These last few days at the clinic have been loaded with emotions; both from my side and from the side of the worried owners coming with their sick pets...
There was a time, some 12 years ago, when we first started with PAWS to do something for Animal Welfare, when I felt that Mauritians do not care for their pets...As the years pass by, I guess we all have witnessed a change in the mentality towards pets and us Vets we are the privileged few to see that first hand. At my clinic, I see more and more people coming with a really caring and compassionate attitude towards their pets. People who cry when their pets are terminal, people who fight and stay awake whole nights to keep a fading puppy alive; people who travel kms to have their pets treated...
Someone phoned and rushed in with a land tortoise yesterday (Malagasy Radiated Tortoise)apparently not eating for a couple of days. When they took the reptile out of the box, my heart skipped a beat...the head and legs were limply dangling out of the carapace.Anyone who has ever owned a tortoise would know that usually these critters keep the head and legs tightly retracted under the carapace when placed in and "unfriendly" environment...and I thought aloud: "Did you bring me a dead tortoise?". Then upon closer manipulation, he blinked when I touched his eyelids! That was one lethargic and blemish reptile!A brief "interrogation" of the owners revealed acute onset of anorexia and weakness 2 days ago.
So, when you are DHAC (Don't Have A Clue) about something and you do not have a scientific explanation for something...it always pays to switch to logical thinking! Reptiles do not control their body temperature and depend on ambient temperature to warm up. Cold body = slow metabolism...so I opted for a warm bath whilst keeping his head above water level and passing a gastric tube down his stomach to sample some contents.
Flushed out some dark coloured vegetable matter and by now Mr Tortoise was becoming more active and helped a bit by vomiting a whole bunch of more green undigested leaves. Owners could not identify that with anything they had given to eat!Another case of poisoning with toxic house plants maybe; but what was interesting to me was the behaviour of the whole family during all this.Panicked and distressed at start: the guy kept saying "save him Dr Sam..." they shifted to sheer joy and relief when he vomited, stroking his shell and encouraging him and they were full of hope when they left with that tortoise in their box. Animal was still in bad shape with a poor prognosis but they were so happy to see him move after the death scare that it did not matter.
Some might say: What so special about a reptile? An animal that does not even socialise with Man...What binds this family to that slow and "non-interactive" animal? But yet they behaved as if it was their kid!
Small black pup...rescued from death by one friend of mine...but in a bad state. Animal was found weak on a poultry farm; 3 of its siblings had been eaten by mastiff guard dogs on that site and mother was shot by deer hunters.Puppy was brought with severe Parvo diarrhoea, abdominal cramps etc. Everyday that guy would come for a 1 hr IV drip session and tell me how he spent the night watching over this poor soul, syringe-feeding him and warming him up; how he had to cancel a business meeting because there was nobody to rehydrate him for 3 hrs. This person already owns a dog, has a full daily busy schedule and yet he chooses to put this little dog first...
Sick kitty brought from the other side of the island; owner driving all the way in the afternoon traffic; Lady picking up and dog from the roadside, with broken limbs and smashed hips and bursting into tears when I had to euthanise the animal to alleviate its suffering; Another owner gently talking to her cat as she comes round after anaesthesia for surgery; Kids taking turns to read stories to a dog in terminal stage of Distemper...the list is long...and it shows only one thing - There is something inside all of us called "Compassion". We all are born with our dose of it but some choose to repress it and act indifferent, some "prioritise" other feelings at the expense of compassion but some of us do let it out...
Om Mani Padme Hum...The Tibetan Mantra of compassion.For while now, this mantra has been very present in my life...I have a tattoo of it on my right wrist; someone recently gave me a CD with these incantations (Thank you Dr A!!)and I keep reading about it. Not that I am a big religious person or anything but, as someone rightly put it recently: "it's better to be spiritual than religious these days"...So yes,there is nothing more human to be compassionate!
Not the fake caring attitude because you expect to get something in return but true UNCONDITIONAL compassion for a suffering soul
...be it human or animal!
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