Wednesday 6 May 2009

Little calf survives surgery for two broken legs

Hi there,

Although the centre is as busy as ever collecting and treating animals, there is something different about the place these days: there aren't so many people coming to see the place and play with us. The tourist season is over and naturally that means fewer volunteers come to help out which changes the atmosphere a bit. It's not buzzing in the same way. Having said that, the long- termers remain faithful and despite the heat they still find the energy to come and give a hand walking the dogs. So I still get my treats and cuddles and I'm not complaining.

Little calf with broken legsA few weeks ago a very young male calf was rescued from the road side in the northern village of Tivim. He had been hit by a car and was in a bad state. Both of his back legs were broken and when he was brought to Animal Tracks there were doubts as to whether he would survive. Nevertheless the vets decided to give him a chance and immediately operated on him. Dr Nikhil, our specialist in orthopaedic surgery, went to work and completed the difficult task of mending the calf's legs with pins. It was a tricky job to do because the calf needed to be under general anaesthetic for a long time and that in itself put his life at risk. Luckily he pulled through and entered the next phase of recovering from the surgery and regaining his health and strength.

Now we are all keeping our paws crossed for the little Tivim calf. His progress is slow and the prognosis is uncertain. As much as we would all like to see him recover, there is doubt as to whether he'll ever be able to be released again. I wish we could have centre cows as we have centre dogs. Sadly it's not very practical because cattle take up a lot of space and need a lot more care than we dogs do. Besides, centre dog Nicky would chase them all off in no time since chasing cattle is his favourite pastime!

Lots of woofs from me.

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