Help our Animal Hospital Survive Covid-19 Crisis

It's the time of year at TOLFA we know as 'maggot wound season' and it's about as much fun as the name suggests! Hundreds of animals, mostly dogs, are brought in with gaping wounds being eaten away by maggots. You need a strong stomach to walk through the rescue kennels, but our staff have seen it all before and take it in their stride.

This male dog, Macky, was admitted with a maggot wound on this neck and ear (the worst wounds are usually in places where the dogs can't lick them clean themselves). Our treatment team shaved the area to give it a deep clean and remove the maggots. To help him heal Macky has been given antibiotics and pain relief as well as daily wound cleaning. 

As Macky was unsterilised we can be certain that his wound was sustained by fighting with other males during mating season. 

The bigger wounds we have seen this year have pretty much all been on unsterilised males. On average our ABC project (Animal Birth Control) sterilises 50/50 males and females. This year we have already sterilised almost 1,700 males. In the last 5 years we have sterilised almost 7,000 males and yet still see wounds like Macky's (and a whole lot worse) which goes to show how important the continued ABC work is. Not only does it reduce the number of puppies born on the streets but it also helps the health and wellbeing of the adult dogs.

Macky has now been sterilised and given his rabies shot at TOLFA, and will shortly be released to his home area a healthier, happier dog.

Your support helps us get through the worst and enables us to save lives like Macky’s – Thank You.

Links:

• TOLFA's NEW Website

There are many challenges still remaining since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourism is still down in Rajasthan, so there are fewer tourists to both help the street animals and support the local economy. We are experiencing more extremes of weather with both the hot season getting hotter and the wet season getting wetter. This situation not only makes the logistics of animal rescue more difficult, but it also makes life so much harder for the street animals.

Let me introduce you to just one animal we have helped recently. Poor Tigs had been running around Ajmer scratching his itchy skin until his hair fell out and he started giving himself wounds.

Mange by itself isn’t life threatening but the wounds caused by incessant itching can be. Infection can set in, and in damp weather maggots can infest the wounds. If left untreated these will kill a dog. Tigs was raw, miserable and with little hope in sight… Until our vehicle was called to rescue him!

At TOLFA, all mange dogs like Tigs are given weekly chemical baths and anti-parasite injections, so slowly the itching lessened, his wounds started healing and the rawness went away.

It took many weeks for us to make sure that every parasite was gone, but Tigs is now parasite free, sterilised and vaccinated against rabies and will soon be off back to his area to live his second chance at life.

Tigs is just one animal we were able to help, but our emergency number receives about 50 calls to help animals like Tigs every single day. It is our aim to help every single animal that needs us. This is all possible due to your support and we cannot thank you enough.

Links:

• Help Us Get A New Rescue Vehicle to Reach More Animals Like Tigs