processes that were happening.

Just over two weeks later, Taylor’s surgery date arrived – yet there would be another twist. After conducted pre-operative blood tests to test for clotting, Curtis retested Taylor’s liver values.

He was surprised to find that the results came back normal, meaning Taylor was free to go back to Woods under supervision.

“Although the blood test showed Taylor’s liver was good, it also revealed that she had low protein levels,” Curtis says.

“Because we had her in, we completed a full abdominal scan because one of the most common causes of low total protein is colitis.

“Thankfully, we ruled that out with an ultrasound scan. We sent Taylor home and put her on a comprehensive balancer to increase her protein count.

“Two weeks later, everything was normal.”

The cause of Taylor’s health scare hasn’t been determined, though Curtis believes there are many mitigating factors that could have come into play.

“We don’t know the underlying cause,” he adds. “Temporary elevation in liver values is not unreasonable in the face of an increased metabolic load as she was losing weight.

“Donkeys’ bodies metabolise lots of fat and protein over winter and can puts the liver under strain.

“We also have to consider that Taylor may have been run down over winter and potentially a little less resilient than she had been in previous years because of the movements she had, and of course the loss of her friend.

“Regardless, we have kept a very close eye on her and are pleased with her progress.”

Don’t miss the next part of Talking Taylor, which looks at her ongoing behaviour training with The Donkey Sanctuary’s resident experts.