Glenn was found wandering in the road a few kilometres from the Sanctuary. Unable to find the owner, we went to collect him and were shocked at what we saw. Glenn was emaciated, covered in cuts and scrapes and had lots of bare patches of skin all over his body. He had obviously been a working donkey and was more than 25 years old and it was plain to see he had severe dental problems. Most donkeys, if they are abandoned, don't lose weight as they find plenty of vegetation to eat.

When we got him back to the Sanctuary we gave him a more thorough examination and found that he had very few teeth left and those that were there were in terrible condition. He also had two deep abscess holes in his lower jaw. Added to that, it appeared that he had a skin condition which caused his skin to produce large flakes of skin.

His teeth were dealt with as best we could and the abscess holes treated. Every day he had his mouth washed out several times and, by soaking his feed so it looked a bit like thick soup, he began to improve. The wounds on his body soon healed but we couldn't get to the bottom of what was causing the flaky skin. While we were trying to find out, he was regularly washed with a special shampoo which helped a little but the skin would start flaking within hours. By the end of his 4 weeks isolation period, we knew that it wasn't an infectious condition.

Eventually Glenn's condition has been diagnosed as an immune system defect which fortunately seems to only affect his skin. He has now put on weight thanks to sorting out his mouth problems and feeding him his soggy food. He's also got quite a personality!