Last Sunday Lupito arrived at San Pedro Animal Hospital at about 3pm after being hit by a car.  His owner was distraught.  Both his front legs had been injured.  After an examination it was found that his right front leg had only superficial injuries.  His heart and lungs were normal and he was amazingly stable considering what had just occured.  His left front leg had been stripped of all skin, muscle, vessels and nerves.  Only the bone remained.  He was, of course, extremely painful.

Lupito was given powerful pain killers while we discussed the situation with his owner.  The left front leg needed to be amputated…as soon as possible.  The owner was very upset at the thought of her puppy with only 3 legs.  She also was unable to afford the surgery, which is very expensive.  After much discussion we came upon agreement.  She would pay what little she could afford.  I would donate the surgery time and the San Pedro Animal Foundation would pick up the tab for the anesthesia, medications and supportive care.  But there was a catch – she had to allow us to amputate the leg.  It would be inhumane to take the puppy home in this condition.

Reluctantly, the owner finally agreed.  At 10pm that night the surgery was complete, and Lupito slept off the anesthesia with continued administration of buprenorphine, a potent morphine derivative.

At a 8am the next morning Lupito looked at me with a sad face, but he was already sitting up in his cage.  He ate some canned food and took his oral antibiotic.

Lupito at 8am the next morning.

Then it was time for more buprenorphine for pain, so that he could sleep comfortably and allow his body to begin the healing process.

Lupito back on his pain medicine at 9am, resting.

Lupito recovering after less than 24 hours

 

It has been a week now, and Lupito’s family is so happy that they decided to go ahead with the amputation.  Lupito is already running and jumping and playing.

Many people think that their pets are like us, that they cannot be happy after an amputation.  But this is not the case.  Our pets are much more resilient than we are, and readily adapt to their new situation with no bitterness or sense of loss.

This is just another quality in our pets that we can only admire, and do our best to emulate.

  The island was saddened by the loss of Tom Kimbrell last week, who died suddenly in a tragic accident. 

 When his companion of 12 years, “Raska”, was brought to San Pedro Animal Hospital for medical care last Thursday the San Pedro Animal Foundation stepped in to cover the costs.

 Raska suffers from poor vision and arthritis, among other things, and she has been through a lot of stress since her owner’s death.  Friends have stepped in to take care of her but she has had to adapt to new environments and new caregivers.

  The San Pedro Animal Hospital diagnosed and treated her for a condition called “Dry Eye” and conjunctivitis.  With time her vision may improve if the proper treatment is continued.  She was also treated for a skin infection, ear infections, and ticks.  She was given a thorough flea and tick bath as well as a soothing oatmeal bath.  Her nails were trimmed, her ears were cleaned, a monthly flea and tick preventative applied, she was dewormed, and given her monthly heartworm preventative.

She has a lot of medications to take but she should be much more comfortable now, thanks to those who have donated to the San Pedro Animal Foundation.

We send our sympathies to Tom’s family at this sad time and offer out best wishes to his loyal friend, Raska.

  In memory of Peter’s mother my family has donated 500 Belize dollars to the San Pedro Animal Foundation. 

Sarah was an avid animal-lover her entire life.  It was said that I was the only girlfriend of Peter’s she ever liked because I am a vet.  Of all of Peter’s accomplishments, it seemed that the one she was happiest about was the San Pedro Animal Hospital.  After it was built she made her first ever visit to Belize.  As you can see from the above photo, she greatly enjoyed her time in San Pedro.

We are discussing what would be the best project to undertake in her memory.  We would like to do something other than spay and neuter for a change.  Something to increase the quality of life for our canine companions of lesser means, who perhaps  do not spend their days riding around in golf carts.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.

Obviously Peter inherited his love of dogs and cats from his mother.  In more ways than one, the San Pedro Animal Hospital and the San Pedro Animal Foundation owe their existence to Sarah Lawrence.

We miss you, Sarah.

   Princess was brought to us in a cardboard box by a boy on his bicycle so that we could treat her skin.  She is from the San Mateo area, the area where we have collected most of our charity cases.  San Mateo is the poorest area of San Pedro.  Princess is five months old and has never seen a vet before, so she has never been dewormed or had any vaccinations.

 When presented with a skin problem of this severity in Belize it is typically mange, but there are two types of mange.  One is contagious to other dogs and humans, but it is easy to treat.  It is called “scabies”.  The other is not contagious to other animals or people but it is more difficult to treat.  It is called “demodex”.  The only way to tell the two apart is with a skin test called a “skin scraping”.  Cells are taken off the skin and examined under a microscope.  In Princess’s case, a multitude of live demodex mites were observed.

Demodex is usually a disease of puppies who are suffering from other chronic diseases, such as parasitism or chronic ehrlichia infection (the cause of tick fever).  In her case, she also had pale gums and a heart murmer, indicative of hookworm anemia.  Hookworms are extremely prevalent in Belize in puppies.  For this reason all puppies should be properly dewormed by a veterinarian multiple times.

 Princess’s owner paid for her examination, the skin scraping, and the treatment for demodectic mange.  The San Pedro Animal Foundation picked up the tab for the deworming and the antibiotic for her secondary bacterial skin infection.  She will need to return for a recheck in 2 weeks which the foundation will also cover. 

With proper long-term treatment over the next weeks to months Princess has a good chance of becoming a healthy happy puppy. 

 Thank you for supporting the San Pedro Animal Foundation.