*UPDATE MARCH 2021* Thanks to your amazing support, we reached our target and Dobby has now has his operation and is on the mend. So far things are going really well and he is even enjoying the sunshine and grazing in the field on his road to recovery. What a lovely example of how kindness really does change lives

Dobby Desperately Needs Your Help to Give Him a Future

Dobby has had an incredibly rough start to life and now he needs urgent surgery or faces a very uncertain future. He arrived at The Hugs Foundation in April 2020 when Hugs assisted another charity in rescuing four severely neglected and abandoned young ponies from Surrey. Two of these have now been successfully rehabilitated and re-homed (Dickinson and Moomin) and are living the most amazing lives. Another pony (Laurel) sadly had to be put to sleep because his injuries were so severe. That left Dobby, a two year old piebald gelding who had been severely neglected.

We don't know what happened to Dobby before he came to Hugs but we suspect he was mistreated by humans as he is a very nervous little pony. He is incredibly sweet and tries really hard to be brave and trust humans. The team at Hugs have given him lots of care and love and this, along with a little patience, is starting to make a real difference as he is blossoming into a handsome, sweet and loving pony.

Unfortunately, Dobby needs urgent treatment if he is ever to have the chance of having a healthy life and being offered for re-homing. He has sarcoids, tumour like masses, on his chest and armpits. Sarcoids are unique to horses, they look and behave as tumours but they are triggered by a virus, Bovine Papilloma Virus (BPV1/2), in susceptible horses. Sarcoids can appear in different forms. Occult sarcoids look like flat bald patches of skin, Nodular sarcoids are regular masses under the skin or in it, Verrucous sarcoids are wart like and Fibroblastic sarcoids are large and ulcerated. They can occur singly or in multiple masses. They can appear at a site which had been a wound and they exhibit a huge range of growth patterns. One type can change into another. A sarcoid can also be quiet for a long time or grow and change rapidly. Depending on size, site and the tissue involved they can be life-threatening. Fly bites can cause sarcoids as some flies carry the virus and a horse with sarcoids can also pass them on to another horse if they are genetically susceptible to the disease. We need to help Dobby before his become even more invasive or spread to other ponies.

Dobby has Nodular and Verrucous sarcoids. There is a wide range of treatments for sarcoids but our vet has recommended urgent surgery and chemo to remove them. The operation and treatment is going to cost approximately £2,000. They must be treated for him to be fit for re-homing and to allow him to live out a happy, healthy life, otherwise his future is very uncertain.

If all goes well, Dobby can continue his rehabilitation at Hugs where everyone loves him for his sweet, kind nature. He is a shy little person but is maturing into a lovely, genuine pony that will hopefully be able to enjoy life as a children's ridden pony or as companion to another horse. If you can, please help fund our appeal for Dobby and enable us to give him the future that he so deserves.

Thank you so much to all that have kindly donated, you are true Hugs Heroes