Jaagruti’s interventions

How Street Dogs, named ‘Dodo’ and ‘Chiku’ saved 3 bikes from being stolen?
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How Street Dogs, named ‘Dodo’ and ‘Chiku’ saved 3 bikes from being stolen?

Dodo and Chiku are two brave young Indian female dogs adopted as community dogs by Shivani, Priya and their young group of friends in Masjid Moth area of New Delhi! For it was their barking that alerted Shivani and Priya’s family on the midnight of 30th November-1st December 2015 to the presence of a “Bike Thief” on the prowl in their colony. They started barking as the thief tried to use a Master key to steel Priya’s Scooty. As his efforts failed, he tried his hand on another bike parked nearby. Alerted by Dodo and Chiku’s barking, Shivani’s brother confronted the thief and the Police was called over, only to learn that he had just stolen two more bikes that were parked outside the colony gate as he chased his 3rd ‘target vehicle’. Strange as it is, the Police reprimanded this ‘regular’ bike thief and let him go is what we learn. The residents were happy that they got their vehicles back, but no one patted the backs of these two girls, Dodo and Chiku, the unsung heroes whose alert barking alerted their caretakers into taking action against the ‘thief’.

This is how street dogs guard the streets they inhabit. They don’t  bark without a reason. Be compassionate towards them, they are on our streets for a reason.

Dodo, Chiku and their Mom, Gauri have all been sterilized and it was our turn at JAAGRUTI to vaccinate them all on 1 December 2015. Along with the three girls, Jetto, the black male dog was also vaccinated. We adore caretakers like Shivani, Priya and their gang of friends who were so respectful of us and grateful of the learnings they have had by reading through the JAAGRUTI blog and they were appreciative of our On-Site First Aid and Vaccination Service for Street Animals/Dogs as well.

 

Vaccinations at Masjid Moth on 01122015

The heroic acts of Indian Street Dogs to save their human friends in need are a daily occurrence, some get reported, most don’t!

Earlier this year in August 2015, it was ‘Pingu’, a mute Street Dog residing in Vasant Kunj area of Delhi had prevented burglary and risked his own life in the process.

Pingu brave mute street dog in Vasant Kunj_TOI_14_08_2015_014_040_011

Pingu Story in Dainik Jagran

You can read more about Pingu’s heroics on these links:

  • “Stray Dog Risks Life To Thwart Burglary”, reports Huffington Post
  • ” A Mute Stray Dog Risks his Own Life to Help the Residents of a Delhi Locality”, reports The Better India
  • “Stray dog Pingu fights off intruder in Delhi colony”, reports The Times of India

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Those who wish to avail of JAAGRUTI’s On-site First Aid, Treatment and Vaccination Service for Street Dogs / Animals are requested to read the link https://jaagruti.org/first-aid-and-vaccination-service-for-street-dogs-animals/ and write to us on firstaid@jaagruti.org. Support of local caretakers is essential to restrain and treat the animal during the entire course of On-site Treatment.

Contributions towards our medicine and transport costs are essential to support to keep up our efforts to sweat it out and treat animals on the street day in day out. Do consider supporting us by clicking on www.jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti. If you would like to contribute medicines in kind, please connect with us on contact@jaagruti.org and we will get back to you with our requirements.

An RWA sponsored Street Dog Vaccination Drive!
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An RWA sponsored Street Dog Vaccination Drive!

Most of the times, RWAs (Resident Welfare Associations) are antagonistic towards the existence of street dogs but, this time around, we at JAAGRUTI were in for a pleasant surprise as we were requested over for a vaccination drive for young street dogs and pups in this West Punjabi Bagh area based colony in Delhi. What makes it all the more unique was that this Vaccination Drive was sponsored by the RWA as well. In all, 9 pups were vaccinated with a 9-in-one vaccine and dewormed, 2 (namely Dholu and Molu) were given Anti-Rabies Vaccine, this was done with active participation of their caretakers, Mrs. Babita, Mrs. Kavita and Mrs. Meenakshi. From amongst the same, one puppy was also treated for a maggot infested wound, which Ms. Babita, their caretaker was already treating following the steps outlined on our Article to treat Maggot wounds, we helped clean the pus on the wound and injected antibiotics to hasten her recovery.

 

Those who wish to avail of JAAGRUTI’s On-site First Aid Service for Street Dogs / Animals are requested to read the link https://jaagruti.org/first-aid-and-vaccination-service-for-street-dogs-animals/ and write to us on firstaid@jaagruti.org. Support of local caretakers is essential to restrain and treat the animal during the entire course of On-site Treatment.

Contributions towards our medicine and transport costs are essential to support to keep up our efforts to sweat it out and treat animals on the street day in day out. Do consider supporting us by clicking on www.jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti. If you would like to contribute medicines in kind, please connect with us on contact@jaagruti.org or message us on Facebook and we will get back to you with our requirements. Thank you.

Treating ‘Chowki’ for Aural Haematoma
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Treating ‘Chowki’ for Aural Haematoma

This brown coloured male dog stays at a Police Check Post in Pitampura area of Delhi and thus we named him “Chowki”. We had even got him sterilized and now we were alerted to him having Aural Haematoma in his left ear.

[An aural (ear) haematoma is a collection of blood or serum, and sometimes a blood clot within the pinna or ear flap. This blood collects under the skin and causes the ear flap to become thickened. The swelling may involve the entire ear flap or it may involve only a small area. Aural haematomas usually occur as a result of local irritation to some part of the ear. When something irritates the ear canal, a dog is likely to respond by scratching or shaking the head. Excessive shaking causes blood vessels to break, resulting in bleeding. – Information Source www.vetwest.com.au]

He was constantly shaking his head and walking with a head tilt. Since it was early days yet as we were alerted in time, we chose to drain the pus off through a needle prick, first on the 19th November 2015 (a big burst of pus came out this day) and then on 21st November 2015 (pus was less in comparison to the first day) and injected the antibiotics directly into the ear flap, while putting him on a 5 day antibiotic course. We are glad to report that he is doing fine now :) with no more swelling in his ear and no more head shakes!

Those who wish to avail of JAAGRUTI’s On-site First Aid, Treatment and Vaccination Service for Street Dogs / Animals are requested to read the link https://jaagruti.org/first-aid-and-vaccination-service-for-street-dogs-animals/ and write to us on firstaid@jaagruti.org. Support of local caretakers is essential to restrain and treat the animal during the entire course of On-site Treatment.

Contributions towards our medicine and transport costs are essential to support to keep up our efforts to sweat it out and treat animals on the street day in day out. Do consider supporting us by clicking on www.jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti. If you would like to contribute medicines in kind, please connect with us on contact@jaagruti.org and we will get back to you with our requirements.

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JAAGRUTI’s Activity Report for our On-site First Aid Service (01.04.2015 to 31.10.2015)

Our Activity Report from 1 April 2015 – 31 October 2015

includes 243 First Aid cases, 35 ABC/Street Dog Sterilization surgeries and 243 vaccinations.

Break up below:

* 35 – Dog Sterilization/Animal Birth Control Surgeries (25 Females + 10 Males) mainly of dogs being looked after by Press-waalahs/dhobis, Rikshaw Pullers, Tea sellers/chaiwaalas and Maali/Gardeners.

* 175 Anti Rabies Vaccinations and 68 Nine-in-one Vaccinations, were administered to Street dogs of which 80% were administered free of cost by us.

* 74 Street Animals treated for Maggot wound infestations (thousands tutored online on how to treat them)

* More than 20 Educational Workshops conducted by us on topics as diverse as Compassion towards Animals, Animal Laws of India, Street Animal First Aid and our Waste Paper Recycling Initiative

* 46 Skin Infection episodes

* 24 Wound and Injury cases

And the others comprise of treating predominantly Street Dogs with Ear and Eye Infections, Gastric Infections, Cough, Deworming, Deticking, Limping/Leg injuries and a single case of treating Vaginal Granuloma.

If you believe in the merit and efficacy of JAAGRUTI’S On-site First Aid Service for Street Dogs/Animals, please consider making a #Diwaligiftforanimals  by clicking on https://jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti to help us sustain our work.

Thank you :)

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Previous Activity Report for those of you who maybe interested:

From 1 May 2014 till 31 March 2015, we have attended to 620 On-site First Aid and Vaccination cases of Street Animals, which includes Street Dogs primarily and also donkeys, cats, cows, horse and a little goat kid!

* Each of the cases we attend to are documented with a treatment sheet and photographs/videos wherever and whenever possible.

We are very proud of our little team’s big effort.

Please contribute to keep us going!

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Do you know about JAAGRUTI’s role in spreading awareness and in treatment of maggot wounds

We at JAAGRUTI have perhaps become experts at treating Maggot wound infested Street Animals and teaching others to do likewise :)

Read on…

As part of Jaagruti’s On-Site First Aid Service for Street Animals, from 1st April 2015 till 31st October 2015, we have successfully treated 73 Street Dogs and a Stray Cat for maggot infested wounds, off which all but 5 we couldn’t help heal uptil recovery, as three of them we couldn’t find after few days of treatment and two others died due to old age and Parvovirus infection respectively.

The remaining 69 have all healed, with just a couple of them still being checked on by us daily as their wounds were grave or discovered towards end October 2015); and we have detailed treatment sheets and photos to authenticate our statement and we are extremely proud of our little team’s big efforts!

Most importantly, as part of the way we offer and administer the “Jaagruti On-site First Aid Service for Street Dogs/Animals”, we  also educate and inform caretakers (if any) of these street animals to do daily dressings and administer oral medication to help heal the animal, after we have done the difficult bit for the initial treatment period. As most of the street dogs we attend to have caretakers belonging to the low-income group BUT big-hearted category, we even give them follow-up medication which they need to administer.

We work and treat ON-SITE, in the animal’s natural environment, in a place they know as their home. We don’t believe in doing “rescues” and sending animals off to shelters for treatments.

Healing is faster and the Animal is comfortable and the Caretaker is educated to treat Maggot wounds this way.

We are happy because we are the “changemakers” that we had set out to be.

Because these caretakers, once empowered through the information at their disposal have also gone onto successfully treat other street animals for maggot wound infestations.

And, our Informative Article titled, “Treating Dogs with Maggot Infestations” penned down by us on the basis of our experiential learnings on our very popular Jaagruti blog (www.jaagruti.org) has now clocked 53,134 hits!

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Add to that the many people whom we have guided through WhatsApp, e-mail and Facebook/Phone/blog based consultation to treat their street  animals of maggot infestations and we feel super! Even people as far as US and Australia write to us on this subject.

This Diwali, if you want to appreciate our efforts, consider contributing towards our On-site First Aid Service by clicking on https://jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti, as 99.5% of what we do is self-funded because a 2-member team can’t do it all, from posting funding appeals to treating so many animals On-Site. We choose to do the latter instead.

