July 7th, 2009 at 9:07pm
Bobby
On 28th June a national animal charity contacted WWR to ask for our help. Members of the public had taken in a cat and her three kittens and also six lurcher puppies found in a cardboard box on a golf course, the clinic asked us if we knew of any organisation that would take the animals, care for them and eventually rehome them. We contacted some of the people that we know and the only one that could help was ‘Vicky’s Rehoming Service’. Vicky was able to take the cat and kittens but only had space for three of the six week old pups. So WWR agreed to foster the pups until they were old enough and well enough to be rehomed. Eddie collected the animals from the clinic and took the cat, kittens and three pups to Vicky and brought the other three pups home. They were malnourished, dehydrated and had poor skin condition but we set about trying to make them stronger. The following day Vicky rang to say one of her pups was unwell and had to be put on a drip and after two days she died. Tests were carried out and showed positive for Parvo Virus. The third day a second pup collapsed and died and three days later the third lost its fight. Meanwhile the pups at WWR seemed OK for the first five days,apparently that is the incubation period, but when they deteriorated tests showed positive for Parvo on all three of our pups and they were taken to our vet and put in isolation on fluid therapy and the drugs to try to combat the virus were given. These drugs are very expensive costing about five hundred pounds for each puppy. Blood tests have also identified campylobacta which is extremely contagious and can also affect humans. Our three pups have been in intensive care being barrier nursed at our vets for four days now, they are weak but at the time of writing this they are holding their own. Our problem whether they all survive or not is paying the vets bills, which are estimated to be in the region of £2500-£3000 (the costs of treating the pups that did not make it still have to be paid). We are planning some fund raising activities but the proceeds of these are likely to be a drop in the ocean. We have contacted several national animal charities, including the one that gave us the pups, but they all say because we are not in receipt of any benefit they cannot help, we are on our own !! We would like to appeal to any animal lovers that read this and can afford to make a donation towards our Parvo Pups appeal, however much or little they can afford to help us. We operate our wildlife rescue operation/ambulance on money that we are able to raise through the generosity of the public and their donations, usually with great difficulty. Although our aim is to help sick and injured wildlife we could not stand by and see these babies with nowhere to go so right or wrong we got involved never dreaming what the outcome would be. If anybody out there would like to help we would be eternally grateful.
