Bonnie the dog survives to see in the New Year

Hello friends!

Merry Christmas! Hope you are all enjoying the festive season. I speak for everyone here at Animal Tracks, staff and animals alike, in wishing you all the best for the New Year.

Bonnie the dog will definitely have a very happy Christmas this year. She came dangerously close to not even surviving that long when she accidently ate some rat poison. Rat poison kills numerous animals all the time and the vets here at the clinic see many cases where pets are brought in with poisoning. Depending on the size of the animal, the amount of poison consumed and the period lapsed since the consumption, poisoning can be very tricky to cure.

Luckily Bonnie's owners actually saw her eating the poison and took swift action. They called the centre and were told to bring Bonnie in immediately for treatment.

Doctor Manik was ready to receive her when she arrived and started treating her straight away. She was given intravenous medication and her owners were asked to bring her in every day for two weeks for follow up treatment.

It was much to Bonnie's advantage that she is a young, fit dog because she responded to the treatment fast and recovered over the two week period. After the ordeal Bonnie's owners brought her in for vaccination so no doubt Bonnie will be tucking in to some lovely Christmas treats this year to comfort her after her ordeal.

Love from me,

Olive x

Capering cow gives rescuers the run around

Hello everyone!

I guess by now you are all dazzled by tinsel and fairy lights in the run up to Christmas. That means that you are probably wearing warm scarves and hats to keep out the winter chill. Can't say that we're struggling to keep warm here in Goa. Surprisingly though we are still seeing a few monsoon showers which is very unusual for this time of year.

Say hi to Julie. This madam has certainly given the staff at Animal Tracks a challenge right from beginning to end. A message came in from a regular supporter who had spotted Julie running around with an in-grown horn. The horn was digging deep into the flesh and she was in urgent need of medical attention. It was not easy to help her though because she refused to be caught. It took four attempts before our staff had any luck. On the fourth attempt our vet Nikhil, nurse Myla and driver Shivnath went to the rescue.

Julie had them running around for three hours before she let herself be caught. Since it had already been established on previous attempts that this was not going to be an easy task, it was decided to dart Julie to sedate her. Only Julie didn't plan on giving in without a fight, so she ran up a hill and into the wilderness. During the attempt to catch her Shivnath fell and incurred serious injuries while he was trying to prevent her from escaping yet again. Even though she was sedated she still managed to shake the vehicle almost to pieces when she was finally on her way to Assagao.

The team returned to Animal Tracks at 9pm in the evening, exhausted but pleased that they had managed to catch Julie. She was treated the following morning and the horn was cut off. She stayed at the centre for a few days for follow up treatment but has now been released. At least she can now run around like a mad hatter as much as she likes, healthy and free from pain!

Love from me,

Olive x