Please pitch in towards #Diwaligiftforanimals

Thank you :)

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Please contribute towards ‘Angrez’s’ treatment

“Angrez” as the guards on this site office of Delhi Metro in Sarvapriya Vihar of Delhi call him is this brown coloured light-eyed boy.

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With severe maggot infested wound on his left ear and head region (and two more near his anus and on his inner thigh) was spotted by Vipin’s tenant who then conveyed it to Tonia and Tonia connected with us at JAAGRUTI and we all went there today. He was found sitting behind a steel board in the shade…collectively we leashed and muzzled him to find not 1 but 3 sites filled with maggots on him.

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Over two hours we cleaned him up of most of his maggots and then dressed and bandaged him up and placed him in Tonia’s car to send him to a private boarding near Ashram that she had arranged where we will continue treating him.

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The cost of the boarding is a tad expensive and we would like some of you to come forward and contribute towards the total expected amount of Rs.15000/- that Tonia would have to incur on the boarding costs and our travel costs from Pitampura to Ashram till he recovers over a month’s time span. His treatment is on us!

If you would like to contribute towards Angrez’s treatment, please find ways to do so (online and bank transfer) on this link http://www.jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti (Contribute for ‘Angrez’)

Thank you.

Note: Please drop an email to contribute@jaagruti.org when you do make a contribution to help us track and acknowledge it.

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It’s raining maggot cases this rainy season, this post is about ‘Maggie’

Maggie

Meet ‘Maggie’, this brown coloured male Street dog with a big maggot wound on the upper back region. He is a self-found case like many that we do in Pitampura area of Delhi and thus the responsibility of treating him On-site is entirely on us. While he wasn’t cajoled with food on Day-1 (he was sulking because he had a wound!), his spirits picked up as soon as his wound was clear of maggots and with food to gorge on, he has been letting us treat him every day ever since. It has been over two weeks since we began treating him. We will continue to keep treating him till this horrible humid weather goes away!

Just a footnote: this boy was sterilized by us two years back and we even get him vaccinated annually as part of the vaccination drives we have been doing in this area over the past many years.

Consider contributing to JAAGRUTI™ to help us sustain our On-site First Aid Service for Street Animals.

We would be able to expand our reach only if people contribute. We have been an entirely self-funded effort thus far and working quietly on the ground since around 6 years now.

You can contribute online or make a bank transfer by accessing details on https://jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti/.


Please note: Request you to drop in a mail to contribute@jaagruti.org when you make the RTGS transfer/NEFT transaction with your complete name, address, amount transacted (transaction reference number) and your PAN Card no. so that we can track the same and acknowledge it gratefully. Thanks.

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A tale of 2 friends: 10+ year old street ‘Naifee’ & Class 10th student ‘Hunny’: A story about being caring and compassionate!

Kindness
A tale of 2 friends: 10+ year old Naifee, a street dog & Class 10th student Hunny: A story about being caring and compassionate!

Today, we want to share with you the story of a young Class 10 student named Hunny and ‘Naifee’, a brown coloured senior male Indian Street dog that has been staying on the pathway of the building floor Hunny has his flat on in Ashok Vihar area of Delhi, for a few years now. There are a set of 4 flats on this floor, including Hunny’s.

When Naifee contracted skin infection and had a web of big and… small blood-sucking horrible looking ticks all over his back, ears and under the elbows, it was Hunny, a class 10 student who took it upon himself to figure a way out to get him treated, while the elders around on that floor, perhaps ignored Naifee’s plight!


Hunny googled around and arrived at the webpage which explained about JAAGRUTI’s On-Site First Aid Service for Street Dogs/Animals and wrote us an email with a photograph of the ticks on Naifee’s back and requested a visit from us on Saturday, 18th July 2015, a Saturday was chosen just to ensure Hunny had his dad around who would help us restrain Naifee, a pre-requisite that we have for those who call us over for On-site treatment.
Hunny and Naifee_1

We went and treated Naifee on that day, applied topical anti-tick powder, injected what was appropriate for his skin condition, keeping in mind his age and general health and handed over oral medicines and the anti-tick powder to Hunny and his family to continue with over the next few days. Hunny’s mom and all other gentlemen and ladies residing on that building floor were briefed on the best die to feed Naifee, here onwards. It was Hunny who insisted that we explain what’s best for Naifee to eat, to everyone on that floor; and we gladly took it upon ourselves to educate them all, Naifee was also vaccinated against Rabies thereafter.Hunny just shared this lovely pic of his with Naifee with us. We are glad to share that Naifee is now, doing fine.

Hunny Naifee How we at JAAGRUTI wish that we have more compassionate and empathetic kids around like Hunny, for only then will this world of ours be a kind and beautiful place for all of us to live in. God bless you Hunny!

Spread the message of compassion around.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO US ?

Would you like to contribute towards JAAGRUTI’s On-site First Aid Service and Vaccination Service for Street Dogs/Animals in North West Delhi, so that we can continue to treat and heal them on the street itself, rather than packing them off to the uncertainties of an animal hospital/shelter?


If YES is your answer and you believe in the merit of On-site treatment, which is done with us being physically helped by the local caretakers/community members helping in identifying, locating, helping restrain the injured/unwell/wounded animal, day in and day out till they recover, then please click here https://jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti/ or find our Bank details below:You can now also contribute online to Jaagruti’s efforts by clicking https://www.payumoney.com/paybypayumoney/#/61923

 **Tax Exemption Status for ‘Jaagruti’: Donations to Jaagruti are entitled to tax-exemption under Section 12A and 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act 1961.
Account Name: JAAGRUTI
Bank Account Number (Current Account):1710002100550190
Bank Name: PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK
Bank Branch Name (with Code): (171000) LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE, PITAMPURA
Bank Branch Address: LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE, PITAMPURA, DELHI-110034
RTGS/NEFT/IFS Code: PUNB0171000

Please note: Request you to drop in a mail to contribute@jaagruti.org when you make the RTGS transfer/NEFT transaction with your complete name, address, amount transacted (transaction reference number) and your PAN Card no. so that we can track the same and acknowledge it gratefully.

A donation receipt along with Jaagruti’s Tax Exemption Certificate would be duly e-mailed/couriered to you thereafter.

Thank you.

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A dog with a swollen face – Our First Aid Service at work!

Chowki_Jaagruti_Swollen Face

Have you all started wondering if our On-site First Aid Service for Street Animals only tends to maggot cases?

Well, not really…meet this brown coloured male street dog whom we spotted near a neighbourhood Police chowki on 14th August. His face was swollen like a pumpkin and his eyes were hardly opening! It was food that helped us win his heart over and we were able to begin treatment. By Day 3, the size of his face has returned to its normal size.

We have attended to such cases before so knew that this swelling of the face was possibly due to pus accumulation. And the pus accumulation was courtesy the fungal infection he had in his left ear due to this horrible humid weather, which would have caused him to shake his head constantly and this swollen pus filled face as a result.

Please take note of what we are sharing next.

Pus accumulated in any part of the body will always try to make its way out by making an opening/hole in the body. In this Chowki dog’s case there were three openings too, a big hole in the left ear and then two smaller ones over the forehead and above the left eye. These openings need to be tended to as well, cleaned and dressed up else its a recipe for an upcoming disaster, yes, you guessed it right, screw-worm flies love this pus and would have soon sat on it to lay eggs and convert this into a maggot wound!

Consider contributing to JAAGRUTI™ to help us sustain our On-site First Aid Service for Street Animals.

We would be able to expand our reach only if people contribute. We have been an entirely self-funded effort thus far and working quietly on the ground since around 6 years now.

You can contribute online through https://jaagruti.org/contribute-to-jaagruti/ ormake a Bank Transfer, details of which are mentioned below:

Account Name: JAAGRUTI
Bank Account Number (Current Account):1710002100550190
Bank Name: PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK
Bank Branch Name (with Code): (171000) LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE, PITAMPURA
Bank Branch Address: LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE, PITAMPURA, DELHI-110034
RTGS/NEFT/IFS Code: PUNB0171000

Please note: Request you to drop in a mail to contribute@jaagruti.org when you make the RTGS transfer/NEFT transaction with your complete name, address, amount transacted (transaction reference number) and your PAN Card no. so that we can track the same and acknowledge it gratefully. Thanks

Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Series-2: Educating your Residential Society on the scientific and lawful manner of dealing with street dogs

This template letter on Google Docs is kind courtesy of the Voice of Stray Dogs, Bangalore and makes for a good resource material for those of you trying to educate their own residential societies (RWAs i.e. Resident Welfare Associations) on the best possible legally correct, scientific and humane way of dealing with the ‘subject’ of street dogs in their colonies.

How to do this yourself?

Firstly, read these two articles to best understand the Rights of Street Dogs in India and the Delhi High Court rulings on the subject of feeding street Dogs, then save the images and the PDF Files embedded in these articles on to your computer, take a print out of these saved files and attach it as annexures to the above letter that you would draft and address to the concerned person in your RWA, seal the letter and send it across through courier or registered post, keep a photocopy of the same set with you. Be strong and fight it out intelligently, the laws are on your side and the dogs, just use your wisdom and intellect to drive the point across to the ‘uninformed’.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions on the above subject (kind courtesy of People for Animals):

Q) Can people who feed animals in their areas be stopped by the RWAs or Societies or neighbours under the law ?

A) Article 51A of the Constitutional Law of India, speaks about the duties of every citizen of India. One of these duties includes having compassion for living creatures. So the animal lover is protected under the Constitution.

Article 19 of the Constitution of India, deals with right to freedom and in this freedom comes the right to profession, occupation, trade and business. Therefore, it means that every citizen has the right to occupation and if someone has taken the caring of animals as his occupation, it is legal and he has every right to carry on with  his occupation.

Article 21 of the Constitution of India states the right to personal life and liberty. Now this is the very vast right. If someone wants to feed dogs and provides shelter to the dogs, he has every liberty to do so. He has this right to liberty that the law provides to every citizen of India.

But, above every law and rights, there is a natural right too, which is a universal right, that is inherent in the nature of ethics and contingent on human actions or beliefs. It is the right that is claimed to exist even when it is not enforced by the government or society as a whole. It is the right of the individual and considered beyond the authority of a government or international body to dismiss. Therefore, if there are any rights at all, there must be right to liberty, for all the others depend on this. And, loving, caring and feeding and giving shelter to dogs, definitely is a natural right of any individual.

In a judgment passed by the Delhi Court, it has been stated that the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Municipal authorities have in the guidelines issued by them specified the problem often faced by the individuals and families who adopts stray animals and feed them and come to the assistance of such persons. The court says, that it is necessary to bring into record that these individuals and families who adopt stray animals are doing a great service to the humanity as they are acting in the aid and assistance of municipal authorities by providing these animals with food and shelter and also by getting them vaccinated and sterilized. Without assistance of such persons no local municipal authority can successfully carry out its ABC programs. The court has went on to say that the local police and the municipal authorities are under the obligation not only to encourage such adoption but also to ensure that such persons who come forward to take care of these animals specifically the community or neighbourhood dogs so that they are not subjected to any kind of cruelty.

