As 2017 draws to a close, we’re looking back at an incredible year of animal rescues, charity partnerships, sterilisations and vaccinations! Our veterinary teams around the world have been working tirelessly on the frontline of animal welfare to improve the lives of animals and communities living in places with no veterinary care available. Here are some of our best moments!
Rockin’ Robin – WVS Thailand
We started the year as powerfully as ever, with the treatment of little Robin at our Thai ITC. He’d been involved in a car accident in Chiang Mai and his leg injury was so severe, the only option was to amputate. Robin soon learnt how to handle life with three legs, and was even adopted by the kind gentleman who brought him in!
Horses with Hugely Overgrown Hooves – WVS India
On the streets of Ooty, India, horses are left to wander and fend for themselves, uncared for and ignored. Our vets stepped in to help two horses who had some of the worst hooves they’ve ever seen. They’d been left to continue growing and must have been excruciatingly painful! Now, they’re not only able to walk properly again, but are part of an ongoing initiative by WVS India to improve equine welfare in the region.
Emergency Parcel - Nepal
An important part of our work is responding quickly and effectively to animal emergencies. This was one such occurrence. When a farm in Nepal suffered a terrible fire, and only 15 of the 122 cows living there survived, we knew we had to help the charity on the ground to save these final 15 animals. Within just a few days, we sent a parcel of Flamazine cream to treat the burn injuries to promote a full recovery for the remaining cows.
Improving Donkey Welfare – WVS India
Our veterinary team at WVS India have been running outreach clinics across the state of Tamil Nadu throughout the year, striving to treat as many working equines as possible. The families rely on these donkeys for their livelihoods, so by educating the community leaders on proper health management and care of their animals, we’re limiting injuries to the donkeys and providing skills to ensure a higher level of welfare is maintained for years to come.
The Hare and the Tortoise – WVS Hicks ITC, Goa
Most of our patients at the Hicks ITC are cats and dogs, but this year, we had two very interesting cases. A hare had been bitten by a dog, and a tortoise had got a fish hook stuck in its body. Our veterinary team set to work, treating both animals and they fully recovered at our centre.
Saving Casper’s Sight – WVS Malawi
Our team in Malawi are often faced with challenging cases, with many dogs presenting with cancerous tumours called TVTs. But when Casper came in with a TVT on her eye, the vets were sure she’d lose her sight. Thankfully, after just three weeks of treatment, Casper’s eye was healthy again, and her sight restored!
The Dog Catchers of Goa – WVS Goa and Mission Rabies Partnership
Our animal handlers are vital to the team everywhere we work, but especially in Goa where we’re working alongside our sister charity Mission Rabies to eliminate rabies from the state through mass dog vaccination. The skills of our animal handlers are incredible and without them, we wouldn’t be able to reach as many animals as we do!
1,000 Patients Treated At Jamtse Outreach Clinic – WVS India
Our WVS India team have been running more and more outreach clinics this year, to provide animal birth control and improve the health of the dog population in the area. At our Jamtse Animal Birth Control Programme, the 1000th dog was operated on! An amazing achievement!
Puppies Rescued – WVS Thailand
Amidst a busy construction site at Chiang Mai University was a bundle of seven puppies and their mother, living in a very dangerous location. A team of animal handlers was dispatched from our ITC to rescue the young family and bring them back to our centre for assessment before moving them to a new home. They’ve all now been adopted and can live life in a much safer place!
Bella – WVS Thailand
This year, we were lucky to have received a donation of a brand new Companion Laser at our centre in Thailand, which treated its first patient, Bella. Bella had fallen off a moving vehicle and was dragged along the ground resulting in several friction burns and lesions. With the addition of the Laser, our team did not need to perform invasive surgery and instead, could treat Bella with a series of nine laser therapy sessions! She’s now fully healed and happy to be back home!
Kiss – WVS Thailand
Kiss was one of the most horrific and sad cases our vets have ever seen. She’d been abandoned and was suffering from such debilitating injuries that she would not have survived much longer. An exposed section of her skull was infested with maggots, but the level of injury only spurred our Thai team to help her even more! After a long treatment process, Kiss' wounds are healing, and she now looks like a completely different dog!
Christmas Parcel Appeal
This Christmas, we launched our brand new Parcel Appeal for the festive season! Every month, we send our parcels of essential veterinary aid to charities and animals all over the world. This Christmas, we wanted to send out a record number of them, and we needed the help of our incredible supporters to achieve this goal! So far, we’ve raised enough to send out over 100 parcels, but with your donation, we can send out even more before the year is out!!
We’ve achieved some amazing things in 2017, and we know 2018 is only going to be bigger and better!!