And, changing topics, from weather to a horse who's doing much better.
When Wannie the horse was viciously beaten in April it made headlines. So, it's fitting tonight that the news of his recovery also makes top news.
When the story first broke in the media a few months ago, it broke the hearts of animal lovers everywhere. And one of them chose to do something about it. Reimers Feed Mill - which offers veterinary services - said they couldn't just sit back and do nothing. They took it upon themselves to nurse Wannie back to a picture of health and equine elegance. Their marketing manager told us more about that journey today.
5 months ago Wannie the horse was the victim of a malicious machete attack by a group of teens, and due to the impact of his story a number of businesses reached out to assist in his recovery. One of the main enterprises that stepped in was Reimer's Feed Mill, and today their marketing manager gave us an update on Wannie's remarkable recovery.
Rodrigo Blanco, Marketing Manager, Reimer's Feed Mill
"So as a company our first step was to assist in any way we can and we had donated some products to BAHA and some vets that handled Wannie when all that was happening. After a couple of days our company had decided that let's take him into our hands with the approval of his owner and see if we can assist the owner in terms of a 100% recovery of the wound. So after 5 months awe shared an update video last week on our social media video page and you know we were happy to share that he has full recovery 100%."
Blanco says when they first began treating Wannie he knew that the horse's recovery would not have been an easy one, not only was he wounded physically on the outside, but they could also tell that he was very traumatized.
Rodrigo Blanco, Marketing Manager, Reimers Feed Mill
"When it comes to how he was reacting to the medication I would say in the beginning in the early stages he was very numb to everything because just to transport the horse remember the wound that he had was very open so they had to tranquilize him a little bit but when he got here he was very numb and id say like neglected you can visually see that the horse was sad but then our job then begins right then and there because right now the screw worm is a big problem. The new world screw worm is a big problem so we knew in order to tackle this issue it's a day to day operation there is no way we can say we can treat the horse for 3 days leave him fro 3 days and then come back right it was a day to day operation and Ironically I would say maybe like after a month you start to see the horse a bit more agitated whenever we apply the medication but it was a good sign because it means that he is getting the feel, and getting the feeling back right where the wound is we started to see him gain some weight, we saw that he would start to move around the stable freely so these were all really good signs that he was healing and getting healthier at the same time."
After 6 months in their care and thousands of dollars in medication and feed Blanco says that their work won't just stop there, but they also hope to continue to work with Wannie's owner and teach him how to properly care for his horse.
Rodrigo Blanco, Marketing Manager, Reimers Feed Mill
"As a team we have come together and now we want to do a phase 3 part o this journey where we want to see if we can assist Mr Devonte by building a stable, it has to be like a 10 by 10 stable we are trying to see if we can get some donations in terms of the lumber and the zinc but the labor is from our side. So far we have gotten coop sheet metal that I believe Pletts home builders are the ones that did the zinc so we are trying to partner up with a company here to get lumber. Now this comes as phase 3 of this journey and what we want to do as well is, our horse guy has offered assistance to the owner once we had over Wannie where he will actually offer his personal number if there are any questions or anything he wants to learn any updates that he can contact our team right then and there so he could learn then."
Reimers spent between $4,000 to $6,000 dollars on Wannie's care over 6 months.