And finally, the court has said that every individual has a right to live his life in the manner he wants and it is necessary that the society and the community recognizes it.

Q) Can an RWA/Society or any individual pick up the dogs in a colony that are sterilized and vaccinated and throw them away somewhere

A) Under the Government of India Animal Birth Control rules 2001 , no sterilized dogs can be relocated  from their area. Under 5 High Court orders , sterilized dogs have to be in their original areas. Even if the dog is not sterilized , the Society can simply ask an animal welfare organization to sterilize and vaccinate the dog. They cannot relocate him. Relocation is not permissible as it would cause more problems such as increase of dog bites as dogs are territorial by nature and fight to retain their areas keeping out other dogs.
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Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Series-1: How do we pick up street dogs and take them to the nearest vet in our car

We are no experts and neither do we run an animal ambulance or hospital that tends to animals. We do it one street dog (or at best two or three) at a time and try to do our best in getting them treated/taking care of them and returning them back to the streets/areas where we picked them up/rescued them from.

We would like to share here what we have learnt, in our few years of doing this work on how best YOU can also try to pick an animal in need; place them in your car and take them to the nearest good vet for treatment/first aid.

Sometimes, a few regular visits to a good vet are all the injured street dog needs to recover back to full fitness. Also, try and learn some animal first aid yourself; and keep a first aid kit handy with regular medicines (please read this link: https://jaagruti.org/first-aid-for-dogs/)

Please remember sending each and every injured/ill animal to the animal hospital is NOT the solution. The animals recover better when treated on the streets, wherever possible, when tended to by animal lovers in the area and taken to vets, as advised periodically(and given supplementary medication mixed in food as advised by the vet) till they have completely recovered.

Some vets also do street dog sterilization surgeries (by prior appointments only) at their private clinics, at minimal costs for the dog lovers who tend to street dogs in their area and are willing to take care of the sterilized dogs in their homes for a few nights till they recover from the surgery, by sheltering them at their homes for this period of recovery. You need to find such good veterinary surgeons around your home so that tending to animals and getting them treated, sterilized and vaccinated doesn’t become a stressful chore for you, but rather a duty you perform with smile and satisfaction.

However, dogs do try to run away when they sense that you are trying to catch them…when they are injured, they may also tend to bite you, that is not because they hurt you, but because they are already in pain, that may have been inflicted by ‘humans’ only, and are thus less trusting of you

So here goes our checklist for catching an injured street dog and taking them for medical treatment:

 1. Make sure you are at least two people, as two are always better than one, when it comes to extending moral, emotional and physical support to each other…all of which is required when it comes to getting an injured animal treated.

2. Take some dry dog food with you to tempt the animal to you and allowing the animal to trust you to pet/touch them.

3. Equipments you will need to catch a dog:

a. A naada i.e. a cloth string/rope that is used to tie pyjamas here in India)- it works better than a muzzle and we use the same to tie the dog’s mouth and then take it around the neck and tie it at the back of the neck. The naada is gentle and better on the snout.

b. A dog leash (one with collar and one without collar)- the handle of the leash without the collar also acts as a good thing to put around the dog’s neck, while sliding the leash through it so that it becomes a lock.

c. Cover your car seats/floor with a waterproof cloth or/and old bed sheets to avoid getting your car covers/flooring dirty, as the dogs may vomit (due to motion sickness), pee/urinate or poo/defacate en-route, please be prepared for it (Do this preparatory work in your car before you go to rescue the dog).

4. Lifting the dog: Once the snout is muzzled and the leash is tied around their neck (which also gives us a chance to ensure that the dog doesn’t run away once we land at the vet’s clinic), and then lift the dog up in your arms by placing your hands across/under their chest to establish a tight grip as you lift them up. Yes, you are thinking right, you need to be physically strong and firm on your feet to lift dogs up in your arms this way.

5. Place the dog in your car: We take the dogs in our car, we have a Santro, we push down/fold down the backseat, so that the boot of the car and this space adds up and the dog has enough space. Sometimes, for small-sized dogs, we have used pet carriers; but mostly, we just place them in the car the above way and then when we reach our destination (the vet’s place/hospital)…once you have placed the dog inside your car, roll down the window just by a few inches (for ventilation) and not too much the dog tries to stick its neck out and run away.

Street dog being taken in our car for treatment at the nearest vet's clinic

Street dog being taken in our car for treatment at the nearest vet’s clinic

6. Also, try to ensure a crowd doesn’t gather (which may happen, as the dog being caught will try to scream as a defensive reaction); too many people crowding together will make the animal nervous. To disperse the crowd, take help of your team mates and gently try to explain them what you are doing and request them to disperse.

What we do? We have, through experience, learnt to talk and explain about such things gradually with different kinds of people; and when we are only trying to benefit a living being, what’s the shame in trying to answer curious queries…People do listen. While we request people to move inside their homes and not crowd about as the animal is in any case scared, some listen, some don’t and when they don’t, sometimes we have to be forceful and assertive in requesting them, while trying to make sure that we don’t enter into a fight by offending their sensibilities, its a test of patience we agree, but then it’s all worth it.

7. Once you reach the vet’s clinic, either request help from their paravets to take the dog from your car to the vet’s examination room/table. Or ensure that you lift the dog back into your arms carefully (taking care that all other windows/car gates are locked) and take him/her inside the clinic.

Please do share your experiences by writing to us at contact@jaagruti.org or posting comments below. This is just a synopsis of what we do and what works for us.

Thanks.

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Treating an old dog with Aural haematoma- Part 2

Dateline: October 2012

Two years back, we had penned a story on how we got an old black dog’s aural haematoma treated.

We had a smilar challenge to face with another old dog, a brown coloured male dog with a very peculiar personality disorder, which is that he wants you to love him, but he is cared of being touched. How does one take a dog with such a feeble heart in one’s car to the doctor’s clinic? We were in a dilemma, confused.

We tried to catch him many a times to take him to the vet’s place, just seeing us approaching him with a leash, he would start screaming on the top of his voice as if the leash was to strangle him.

We were sure we didn’t want him operated (i.e surgically treat him) for this aural haematoma, neither that dog or we had the hearts to brave it.

We discussed this with our trusted vet and requested him to send across his paravet with us to the street where this brown dog lives, the vet agreed and we decided that the best way forward was to aspirate the accumulated fluid out of the dog’s right swollen ear flap and insert antibiotics in the ear flap, that would help dry the fluid and heal the haematoma.

Moral of the story thus far: Have full faith in yourself and conviction in the choices you make. Then march ahead. More often than not, things will fall in place

This is what happened thereafter after the paravet arrived on the spot to execute the plan of medical-action.

Attempt 1: We tried to lure the dog to me with dog food, he came, ate and tried to run away and we couldn’t entice him to come near the paravet for he, i.e. the dog, smelt danger!

Attempt 2: We tried to lure the dog to me with dog food and distracted him, and the paravet from behind threw the leash around  the dog’s neck and using all our force, we managed to hold that dog in that steady position.

The paravet took position and a syringe (plunger with needle) was inserted into the swollen portion of the ear flap by the paravet and the fluid that had accumulated in the dog’s ear flap was sucked out (aspirated) and thrown away. The process was repeated (while keeping the needle fixed on the flap and just removing the syringe’s plunger portion) till the fluid was sucked out (as much as it could be).

Then a mixture of antibiotic Gentamycin and injectable medicine Prednisone (an anti-inflammatory drug that also promotes healing) was injected into the ear flap through that same needle which was left on the ear flap.

Apparently, as explained to us by the paravet, Prednisone as a medicine helps dry the fluid and heal such wounds.

And it worked, it has been a month since this exercise was undertaken and the flap though is now bent, it doesn’t have any fluid accumulated inside it.

This is how it all looks.

The Old Brown Dog’s right ear: Post non-surgical aspiration of aural haematoma fluid [Image (c) Jaagruti]

In the end, something to share…We at ‘Jaagruti’ often get questioned on our helpline number by many a rowdy people as to what we actually do, we tell them to read it on these pages on this blog (About Jaagruti, Contact Us and Animal Helplines in Delhi and NCR), we have clearly written on these pages what we are and what we are not, we have nothing to hide.

We don’t run an ambulance or a veterinary hospital, we don’t run a shelter, Jaagruti is a little effort wherein we try to share information and empower you, we try to listen to you when you call, we may not always have an answer, we are young and still learning, but we will always try to guide you with the best possible solution based on our understanding of the subject or issue and help you do what we aim to do, inspiring you to do a good deed a day. For we believe that if everyone were to do that, it will be a good day for many in need.

“Try to make at least one person happy every day. If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word.

If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought.”- Lawrence G. Lovasik 

And remember to smile, despite all the hardships that exist and you face, you’re beautiful and so is this world.

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Delhi International Airport Limited’s (DIAL’s) Paper Recycling Initiative with ‘Jaagruti’ gets featured in the National Press

Delhi International Airport Limited’s Paper Recycling Initiative with ‘Jaagruti’ gets featured in the National Press on 2nd April, 2012

To read the Online version of this news story, please click here

Excerpt from this story is quoted below:

The Indira Gandhi International Airport here has initiated measures like using recycled papers at its premises in a bid to become a ‘green airport’. After putting in place some of the green initiatives like rainwater, use of natural lights and efforts to reduce emissions, the airport operator, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has now decided to use recycled papers in its offices. For this, DIAL has entered into an agreement with an NGO ‘Jaagruti’, which will recycle the waste paper generated in its offices and get the notepads or A4 sheet made from the recycled paper.

 “The collected waste paper would be systematically graded and transported to the recycling mill. There it would be processed to make different quality of recycled paper by using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) bleaching technology,” a DIAL spokesperson said.

 This would save 17 trees, 26,281 litres of water, 264 kg of air pollution, 1,752 litres of oil, 4077 KW hours of energy, 82.62 cubic feet of landfill space, he claimed. As a part of the initiative, DIAL shared one tonne of paper waste for recycling to Jaagruti. “DIAL is committed to conducting its business in an environment-friendly and sustainable manner at IGI airport by minimising the impact of our activities on the environment and community. Environment Management is an integral part of our business strategy towards achieving credibility and business sustainability,” DIAL CEO I Prabhakar Rao said.

If you or the organisation you work with want to associate with ‘Jaagruti’ under our Paper Recycling Initiative to recycle your waste paper, please contact us by filling the form below or calling us on +91-9818 144 244 or writing to us on contact@jaagruti.org

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Peep underneath your car…there could be a life sleeping underneath

23 September 2011: We found Hasmukh sitting next to an electricity metre box in the service lane on the road a kilometre off our place. On our next round that evening, he was still sitting at that spot, panting. On checking with the chowkidaar (security guard) there, our worst fears came true. Hasmukh couldn’t stand up on his hind legs and thus couldn’t walk. Hasmukh was not a street dog of this area, and as we learnt he used to stay across the road and since the chowkidaar and ragpickers found him dragging himself on the middle of the main road, they kept him this side.

