For approximately the last twelve months we have been working with a team from several UK vet schools on a website called WikiVet. We are all very excited about the project as the website provides a free, online resource available to vets, vet students and allied professionals all over the world. We have been involved in developing the WikiDonkey pages, working alongside Barbora Stanikova (a recent vet graduate from the Royal Vet College) who has been responsible for the design and layout of the web pages. The material used to create the WikiDonkey pages has mainly been taken from our Professional Handbook of the Donkey, plus some extra information and a more expansive range of images.
We are hoping that this online resource will augment the Professional Handbook as the most up to date and accurate veterinary resource for donkeys. We will also be able to add information and edit the website in the future as techniques develop to keep it as current as possible. So for anyone out there who owns donkeys please feel free to tell your vet about WikiVet, and that there is now a donkey specific section covering all aspects of donkey veterinary care ranging from clinical normal values to diseases and disorders of different body systems, nutritional advice to parasitology, and care of the orphaned foal to castration techniques!
We will shortly be adding a drug formulary to the site which will list drugs suitable for use in donkeys and appropriate doses. This will be a very useful section for a lot of vets as donkeys respond to drugs quite differently to horses, although they are often thought of as small horses and as a result dosed incorrectly.
I am really pleased to have been involved in this project as it will raise the profile of donkeys and their specific clinical needs to the veterinary profession throughout the UK and overseas. We are already directing people to the site when they ring in or email with some of the more routine veterinary queries.
It’s been great to be involved with this project and see it through to fruition, especially when you know you are helping to increase the quantity and quality of donkey-specific veterinary information on the internet and as a result, the level of veterinary care and understanding. Well done to everyone who has been involved from the WikiVet team and the Research, Veterinary and Overseas departments of The Donkey Sanctuary.
