Orkney farmer rushes Shetland pony to the dentist
A farmer in Orkney rushed her Shetland pony to the dentist recently after noticing symptoms of dental distress. Emily-Jane Donaldson became concerned about Ruby, her miniature Shetland pony and didn’t want to take any chances. Thinking on her feet, she bundled Ruby into the boot of her car and made an 8-mile trip to Kirkwall, where she met with specialist vet, Pippa Peacock.
Pippa had travelled to Orkney by ferry and was based at Flett & Carmichael Vets. She was able to extract Ruby’s troublesome tooth using specially designed instruments. Ruby is one of the smallest Shetland ponies in the UK, standing at just 22 inches tall, and due to her dwarfism, she’s not classed as a normal equine case. When Emily-Jane noticed that she was in some distress, she contacted Pippa to get some advice and subsequently, a meeting was set up and the tooth was removed.
Pippa said that this was one of the most intricate extractions she had performed due to Ruby’s size, but said that the procedure had gone smoothly and Ruby was recovering well.
Emily-Jane joked that Ruby was loving life back at home and was trotting around while on strong painkillers. On the journey to meet Pippa, many people gave her funny looks, with Ruby squashed into the back of her Toyota, but she said that Ruby quite enjoyed the trip and she had been a lot more content since the tooth was removed.
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