If you are wondering why we named him Hasmukh (which means ‘Smiling face’ in English), thats because that was the first name that popped up in our head as we saw him with his lower canine sticking out from one end of his lower jaw :)

We were not interested in packing Hasmukh off to an animal shelter, which is for us always the last preferred option. We lifted him in and brought him to a safe and secluded neighbourhood park, which was clean and not being used by either humans or other street dogs. We made him a nice cosy bed of grass there and fed him that night and decided that we will do our best to get him standing on his feet using the best possible medication underneath open the open sky than make Hasmukh feel depressed amidst hundreds of other sick animals lodged at a shelter.

Hasmukh: Day 1 in the park we kept him in

24 September 2011: Morning time, we went to feed Hasmukh and found big ants stuck around his genitals, a fearful sight and painful because Hasmukh had no sensation of all of them sticking around there, we removed the insects and applied medicines over him to keep the insects away. Amidst all of this, the positive aspect was that Hasmukh was eating well and by the afternoon meal, we knew he loved milk, cheese and pedigree while he had trouble digesting rotis because of his deformed jawline.

We requested the vet to come over that evening and check on him as we didn’t want to put Hasmukh through the trouble of being driven in that condition…it was pitch dark when the vet came and when he did the pin prick test on his hind legs, Hasmukh could not feel any sensation at all!

A couple of painkillers and a multivitamin injection were administered to Hasmukh and we decided to get the course repeated every two days and observe and feed him in the meantime.

27 September 2011: After the previous injections, Hasmukh had become more active, he was sitting in attentive doggy poses the whole day and even growled a female dog that came too close to him away…we were happy by the progress he was making. On 27th night, we repeated the dose of injections.

Hasmukh began sitting attentively whole day long

28 September 2011: At a Street Dog Anti-Rabies camp, we discussed Hasmukh case with another trusted vet of ours and gained in optimism when we learnt that a paralysed dog can be brought to feet by giving him a course of homeopathic medicines for a month, which can also be aided by an allopathic medicine named Methycobal (to be given morning and evening). Excited and optimistic, we got the medicines that very night.

29 September 2011: The fickleness of life came to the fore. We went to feed Hasmukh that noon and saw a sight that scared the wits out of us.  He had a big gaping wound with pus…on the pelvic region of the right hind leg just next to the tail and there were flies hovering around that portion, fearful that maggots would infest him, we got him to our home and took him to our trusted vet (Who had prescribed the homeopathic dose the previous day). It was in that visit to the vet, that all our optimism gathered through the previous day came to nought, the vet examined his back portion and told us that as per his analysis, he had a spine fracture and it was due to that spinal fracture, that Hasmukh’s hind legs had been rendered immobile, though we did believe that from day 1 till now, he had started feeling few sensations back…The vet gave his verdict, Hasmukh should be put to sleep if the spine fracture gets confirmed, his life would be full of misery otherwise.

Shocked! We asked our vet two questions…what was that big gaping wound that had come up on his hind leg? “Its a bedsole”, the vet answered…”it will not get healed”, he said and rather such bedsoles will gradually form on different portions of the legs in times to come as bedsoles happen when the body is immobile”.

Hasmukh's bedsole

Our next question, can a spinal fracture be healed? And our vet answered, “No, not even in humans…though there are surgeries these days for humans, but the chances of surviving the surgeries are remote and the risks too many as even one nerve getting hurt during the operation, can paralyse the whole body”.

Our hopes crashed that night and we got Hasmukh home back with us, and gave us a cushiony mattress, food and lots of love over the next two days. We wanted him to live the best days of his life.

Hasmukh comes home

…on 1 October 2011, the whole evening, Hasmukh for the first time, made us hear his voice, he was talking or crying in pain, we would never know…but he wanted us to sit next to him and only then would he be quiet else he would start those voices again.

2 October 2011: We had planned to get Hasmukh’s Spinal Cord X rays done and we did. Only to see the terrible condition in which his spine had been fractured. See below, the overlapping fractured bones and the 1 inch gap between the fractured overlapping portions.

Hasmukh's Spinal Cord X-ray: The Final Verdict!

Hasmukh stood no chance of recovery and his bedsole was only increasing in girth. To relieve him off his pain and suffering, with a stone on our hearts, we decided to let him go. All animals go to heaven is what we believe and so would Hasmukh, we knew.

A lingering question pained us no end…How did Hasmukh fracture his spine so badly? Clearly because a senseless driver in hurry had not bothered to look underneath his car where Hasmukh might have been resting on that fateful day, the car romped over him.

Rest in peace dear Hasmukh.

Rest in Peace dear Hasmukh

The ten days that you spent with us gave us a lesson for life. Your patience was admirable, your spirit indomitable and needless to say, your smile was lovely and thats why we named you ‘Hasmukh’.

And to all of you reading this, just remember to pass this word on, that the next time you turn your car’s ignition on to embark on a road journey, please spare a moment to peep underneath your car to check if an animal like Hasmukh is resting underneath your car, next to the tyre or flat on the ground under the shade of the car.

Try to shoo that resting animal away by blowing a horn or making some other strange noise to scare him away, atleast that will ensure that the beginning of your road journey is not the end of someone’s journey of life.

Shoo the dog away if he is sleeping underneath your car, lest you drive over him and crush its bones (Courtesy: http://www.bkkpetfoto.com)

Please drive safely.

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The story of ‘Magic’ and his rescue

‘Magic’ is another of our rescued dog stories, for the story of his rescue and recovery is nothing but ‘magical’.

Last year when the Commonwealth Games 2010 ended, it was time to release the street dogs back into the games venue areas where they were picked up from and kept in at shelters for the period of the games.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s SSCBC (Society for Stray Canine Birth Control) decided then that to ensure transparency, the release of all dogs back into their respective areas will be photographed and video-graphed as evidence to comfort all that ‘no dog was dislocated from its original territories’ in conformation with the Animal Birth Control Rules 2001 (drafted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960).

On one such Dog-release exercises happening in South Delhi, I had volunteered to be part of the Release Team and photograph/videograph the release of the dogs as per the details we had of their respective areas at the time of picking them up.

As we were releasing some dogs in the area of R.K Puram, a middle-aged lady came up to me and pointed to a dog that had taken shelter in a shop of his rag-dealer husband. She told me ‘Take him, he has lost his eye’. I asked what happened and went close by, only to see something that I had not imagined. The left side of this male dog’s face was completely chewn apart by maggots and so was his left eye and we all could literally peep into his jaw, see his tongue and it was to say the least, a painful sight.

I requested the MCD Dog Catchers who were accompanying me in the Release vehicle to help catch that dog, but this was not a rescue for the faint-hearted and they couldn’t catch him and he ran far far away.

MCD’s dog catcher tries to catch the maggot infested dog ‘Magic’ but he resists the catching attempt and runs away -Image Copyright: Jaagruti

Next day morning, we at ‘Jaagruti’ decided to make another trip to that area as that lady had shared with me that the maggot-infested dog stays in and around their shop only.

After a few minutes of searching for him, we were able to locate this dog, but now came the big challenge of how to win this dog’s confidence and pick him up to keep him in our car…we had done this before, but this time around we needed some help and help did come to us in the form of the rag-dealer husband of that lady, who was friendly with that dog and helped pick him up and place him in our car. We had used the tried and tested trick of covering his eyes with a cloth and tying a leash around his neck…but then mayhem was to follow as this dog kept running up and down in our car and was scratching his face with the windowpanes, visibly in pain with the maggots tearing into his flesh, oozing blood all over.

We then called upon the ambulance from the Animal Hospital we at ‘Jaagruti’ support through monetary and in-kind contributions and requested them to help us with this rescue case. To our good fortune, their ambulance was nearby…and then we were successfully able to transfer this dog from our car into the ambulance and off he was sent to the hospital.

‘Magic’ after being put in the Animal Ambulance- Image Copyright: ‘Jaagruti’

In the case of any other animal hospital in any part of Delhi or the world, such a severe case of maggot infested dog would have perhaps been euthanized or as they say’ peacefully put to sleep’ and we at ‘Jaagruti’ were prepared to hear that from our trusted vet too, but that wasn’t to be as the docs decided to give it a shot and then began the ‘magical’ treatment of this dog, whom we chose to name ‘Magic’…perhaps because his recovery was magical news for us and also because the name of the dreaded maggots who made this dog’s life hell started that way as well!

As ‘Magic’ underwent treatment, on day 1 his maggots and wound were cleared, on day 2 he was put on drips because with all the maggot clearing medicines going into his mouth, he had stopped eating food through his mouth…the glucose drips continued till day 4 and then came the good news, that Magic had started taking his food himself..

‘Magic’ on the road to recovery at the Animal Hospital – Image Copyright: ‘Jaagruti’

Another month of treatment and recovery followed and on Day 40, he was released back into his area where he was welcomed back by the area residents, all astonished and pleased that he had recovered and so were we!

‘Magic’ in the ambulance post recovery and before being released back into his area -Day 40 (Image Copyright: ‘Jaagruti’)

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‘Desty’ – Destiny’s child!

For all animal cases that we get to attend directly to at ‘Jaagruti’, we just prefer to give them a name rather than referring to them as an anonymous dog or any other creature. But that name is just for us so that on platforms like this blog, we can share that animal’s story with you. We make it a point not to call that animal being treated out with that name, lest the animal gets used to it and then has no one to call it out when he goes back to his/her life on the street after spending his days of recovery either with us or at a boarding or at an animal hospital shelter.

Now, to who is Desty?

Desty is the name we gave to a street dog who landed out of nowhere at our doorsteps a few months back, we were alerted to his presence by the barking and screaming of the other dogs that live on our street. Desty was a new dog, we hadn’t seen him anywhere near the stretch of our colony or the colonies adjacent to ours!

And visibly as we could make out, Desty was unwell. He resisted the barking of our area’s street dogs and made himself comfortable next to our doorstep, we thought he won’t make it and won’t eat, but then when we placed a bowl of milk next to him so that we could examine him, he gulped it in seconds as if he was thirsty for ages…we gave him another bowl and he gulped it again. He was clearly in no mood to go anywhere and he just stayed put over there for the next two days and we kept feeding him. He had no visible signs of injury, but then we noticed something, he was showing signs of twitching and was coughing, symptoms characteristic of early stages of Canine Distemper.

'Desty' as we saw him on Day 1- Image Copyright: 'Jaagruti '

Since we were feeding him, he trusted us enough to lift him and put him in the car to take him to our vet for examination or perhaps when we now look back, we think this was what Desty had come to our doorsteps for!

