Your donkey is a desert animal standing in the rain

A wet donkey is not a damp horse. It's a desert animal a long way from home.

Donkeys descend from the African wild ass, an animal of dry, rocky, hot country. Horses evolved on cold grassland steppes and grew the coat to match — oily, water-shedding, built to stand out a storm. Donkey coats don't do that. Rain soaks through to the skin, and a chilled, sodden donkey loses heat fast.

The hooves tell the same story. They're taller, more upright and more elastic than a horse's, designed for dry ground. Left standing in mud for weeks, they're far more prone to infection and to the slow deformities of chronic wet.

That's why donkey welfare guidance everywhere says the same thing: free access to a dry, draught-free shelter they can choose for themselves, all year round. Not a field shed they're shut out of at night. One they can walk into when the sky goes grey.

Donkeys also hide discomfort extraordinarily well — a quiet, dull donkey can be a seriously ill one.

If yours goes off its food, stands apart or simply seems flat, call a vet the same day. Dullness in a donkey is an emergency until proven otherwise.

And if it has a bonded companion, take the pair. Separating them makes everything worse. 🫏