An animal rescue centre in High Halden is desperately seeking donations for their latest arrival.

Diamond is a ten year-old Shetland pony who was handed over to the Retreat Animal Rescue in December by her previous owner.

It wasn't long before the Rescue realised that she was chronically lame, she also has a lot of problems with her front leg and can't bear any weight on it.

X-Rays have shown that there a big holes in her bones which are leading them to disintegrate.

Fredericka Durham from the Retreat, which relies on donations, said: " Diamond was surrendered to us late last year, which was a very responsible thing for the owner to do as opposed to some who dump their animals, and we of course agreed to take her in.

"The X-Rays show that her bone is basically crumbling, it may either be an infection in the bone or could be a tumour so we are going to have to take her to the Royal Veterinary College in London for an MRI scan to find out exactly what this is.

"But this scan is going to cost a couple of thousand pounds at the least."

"Diamond's condition was entirely preventable. She's been like this for a while and it could have been fixed a lot easier if she had been brought to us and had treatment earlier."

She continued: "Diamond is very and feisty and has an amazing fighting spirit. Despite the fact she's in a lot of pain and discomfort, she's not giving up.

"Last week it didn't look good at all but she pulled through and she’s fighting all the time so we’ll be fighting with her and doing everything we can to help her.

"Please if you can help and donate anything towards this little lady we would be so grateful, literally every penny is going to count towards getting Diamond the best treatment possible and potentially even save her life."

A charity page - Hope for Diamond - has been set up to help the Retreat reach their funds.