As the vet examined him, our fears were proved true, Desty was indeed showing signs of  Canine Distemper, but the good news was that this was perhaps the initial stage and as per our trusted vet’s advice, we shifted him to the isolation ward of the animal hospital we support and there, under the supervision of our trusted vet, began Desty’s ‘homeopathic’ treatment, a specially designed course designed by human homeopathic doctor by the name of  Dr. Shukla who works out of Noida, comprising of homeopathic medicines like Distemperium and Agaricus mixed in strict-secret proportions by him and given every few hours.

Within a span of 10 days, Desty was fit and fine again and we decided to leave him on the street at the very car parking spot where we had first noticed him prior to him coming on his own to our house doorsteps!

We had opted to release him back on the street in the early hours of the morning, so that he could safely chart his way back to whichever area he belonged to and sure enough he did.

'Desty' before being released back on the street-Post-treatment (Day 12) - Image Copyright: 'Jaagruti '

We kept thinking about Desty as we couldn’t locate him again after that morning, perhaps this dog was just destined to come to our doorsteps on his own to get himself treated of Distemper, a life threatening disease with no cure if not detected and cured in the early stages of infection. And that is why we chose to name him ‘Desty’.

We were in for another surprise a month down the line, we noticed Desty next to our home yet again, this time hale and hearty and even showing his teeth to the dogs that inhabit our street. We came out, noticed him and remembered him and then he looked at us and sprinted away…we guess he had only come to tell us that he was fine and happy now and to put us at ease.

It is these little inexplicable and often ‘divine’ moments of satisfaction and joy of seeing an animal you helped treat back on its feet again that uplifts our sagging spirits to keep on in our efforts to help those who can’t help themselves.

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A school presentation, a Teacher, Delhi Fire Service and a rescued Pigeon

Life is a puzzle which gets deciphered when we look back and connect the dots. When I was in school, I had yearned for people to come over and talk to us about animals and environment but no one did, I tried to do it myself-telling my fellow classmates about not using polybags to dump kitchen waste as it kills a cow and clogs our drains, but no one listened….probably I didn’t communicate the right way or perhaps that was because our teachers didn’t reinforce what I said or probably because no one had the time to think about ‘going green’ as that buzzword wasn’t around at that time, neither was ‘Environment’ a career option as my School counsellor was clueless when I went and asked her about it.

Nevertheless growing up, I had always harboured deep within me a dream and a desire to go back to my school and speak to students and teachers therein on subjects pertaining to animals and environment because this is all I had always wanted to do and this is one of the reasons ‘Jaagruti’ was born…

And who says, dreams don’t come true, they do take time but I believe they do come true…and sometime back I had the opportunity to go back to my school and address the students in there not once but twice on subjects close to my heart, once on ‘Waste Management’ and the second time around I had the opportunity to address an Eco-Club seminar which was attended to by eco-club teachers from about 15 more schools and a group of Eco-club students from Classes 9-12. The focus of this interaction with teachers and students was to apprise them of the little things they can share with their colleagues/students/classmates on what all we as ‘individuals’ can do in our daily lives to help street animals and care for the environment.

One of the many things I had touched upon in this interaction was how many birds-eagles/kites, crows, mynahs and pigeons often become victims of kite strings-the glass manjhas/threads used by people to fly their kites high into the sky.

Though the kite flying games end, these kite strings often end up tearing through many a birds wings, either while they navigate through the open skies or when later on when these birds perch on the tree branches-their tiny claws/legs and wings remain susceptible to be trapped in the strings left wound around tree branches forever…

Someone in the audience that day in my former school was listening carefully to what I was saying and that was Ms. Rajbir Kaur, a teacher from a neighbouring school who was faced with a similar situation a few weeks later and that is when she called us over on the ‘Jaagruti’ helpline.

As Ms. Kaur’s family was attending to guests, the little kids in the family spotted a pigeon hung upside down from the branch of a Eucalyptus tree, the kids tried and tried along with their father of ways to get the pigeon down, but the tree was so far away from any houses’ balcony and the branches were too high, that it was not within reachable distance from the common ladders and poles we all have in our homes and they were now feeling helpless.

Ms. Kaur called us over, and after listening to the story thus far, we just gave her one calm advice to follow-to call the Delhi Fire Service on 101 and request them to send over their Fire Brigade as their long ladder will help. The Delhi Fire Service staff has time and again helped people help birds stuck in such situations and needless to say when Ms. Singh called 101, they were prompt in sending their Fire Brigade over….just that there was one thing she missed telling them…which is what height the pigeon was stuck on and thus the Fire Brigade that came didn’t have a ladder that long to reach the pigeon. And it was then that we all had to sincerely request the Delhi Fire Service staff to call for the Fire Brigade with a longer ladder and they agreed after initial hesitation. Their hesitation was that since this was a festival day and there could be fire emergencies in the city, how could they be here saving a bird…we assured them that if there is any such emergency; we will let them go and may be God will be kind enough to spare Delhi of any fire disasters and then they agreed :)

The Delhi Fire Service then called upon their most prized possession ‘The Bronto Skylift’, a new entrant into their fleet of Fire Brigades and then began the story of a heroic rescue of nothing but a pigeon who was hanging upside down and still uptil then making everyone wonder whether it was even alive!

But then, as soon as the Bronto Skylift’s ladder reached near that branch, the Pigeon started fluttering its wings in hope and excitement as if to convey that it was well alive and kicking!

The Delhi Fire Service staff got a heroic applause as they brought the pigeon safely down and then taking it to Ms. Kaur’s residence even helped cut the kite string which was wound around its wing, in such a neat manner that there was no injury caused to the pigeon, now named ‘Hero’ by Ms. Kaur’s husband-Mr. Singh. Since it is not advisable to release birds like Pigeons at night time, Mr. Singh’s family gave ‘Hero’ a nice place to rest, grains and water to feed on and even put on their water cooler (while switching the fan off) so that ‘Hero’ has a restful sleep.

Next morning, we went and took the pigeon for further examination to Abhinav at Fauna Police and then the next day since the pigeon was all good and healthy, Mr. Singh got him back on his way back from work and released it onto his balcony.

And then, the anticlimax happened, ‘Hero’ actually ended up being a ‘Heroine’, which is that Pigeon wasn’t a male but rather a female pigeon who then chose to use an abandoned nest atop an almirah placed in Mr. Singh’s balcony to lay her eggs :)

The story of Heroine’s rescue and release has been delightfully documented in the video shared by Mr. Singh with us below. Have a look!

Mr. Singh had this to say, “By saving this bird’s life, the Delhi Fire Service has shown that they respect and value all life (humans and animals) and that is what all of us need to learn and imbibe”.

Then onwards Mr. Singh’s family has also taken the initiative of getting all of their colony’s street dogs vaccinated against Rabies, which were uptil then only being fed by the area residents, but they took on additional responsibility and expense to make sure that these dogs are now vaccinated as well.

It is said that doing one good deed prompts you to do the next one and thus, the spirit of compassion continues to flow!

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Elbow rashes in street dogs- the ‘magic’ cure!

Our patient: A dog with elbow rashes in his forelegs

See the photograph above, it is of our neighbourhood street dog who had been having these elbow rashes in both of his fore legs, as time passed by and rains  intensified last year this infection spread on to the whole of his front forelegs. We took him to one doctor after the other and met with no success, he was repeatedly administered antibiotics and we were advised to orally administer him Avil (Anti-allergc drug), Ampoxin, Topclav and so many other medicines at various intervals by so many of the vets we consulted, but over a period of 3 months we met with no success at all!

 
But finally a vet asked us to follow the below mentioned external treatment protocol for this infection every alternate day and we are happy to share that after a month and a half of diligently following this medical treatment protocol, this dog was cured of its elbow rashes and thats the reason we wish to share it with you all:
 
1. Wear gloves
 
2. Mix a few crystals of Potassium Permanganate (KMNO4) in filtered water. (You can get these crystals from your local chemist shop). KMNO4 is a disinfectant.
 
3. We then cleansed the whole infected portion on this dog’s forelegs with cotton swab dipped in the Potassium Permanganate solution.
 
4. We then took an empty syringe and filled it with H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide)- you can get a suspension for this at your local chemist shop.
 
5. Then it was time to gently release the H2O2 droplets from the syringe onto the infected portion cleansed with KMNO4 solution, we saw bubbles but that wasn’t a reason to worry, as its just a chemical reaction happening between H2O2 which is a mild acid with KMNO4…but we identified that perhaps it is this ‘magic’ step which actually helped kill the infection causing microbes on this dog’s legs.
 
6. After having repeated step 5 for all infected portions on this dog’s legs, we were advised to rub oodles and oodles of  Himax ointment (An Ayurvedic veterinary ointment) mixed with equal portions of Spectrazole ointment onto the whole of the infected portion. We made sure we were wearing sturdy gloves during this process.
 
7. We repeated steps 1-6 every alternate day for this dog and the result is there to see in the photograph below.

The elbow portion of the dog-post treatment

 
 
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Ear infections in Street Dogs-our experience at treating them

Come rains, comes humidity and mositure in the air, the ideal weather for microrganisms like bacteria, yeast and fungi to proliferate. How often have you seen a dog walking with his/her head titled to one side or continuously shaking its ear? If you do see any dogs exhibiting the above symptoms or scratching its ear with a wall or body of a car, our advice is do not ignore that sight, if you do care for the well being of that street dog…for this could well be an indicator that the dog is battling with a microbial infection in its ear.

We at Jaagruti had two such doggy patients to attend to in the past month and in this post we share what we did to get their infection treated.

Case 1: We saw a dog walking with its head tilted to its left, he was badly shaking his head and was in visible pain. On closer examination we found that his external ear had pus accumulated in it. Though the dog was friendly, we took no chances and tied his mouth with a cloth string and then using cotton dipped in Betadiene solution went about clearing his ear as much as possible of the accumulated pus, which if not removed would have served as an ideal breeding ground for more insects and flies and could have also resulted in maggot infestation in the dog.

We kept on changing the cotton swab till we were able to clear most of the pus and then we tried to trace the location from where the pus was oozing out from and noticed that it was coming out from a spot in the ear lobe. The first aid treatment in the form of clearing of this pus from the dog’s ear visibly relieved the dog and he was now much ata ease and trusted us to put him in our car and take him to our consultant vet. At the vet’s clinic, after an examination it was found out that this dog was suffering from Yeast infection in its ear and that was what had caused the Pus. At the vet’s clinic, a thorough cleansing of both the ears of that dog was done (yes, we got both ears cleansed, even though the pus infection was just in one year), two  injections followed, one an antibiotic and the other being Belamyl (a Multi-Vitamin injection) and then the doctor advised us to administer ear drops into the Dog’s ear for a course of 3 days.

