First ever dialysis at Kerala vet hospital saves dog

KOLLAM: Even as the debate over killing stray dogs in the state remains a hot topic, a dog that was dying got a new lease of life in the first ever such procedure to be conducted in a government veterinary hospital in the country. Suffering from serious kidney trouble, the dog underwent Haemo-dialysis at the Thevally veterinary hospital here on Thursday.

A seven-year-old Labrador  named Jack, was brought to the hospital by its owner Dileep from Mundakkal here after the dog fell critically ill due to kidney failure.

A medical team led by Dr B. Aravind diagnosed the blood samples to find alarming rates of creatine and nitrogen in the blood. The dog was given emergency attention and the team decided to do haem-odialysis using the facility provided at the hospital by the district panchayat.

The dog was sedated and its blood vessels were connected to the dialysis unit for the procedure that took almost six hours. After the dialysis, the dog was taken home by its owner.

The dialysis procedure would be repeated on alternate days if required, said Dr B. Aravind. Rs 5000 is charged for each dialysis procedure.

Apart from the advanced treatment facilities, the hospital has also initiated ‘Suraksha’, a programme to check stray dog menace in the Kollam Corporation by implementing animal birth control.

A 1,000 out of the 5,000-odd stray dogs in the corporation will be spayed as per the programme. Four trained volunteers of the SPCA will catch the stray dogs to keep them for a day’s observation at the hospital before the surgery. They will be given antibiotics and the vaccination for rabies after ‘Ovariohys-terectomy’, the surgery for birth control.