HONEY

Honey
It is with much sadness that we have to inform all our supporters of the loss of Honey. Honey started to show symptoms of having an ear infection on Thursday the 29th of March 2001. Small amounts of cream / yellow pus was seen running from her left ear and she had lost her appetite.

Honey was put onto an immediate course of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and painkillers to make her comfortable. She was injected with her medicine for the first day then attempts were made to hide the pills in her fish. Unfortunately, even with something for the pain, Honey did not feel like eating. Attempts were made to inject her over the next two days but these were unsuccessful. Four days later Honey had to be put into into a crush cage - a very stressful and frightening process for any of our animals. Once crushed again we could inject Honey with her medicine. She was sectioned off into a nursery pool on her own - which she was unhappy about.

On Wednesday 4th of April Honey started to loose blood from her left ear. Calling the vet in again, a ruptured abscess was suspected. Put onto a different course of treatment Honey was checked on throughout the day and night. On Thursday April 5th 2001 between 12noon and 1.30pm Honey passed away.

Due to the current foot and mouth restrictions, we were unable to send her to for post mortem. Our vet Paul Riley took some samples from Honey and discovered she had some suspect tissues in her throat and around her lymph nodes in her neck. These have been sent off for analysis. Tumourous tissue is suspected.

Honey will be sorely missed by all of the animal staff and site staff alike. A beautiful and graceful seal her presence will be missed in the convalescence pool by all the seals too.


Here was the last report on Honey before she became unwell.......
HONEY is another partially sighted female in our convalescent pool, one of the earliest pups rescued at the Gweek Seal Sanctuary in the 1970s. She had come into contact with some sort of chemical pollutant out in the wild which damaged the surface of her eyes. She can make out shapes and shadows and definitely knows the shape of Animal Care Assistants and buckets of fish, especially when she´s hungry!

Like Sheba, Honey loves ice blocks and seaweed in the pool and even has a go at fish pulleys, using her sensitive whiskers and keen hearing to chase the fish.

Honey has finished moulting and is looking very sleek. Back into eating regularly she has regained the weight she lost whilst being hounded by Magnus. Spending time swimming around the pool means that Honey is in fabulous form and looks lovely.

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