We were advised by our vet to administer Cipla’s Otibact Ear Drops into that dog’s ears-these ear drops contain Enrofloxacin and Silver Sulfadiazine, costs Rs. 80 for a 15 ml bottle. These ear drops are used in case of canine external ear infections complicated by yeast/fungi/bacteria.  The ear drops look more like a white emulsion and contains drugs that inhibit the multiplication of the microbe by acting on the enzymes involved in that microbe’s DNA Replication process). The dose prescribed by our vet was 4-5 drops of Otibact once daily targeted into the ear lobe and then we were advised to rub the ear so that the drops get rubbed into the ear skin properly.

We religiously administered these ear drops, and the dog’s ears were fit and fine again and had even regained their original shape and were back to being standing ears again from the floppy ones! :)

We also learnt that ear infections are more common in dogs with floppy/bent ears than those with standing ones as shade and mositure are easily available in a floppy ear which are ideal conditions for microbial infection, whereas in dogs with standing ears, there is more access to air and light.

Case 2: Involved a middle aged female dog who was continuously scractching her ears and shaking her head vigorously. On closer examination of her ears, we found a coat of dry powdery looking ear skin in both her external ears. To fix this problem we followed a simple course of administering her a set of ointments for a period of 3 days before she was fit again.

Treatment course followed is mentioned below:

Wear gloves, muzzle the dog and then squeeze ample amount of Spectrazole (anti-fungal, anti-microbial) ointment , mixed with some bit of Betadiene ointment onto the gloves and rub it onto the inner part of the dog’s ear flaps, then gently rub the dogs ears from outside in such a way that the ointment spreads itself all over the infected portion. Just make sure that you do this with gentle hands, because even street dogs like us, don’t like their ears pulled for no reason :)

Please remember that since we are dealing with street dogs in both the above cases and if you happen to be doing something similar, it is important that our first effort is to restrain these dogs using a muzzle or a cloth string, if need be even gently cover their eyes with dark wet cloth, this will help calm the animal down while you put drops or rub ointment into their ears.

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Home remedy to cure dry, flaking skin and lice infestation in dogs

With the onset of such chilly winters in the city, here is a simple home remedy we at ‘Jaagruti’ have used to treat dogs suffering from dry, flaky skin which can if ignored really leave the dog irriated and sleepless at nights:

 
1. Warm good quality coconut oil (like Marico’s Parachute) and massage it on to the dog’s scalp. You will realise as you do this that dogs love to have their hair massaged this way and some may even try to lick and taste the coconut oil, which does no harm anyways to them.
 
2. As you massage the dog’s hair with coconut oil, you will see a lot of the dogs hair shedding so make sure that you make your dog lie down on a mattress/bed sheet that you could conveniently wash later, without getting your fancy bedcover or upholstery spoilt.
 
3. Use a fine flea comb to comb through your dog’s hair and all the bad hair will shed alongwith the dandruff and the scaly scalp leaving your dog’s coat and hair neat and shining!
 
You may have to repeat this process for a few days till all the flaky skin and bad hair are removed from his scalp and don’t worry if this oil massaging leaves behind a few bald patches on your dog’s scalp as those hair will regrow if you continually massage your dog’s calp with coconut oil a few times a week through the winters.
 
Do not try bathing your pets too hard in winters as that will only make their skin more dry and itchy..
 
In case your dog has lice or lice eggs ( a common problem with puppies), you can preceed the above mentioned treatment with the following:
 
Give the puppy/dog a bath with Mediker anti-lice treatment shampoo, taking care that the shampoo doesn’t go into the dogs eyes and use luke warm water to rinse it off, then blow dry the dog’s hair if its a young pup and after the hair have dried, repeat the above treatment with coconut oil as that helps trap teh lice and then they can be easily removed once you pass the flea comb (with fine bristles) gently through the dog’s hair coat.
 
We at ‘Jaagruti’ have seen the above mentioned treatments working very well with dogs/street dogs, however if the situation of your dog is serious as per your judgement, please take your dog to a registered veterinarian in your city.
 Thanks. 
If you have further queries or nice home remedies to suggest for animals, please mail us at contact@jaagruti.org
 
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Treating an old dog for Aural Haematoma (Haematoma of the Ear)

Dateline: July 2010

The patient is an Indian Street Dog aged around 12 years or so.

His colour is Black so as per a general thumb rule, most Indian dogs who are black in colour and adopted by their communities get just one name: ‘Kaalu’. If one was to translate that into English, ‘Kaalu’ would read as Blackie.

On 2nd July, 2010, we noticed Kaalu walking on the street with his head tilted towards the left. We went closer, he was in visible discomfort. We went even further and tried to check his ears, fearing he had a maggot infestation in his left ear. But what we saw was something different- his pinna (ear flap) was swollen which was causing it to be heavy and thus Kaalu was walking with his head titled/hanging at one end.

This condition is referred to as ‘Haematoma of the ear’ or ‘Aural Haematoma‘. An Aural Haematoma is a blood clot in the ear; aural refers to the ear, and a haematoma is a localized collection of blood or serum. It is the swelling of ear because of fluid accumulation between the ear membrane because of rupture of a blood vessel. Why exactly this happens is not really known, it could be due to vigorous shaking of the head, the scratching of ear next to an infected metal object, like a car or even on the walls, it could also be due to an infection by the mites.

A close up shot of an Aural/Ear Haematoma in a Dog (file photo from the Internet)

Kaalu is an old dog, we at Jaagruti thus took a mutual decision of not putting him through a surgery for this haematoma as subjecting him to sedatives at this age would just be a tad too risky.

We consulted on of our vets for this case, and he advised us to put Kaalu on Medicines for the first 5 days and note whether the haematoma increases or reduces in size.

This was the doctor’s prescription for the first 5 days:

1. Two capsules of Ampilclox 500 mg, once in the morning and once at night

(Open the capsule and put the medicine powder in something sweet and edible to help the dog eat it, else it is very bitter)

2. Remember to supplement this with one capsule of Vitamin B-12/B-complex daily as Ampiclox is a strong antibiotic that can otherwise also harm the dog’s kidneys and liver

3. Clean the infected ear daily and apply a liberal dose of Betadiene ointment on the infected ear to prevent any further re-infestation of any other insets or mites on it

The haematoma neither reduced nor increased in size.

On 7th July, 2010: we decided to non-surgically treat Kaalu’s haematoma and took him to the vet and requested him to aspirate the fluid out, i.e drain the fluid out of Kaalu’s ear.

We covered Kaalu’s eyes with a dark cloth and tied a light muzzle around his mouth. The vet inserted a hypodermic needle to drain the fluid that had accumulated in the ear by pricking through that spot after cleansing the ear with spirit and then compressing the pinna to prevent accumulation of haematoma fluid.

The vet then repeatedly flushed the ear with saline and Gentamycin and some other antibiotics to help cleanse the internal tissue where the blood had accumulated.

The vet reassured us that these antibiotics will help heal the wound and the fluid won’t accumulate again if Kaalu allows himself to bandaged across his ears. We did that but that was to no avail as Kaalu was feeling discomforted after being bandaged around and he removed it by trying to scratch himself around on the walls. We them removed the bandage on our own and hoped that the fluid won’t accumulate again

Another visit to Kaalu a week later and we noticed that his ear had swollen again, so on 17th July, 2010, we took Kaalu to the vet again and this was followed by another round of non-surgical aspiration/draining out of haematoma fluid- but this time there was no fluid, but rather just the antibiotics that had been put into his ear the last time to help the blood vessels clot.

Then again a few days later we noticed the swelling again on Kaalu’s ear and honestly, we didn’t want to put the old dog through the trouble of travelling to the vet again.

So, on 27th July 2010 we consulted with another senior vet and explained him the situation, he suggested that we give him a doze of an antibiotic medicine, a tablet named Bidanzen Forte, twice daily for 5 days. Bidanzen Forte is an anti-inflammatory drug i.e it helps reduce inflammation and swelling due to blood accumulation and also helps heal a wound.

This just did the trick for us as the swelling in his ear completely subsided though the ear has got a bit deformed following this.

It has been two months now and there has been no relapse of the haematoma, although Kaalu’s ears differ in their appearance now–while the pinna of the right ear is straight, upright and also notched (because he is a sterilized dog) while the left ear which had haematoma is now bent over or curved and floppy.

Kaalu's ear as it looks today-post non-surgical drainage of haematoma

This is what Kaalu’s  left ear look likes now internally (post-recovery from haematoma), though it is slightly mis-shapen and is termed as ‘cauliflower’ ear because a lot of boxers suffer from this too.

Physical beauty doesn’t really matter or does it? not for Kaalu, he is fine with the weight of his ear now and we at Jaagruti are happy that we didn’t have to put Kaalu through a painful surgery at this age and so is he we think!

P.S: Though we at Jaagruti have shared exactly what transpired when we got this case treated and shared it here for all of yours information, we would still suggest that you consult your veterinarian for treating haematoma, while understanding that there are various options available to treat the same, depending upon the severity of the infection and age of the patient.

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Treating a dog for a wasp/bee sting

This post comes out of sharing one of our experiences on dealing with insect bites on dogs and since insect bites are often misunderstood though it can be such a common reason behind sudden ailments in dogs/pets- what with most canines having a habit of sniffing around and poking their faces in the most wierd and strangest of places all the time for their pleasure. We are not offering any common solution to these cases but rather just wish to narrate our ignorance when suddenly faced with a situation like this in which we were left wondering what is wrong with the dog right till the time we reached the vet.

Wasp/bee stings on your dogs/pets could be dangerous and very painful to deal with: Contact a vet asap.

On 25th July, 2010 we were faced with a very confusing case of an approximately 7 month old young dog who suddenly started to yelp after splashing in the water placed in the water bath placed outside.

He started to run around with his tail pointed downwards and was pacing up and down in a  frenzied manner.

Within about 10 minutes, he started vomiting and the vomiting continued at an interval of one each every 10 minutes for the next one hour and after that he vomited twice with portions of blood and phlegm in the vomit. All this while we were trying to flush his mouth with cold water and even trying to force feed him water in the hope that if he has ingested something wrong, the same will get drained out one way or the other but nothing helped improvise his condition.

We were deeply worried and called the vet, in any case it was a Sunday so the first vet we called refused to tell us anything on the phone!

We kept trying and then got through two of our trusted veterinarians- and then narrated the chain of events to them. They said the symptoms we were sharing point to case of the dog ingesting something ‘poisonous’. Both of the vets asked us to give him some vanilla ice cream but the dog won’t have or even lick any of it and the vomiting wasn’t stopping either.

We called the vet again.

They asked us to give a few drops of Perinorm syrup to the dog (Perinorm is supposedly a medicine that helps stop vomiting).

Perinorm did help stop the dog’s vomiting and he slept for the next hour or so and then we had another shock in store when the dog woke up and started licking himself, we suddenly noticed that his genital organs swelled and so did his lips and eyes which were getting drastically swollen by the minute. Effectively, all the mucous membranes were showing swelling.

