Strays which live in industrial areas, call construction sites or factories their “home”. The luckier ones get fed by kind workers, whereas the rest will have to live on scraps and rubbish. Fights for food and/or territory are common in order to ensure their survival.
A couple of weeks back, one of our stray feeders caught sight of a handsome looking dog when on her feeding rounds. She found it strange that the dog tilted his head slightly to one side, and initially thought it might be that he is born this way. When the dog started shaking his head continuously for a couple of times, she decided to take a closer look.
She was appalled to see the dog had a huge bite wound behind his right ear, which was dripping wet with pus and reddish looking. The same side of the neck was also wet with pus which flowed freely down from the wound and the stench smelt way too familiar. She was immediately reminded of Lady (http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com/2008/05/na-rescue-lady-mongrel.html) and Diesel (http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com/2008/08/before-reading-further-please-be-aware.html), all of who suffered the same fate of huge maggots infested wounds.
After a few days of trying, finally with the assistance of a few friends, she managed to get hold of the dog. They quickly gave him a bath and he immediately looked many shades lighter, minus all the grime and dirt. Every time he shook to dry himself, a few maggots will drop onto the floor. He was named Bruno, derived from the Germanic word brun meaning “brown”.
That day, the stench of the wound filled the entire car as Bruno was being driven to the vet. He looked tired, and one can tell he was weak from his injury as the wound was at least two weeks old. A slow and painful death will have been awaiting him, if he was not discovered, as the maggots will slowly eat into him and cause him to die.
Once at the clinic, the vet immediately sedated Bruno and shaved off part of the fur on his head to clean his wound. It was a huge and deep puncture wound which required multiple flushings in order to get rid of all the maggots deep inside. He also had aural haematoma – swelling of the ear vessels due to excessive scratching or shaking of the head. We believe this came by due to the irritation from his wound, and Bruno might require surgery for his ear if the swelling grows larger. However, this will come later when his maggot wound has been entirely cleaned up.
We are very thankful that the internal part of the ear seems uninfected thus far as advised by the vet. Next a blood test was also run on Bruno, and he was found to be slightly anaemic. There are many causes for anaemia and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he has no other serious aliments.
Please help us help Bruno, as his medical bills might run up to quite a hefty sum especially if surgery is required for his ear. Do write in to info@noahsarkcares.com if you can help him in any way, big or small. These industrial dogs do not have a choice to where they are born in, but you have a choice as to whether to help them with a second chance in life.
“The street is not their home.” – This sentence can never been emphasized enough, and this is why Noah’s Ark is continuously working on Project Industrial Dogs (PID), to lessen the number of homeless strays on the streets. It is hoped that eventually one day, Singapore will be a stray free country. It may seem farfetched for now, but would be achievable with all your help.
[mon 14 jun. source: http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com/2010/06/brunos-plight.html, mon 14 jun.]