We were then asked to give the dog a 50mg Avil tablet.

By then it was two and a half hours since our agony had started with the suffering dog the vet- nearest to us reached his clinic on a torrid Sunday afternoon (much ahead of his schedule) and we rushed the young dog to the clinic.

While we were taking the dog to the vet’s clinic in the car, he began panting and we noticed that there was a blood-red long sting bite mark on the left side of his tongue.

We reached the vet and finally we realised that the young dog had become a victim of a possible wasp/bee sting while he was splashing around in the water bath while drinking water from the same. Te doctor promptly gave the young dog a set of anti-histamine injections and within fifteen minutes, the swelling on his lips, eyes and genital organs subsided and the dog was visibly relieved and looking far more comfortable, though he was still a bit subdued and sluggish in his movements.

Then the vet suggested that we feed the dog a powdered ‘charcoal’ tablet soon after as charcoal tablets help cleanse the body of all toxins sticking on the surface of the internal organs, we promptly did so and the dog eliminated all the toxins (supposedly) in his next faeces (which obviously was dark and partly black in colour).

Dime-sized charcoal tablets have long been used to treat stomach ailments. These tablets contain no chemicals and deliver about 250 milligrams of charcoal in each tablet. NetDoctor, a website that commissions material from United Kingdom health professionals, says charcoal tablets can relieve flatulence, gassy bloating, heartburn and upset stomach by attracting excess gas in the stomach and intestines. The gas binds to the surface of the charcoal and the tablet is digested. According to NetDoctor, charcoal tablets can be used to treat drug overdoses and poisonings. The charcoal absorbs chemicals and toxins the same way it does excess gas.

The young dog was back to his usual self in a day or two soon after all the toxins were flushed and elimnated out of his body.

And so this basically sums up our first experience of dealing with a dog stung by a wasp/bee.

We would like to summarise and share the main learnings we had from this experience below:

1. Dogs are playful animals and are often found sniffing and exploring unusual places. They tend to sniff under the bins, below the ledges, dark and mysterious corners and love digging up the soil. These places are homes to a number of insects and these insects bite the unsuspecting, curious dogs.

2. Wasps and bees generally tend to bite/stung the animal at places where they have less hair, like the nose, mouth, lips and the chest area.

3. Symptoms to look out for: The animal becomes restless, starts vomiting/shows symptoms of diarrhoea, inflammation or swelling of eye lids, nose, lips, muzzle area. The other symptoms of insect bites on dogs like wheezing, weakness, unconsciousness, weak and thready pulse, increased heart rate and fever may cause the animal to go into shock. Other symptoms of insect bites on dogs might lead to cold extremities, trembling, wheezing and collapse.

4. Do not ignore an insect bite, it could be serious and cause a series of allergic reactions in the dog which may even be fatal!

5. Take the dog to the vet immediately while administering first aid on the way to the clinic.

One useful backgrounder article on the subject of ‘Insect Bites on Dogs’ may be accessed here .

For any further queries, mail us at contact@jaagruti.org

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Pigeon with kite string injury: Rescued, treated and set free!

On the evening of 16th August 2010, we at ‘Jaagruti’ got a rescue call divert from Manta at Angel Eyes Animal Welfare Foundation, she wanted to check whether we would be able to rescue a pigeon which had become a victim to the glass-coated kite string (commonly termed as ‘glass maanja‘) at CU Block in Pitampura area of Delhi.

We were located in the other part of the city when the call came but promised to pick up the pigeon at night and leave it for treatment with the team at Wildlife Rescue who are now self-trained experts at suturing kite string induced injuries in birds.

We were informed that the pigeon is not in anybody’s house but rather in a market and we spoke to Swati, the young girl who had made the rescue call to the helpline. Swati is not a person who likes animals still carries within her a soul that was compassionate to the pigeon’s suffering and she hid the injured pigeon on the staircase in this marketplace to avoid it being consumed as a meal by any other animal.

When we reached the marketplace, to our troubles, the grill gate safeguarding the staircase was locked but on asking a helpful neighbourhood stall owner the trick to get it opened, we were promptly directed to the security guard of this market and he willingly opened the grill gate and we could access the staircase…as we stepped up a few stairs, we saw a young pigeon injured on its left wing sitting quietly tucked underneath the handrail of the stairs on the other side. Thankfully, the wound wasn’t bleeding any more.

In the carton: Pigeon with kite string injuried rescued from CU block at Pitampura

At 10.45 pm that night, the pigeon was safely delivered to Saud of Wildlife Rescue and he helped remove the kite string that had entangled in the pigeon’s wings and caused it to slit and bleed. the suturing of the wound was done that very night.

Soon after, the pigeon was sent to recuperate to the aviary at Fauna Police under Abhinav’s care.

Thanks to all the care provided at the aviary, the pigeon’s injured wing healed within a couple of weeks and the pigeon was set free much to all of ours delight.

It wasn’t by any means a great rescue act but this was surely a small united effort on part of many helped this pigeon take to the skies again.and as is said, “There are no great things, only small things with great love”.

[For related queries, please mail us at contact@jaagruti.org]

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Buzo-an 11 year old Alsatian’s-tumour removed

[For queries: write to contact@jaagruti.org]

Some animal rescues are just destined to happen we guess and in the process, such instances also end up teaching a lot about the various reasons due to which pets in old age are more likely to be abandoned by their owners, the extent of irresponsible and casual pet ownership that exists in our country and also the psychology of a pet owner. Couple all of this with the paucity of good and accessible veterinary services available in a city as big as Delhi for the average lower middle class pet owner and we are faced with case like that of Buzo.

Scroll down to read the story of Buzo- an 11 year old Alsatian whose chest tumour surgery was successfully aided by Jaagruti on the 12th August 2010.

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[This slideshow shows the process of treating Buzo- from removing his maggot infested tumour to the warts in his ear, treating the fingal infection on his chest to Buzo donning a t-shirt and coming for his change of wound dressing sessions)

In the first week of August, I was nominated to give a workshop at the Police Training Academy in Delhi and address over five hundred on duty sub-inspectors in the city on issues pertaining to animal welfare, cruelty and their legal powers to act against the same.

Towards the end of the workshop as we shared the various helpline numbers in the city with them including sharing the kind of experiences we at ‘Jaagruti’ have had, especially relating to attending a call from Karol Bagh of a street dog in there roaming around with a ‘3 kg bag’ of tumour on his left Front/fore leg…we saw one anxious sub-inspector B.P Singh raising his arm and wanting to seek our help on getting his pet dog- an 11 year old Alsatian named ‘Buzo’ cured of his tumour.

Describing the tumour, Mr. Singh said, “The tumour is sticking out from Buzo’s chest-right behind his left front leg. It has been there for the past year now and was tiny to begin with but has now grown big in the past few months”.

What is noticeable over here is the fact that in all these months that Buzo’s tumour grew big in size, Mr. Singh and his family could not find veterinary doctors/shelters willing to operate on their 11-year old pet dog, while Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre said that ‘Buzo is too old to operate, the compounder (of the government veterinary hospital near their residence) who did home visits to check Buzo was in any case not skilled enough for this ‘complicated ‘ surgery for a dog of his age.

Keeping in line with Jaagruti’s approach on helping animals in distress, we suggested Mr. Singh to take Buzo to the veterinary surgeon we trusted for the job.

Incidentally, this doc’s clinic was also near to Mr. Singh’s residence. On the 6th August, 2010, Buzo was brought for examination and the doctor examined his tumour and then took his blood sample to get a diagnostic profiling done, which was done at a  cost of Rs.1200/-.

[Please note that such a test was mandatory and important for the purpose of checking the condition of Buzo’s liver and kidney- which would help the doc reach a conclusion on whether Buzo was fit enough to take anaesthesia for the tumour removal operation.]

The test results came out fine but then came the shocker from Buzo’s family. As the date of the operation was being fixed Buzo’s owner B.P Singh said to us that “the treatment was ‘expensive’ and in any case Buzo is 11 years old and since dogs just live for about 12 years, there was no point spending so much on his treatment, especially when there is no guarantee either that the tumour wont resurface again”.

As if there is anything in life that comes with a guarantee, we wondered! However without getting into an argument on responsible pet ownership, we asked Mr. Singh very clearly about the amount that he would be interested in spending on his pet dog’s treatment. He said the he would be happy if the whole treatment expense (including tests, surgery, medicines and post-operative care) on Buzo was halved from what was being calculated currently i.e. he wanted it all to be done between Rs.3000-Rs.4000/-

But sensing a possible case of a pet being abandoned, we at ‘Jaagruti’ asked B.P Singh to bring their dog to the vet for surgery on the date given by the doctor while not worrying about the surgery costs of Rs.3000/-which we willingly aided from our end.

So, 12th August, 2010, at 2pm in the afternoon, Buzo was brought to the clinic. Buzo was sedated to help the paravets shave of his tumour infected area and soon after that he was anaesthetised and the surgery began.

[Buzo’s tumour was an extension of a rudimentary teat on the chest]

As we stood outside the Operation Theatre  while Buzo’s tumour removal surgery was taking place, we happened to chat with Neeraj, Mr. Singh’s eldest son who shared with us Buzo’s story as well as their worries since the day his tumour started to grow in size, “ Our mother is very fond of dogs. We kept one earlier to keeping Buzo as well but he ran away one day and my mother was upset ever since then she went to her home town of Bulandshahar and Buzo had just taken birth at a relative’s place then…she got him home to our Uttam Nagar residence in Delhi. His eyes had not even opened yet and he has been my mother’s little pampered boy ever since that day.”

When we asked Neeraj how was Buzo dealing with his tumour, he said though Buzo had learnt to lick it and live with it, their neighbours objected to him being walked in front of their houses without the leash as he stinked and many a times told his family to leave Buzo in the jungle or in the streets. In short the neighbours wisely advised the family to abandon Buzo-and till now it was only Neeraj’s mother perhaps who refused to part with Buzo.

Another thing that came to light was that Neeraj told us that Buzo had some problem in his ears as there were ‘white insects’ that used to come out of the ear, which to our shock and surprise the family killed by putting ‘Phenyl’- a floor disinfectant into his ears.

One a half hour later- Buzo’s surgery ended and the paravets called us inside the OT.

The surgery was done successfully

A tumour weighing 800 gms was removed off Buzo’s chest literally!

What was worse was that the tumour had just got infested with maggots in the past few days itself, as they were not there when Buzo was brought to the vet for his blood sampling on the 6th August, 2010.

We stared at the tumour which was perhaps malignant in nature as we could feel the knots on Buzo’s body at many a places but for now, getting rid of this visible tumour was what we all could best help Buzo with.

Then, without any further delay, we at Jaagruti requested the vet to check Buzo’s ears.

Buzo’s right ear had a bunch of warts in his ear which were removed using a soldering iron and the wound was cauterized.

Both his ears had dead maggots which were cleansed out.

Antibiotics were prescribed to help Buzo’s stitches and wound (post tumour removal) to heal quickly.

Buzo’s fungal infection on the chest was cleansed and B.P Singh’s son Neeraj was instructed to do the following:

–        Make Buzo wear a t-shirt properly knotted on the top to help the bandage stay put.

–        Give him medicines on time (The medicines prescribed were Ceftum and Bidanzine Forte)

–        Do not let him out on the leash alone.

–        Do not let him roam around alone on the roof either where he could get exposed to water or monsoon showers as moisture could rotten it all.

–        And bring Buzo to the vet for examination every alternate day till the stitches healed.

In 5 dressings and 10 days, Buzo was free of most of his visible ailments. The fungal infection on his chest was cured by topical application of Oxy Tetracycline spray and his stitches (of the tumour excision surgery) had healed smoothly as well.

Getting Buzo treated taught us about many a things- about morals and psychology of a pet owner to medical aspects of treating a tumour ridden old dog- all of which we deemed fit to share with you through this story.

Amidst all of this, we at Jaagruti are satisfied that this effort of ours prevented an old pet dog to be abandoned on the streets by his family and we thank the vet and his team for doing a stupendous job with getting Buzo back to good health.

[All photos (C) ‘Jaagruti’]

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How to act when your society RWA puts a bar on letting your pet dog use the building lift?

Pet Dogs: Should they be allowed on lifts or not? (Photo credit: theotokos.co.za)

On the afternoon of 10th August 2010, the Jaagruti helpline received a call from Mrs. Usha Gulati in Faridabad who informed that the residents welfare association of the colony in which they stay had objected to them taking their Pet dog Pixie up and down the building lift from their 5th floor flat. Ms. Gulati and her family was willing to take Pixie down (for his walks) using the stairs but given his age (Pixie is 10+ years old) and the fact that they live on the 5th Floor, the Gulati family was not willing to cow down to the demands and orders of the RWA in any way and were even willing to take this matter to court should the RWA remain adamant in its stance on this subject.

Most of the times the arguments that RWA office bearers give to pet owners while objecting them to using the building lift with their pets- ‘the pets odour is harmful for human health’, ‘pets are dirty’, ‘pets make the lift dirty’, ‘pets can pounce or growl or attack other people in the lift’ and the list goes on as per the whims and fancies of the RWA representatives.

Ms. Gulati mentioned to us that she has a copy of a news clipping that came out in Times of India newspaper in December 2008 in which a Mumbai resident had approached a consumer court for his pet dog Shimu.  Further to this Ms Gulati wanted to know from us if there was any previous judgment in this regard that they could use to help Pixie. Below is presented a step-by-step guide on how to tackle such a problem which, as we learnt is a common problem faced by many people living with their pets in buildings with lifts face across many cities in India. The key to coming out victors in such a situation is to have cent percent commitment towards your pet and to be willing to stand up for your pet’s rights, for pets are family!

Through the power of the internet, we enquired upon this ‘Pets being denied lift access’ subject from people across the animal welfare fraternity across India, the following facts came to light and we are sharing this information in our effort to inspire all those who face similar problems to act accordingly when faced with such situations. As for what transpired in the story of Pixie, read this till the end:

The only preceeding judgement in such a case was when Mr. Ajay Marathe, a resident of Mumbai’s Vashi Colony approached the Consumer Court (on 26th September, 2008) when his colony’s association passed a resolution disallowing them to use the building lift with their pet dog ‘Shimu’, who was then 11 years old who was suffering from osteo-arthritis (pain in the bones and joints)

The following trail of news stories on Shimu’s case illustrate the trail of events on this subject as well.

No entry for pets in lifts, Vashi housing society tells residents

Indian Express
N Ganesh Fri Sep 12 2008
Mumbai, September 11 : Says odour may be harmful to health; SPCA takes up issue
Life for 11-year-old Peter-Pan alias Shimu, a Labrador Retriever, has become tougher than ever. Shimu stays with his owners, Ajay and Nandini Marathe, on the fifth floor of New Sarvodaya Co-operative Housing Society, at Sector 4 in Vashi. Shimu has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, an ailment in which the patient suffers from severe joint pain. However, Shimu will now have to use the staircase instead of the lift, as a resolution passed by the general body of the society bars pets from using the building elevator.

On August 3, 2008, the general body resolved to prevent use of lifts by residents accompanied by their pets. According to a notice issued to Marathe and the general body resolution, the society fears that the odour of the pets which is left behind in the lifts, can be hazardous to the life and health of the building residents. In the month of May 2008, the society sought numerous documents certifying the fitness levels of the dog. Marathe, who has a licence for the dog, produced a certificate issued by the Bombay Veterinary College that dog is licenced, vaccinated, healthy and does not suffer from any infectious or contagious disease. The Bombay Veterinary College certificate also adds that since the dog is aged and suffering from osteoarthritis, it should be allowed to use the lift, as climbing the stairs would be a painful task.

Marathe tried to find a way out by using air fresheners after the use of lift by the pet dog. However, the society officer tersely told Marathe that use of air fresheners was not recommended.

After a complaint of Marathe, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has taken up the issue. S B Kadam, assistant secretary, SPCA said, “SPCA inspectors have paid a visit to the society and asked the office bearers to be practical and permit use of lift for the pet dog concerned. We will be hearing from them soon.”

Marathe said, “I paid the watchman from the neighouring building to carry the dog up and down the building thrice a day so that he could answer nature’s call. This arrangement worked fine for a few days, however he stopped coming after being warned by society office bearers.”

Meanwhile, Marathe has temporarily shifted Shimu to his in-laws place at Pen in Raigad district. Chairman of the housing society Arvind Palwankar said, “It is a very old sick dog with a bad odour. We only prevented Marathe from using the lift. Moreover, Marathe is a nuisance as he relentlessly complains against the society to the authorities about all things trivial.”

What the law says
Advocate Rahul Thakur who is associated with In Defense of Animals (IDA) said that the society resolution violates section 11 (3) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act 1960. It is also against article 51 A (g) of the Indian Constitution according to which it is the duty of every citizen to have compassion for animals, living creatures and improve the natural environment. Thakur said, “The society resolution is illegal as it is unconstitutional.”

Please note the underlined portion in the last paragraph of the above story.

Luckily for Shimu, who is now in good heavens, the Consumer Court upheld the society’s resolution and passed the judgement in his favour and also asked the Association to pay Mr. Ajay Marathe Rs.5000/- in lieu of the damages and the expenses incurred by him on this court case.

Please read through the following news stories:

Peter Pan can use apartment lift now

Indian Express

N Ganesh Dec 17, 2008

Mumbai This 11-year-old dog was barred from using lift by the housing society in Navi Mumbai

The consumer forum came to the rescue of a 11-year-old dog, Peter Pan alias Shimu, who was not allowed to use the apartment lift by the office bearers of a housing society in Navi Mumbai. Shimu, a pet belonging to Ajay and Nandini Marathe, residing on the fifth floor of New Sarvodaya co-operative housing society was barred from using the society lift. Shimu had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis — an ailment that causes acute pain in the joints.

In its order dated December 11, 2008 the Thane District Additional Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ruled that the housing society’s move to prevent pets from using the apartment lift without any valid reasons amounted to deficiency in service to the members as per section 2 (1) (g) of the Consumers Protection Act.

The Marathes were asked to produce documents certifying the illness of the dog. However, despite producing the required certificates and reports, the general body of the housing society in August 2008 resolved to ban pet animals from using apartment lifts.

The housing society contended before the forum that the dog was not a consumer of the housing society and hence the forum cannot hold the society liable. The consumer court however said in its order: “The issue of ‘dog’ being or not being the consumer of the society is not valid, instead the valid issue should be whether the complainant is consumer of the housing society or not.”

Since the membership of the Marathes to the housing society was not disputed, the consumer court said: “The dog has valid license and has been certified by a veterinary doctor of having no contagious and infectious disease. It has received all its vaccines. The doctor has also recommended the use of lifts owing to its condition.”

The housing society contended that the use of lifts by pets threatened the safety of the residents. However the Consumer court held that the housing society’s decision to ban pets from using lifts was without any valid reasons and hence amounted to deficiency in service. The court has ordered the housing society to pay Rs 3000 as damages and Rs 2000 as legal expenses to the Marathes.

Consumer court upholds dog’s right to use lift

18th December, 2008,  Published in: The Times of India

Mumbai: An 11-year-old Labrador has emerged a champion of dog rights by not only winning for himself the right to travel in the elevator of his apartment complex in a Mumbai suburb but getting his master a Rs 5,000 compensation from the apartment’s anti-pet managing committee.

The Thane District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum passed an order, defending Shimu aka Peter Pan’s right to use the left and directed the society to compensate the owner for the harassment he faced. The dog’s owner, Ajay Marathe (52), a fifth floor resident of New Sarvoday Cooperative Society at Vashi, told TOI on Wednesday: This is a very good judgement given in our favour in real time. In fact, a lot of pet owners face the same problem in Mumbai; this order can be an important reference point to help them use their society lifts.

Marathe added that the 35-kg Shimu suffered from pain in the joints and couldn’t use the stairway. The society this May passed a resolution, saying pets like cats and dogs could not be allowed in the lift as their body odour could be injurious to health and life, which I found to be ridiculous, he said.

Marathe first went to the cops, but failing to get a sympathetic response from them, he lodged a case in the Thane consumer court. The consumer court has given this judgement in less than three months. The Rs 5,000 compensation for my pet is also welcome as I had to temporarily shift Shimu to my in laws house in Pen, which caused some discomfort to him, he said.

To read the full judgement given by the Consumer Court on this case in favour of Shimu the dog, please click here

Since Shimu passed away soon after this judgement was announced, Mr. Marathe donated the Rs.5000/- compensation he received to the animal welfare charity named PAWS which used this contribution to publish brochures on the ‘Tree Protection Act’, which carried Shimu’s name on it as a mark of honour to his spirit.

Now, coming back to Pixie’s case in Fraidabad, here is what happened-

Deriving inspiration from Mr. Marathe’s stance on getting justice for Shimu, Ms. Usha Gulati’s familytook the press clipping of Shimu’s news (which had come out in TOI in December 2008) and approached the Local  Police with the copy of the same and lodged a complaint against the RWA…the cops then called and came over to meet the RWA representatives and following all of this, an amicable solution was reached upon in which it was agreed that the  Gulati family would be allowed to bring their pet dog Pixie down the stairs for his walk and after he has relieved himself and there is apparently nothing in his stomach to ‘dirty’ the lift with, he can take the lift upstairs to his fifth floor house along with his owner.

So, next time you face such an issue, consider using all of this information above and stand up to seek justice for your animal friends. Trust us, its all worth the effort and a way to (try to) pay back  for all the love that your pet animal has showered upon you unconditionally.

However, we would like to also suggest to you that as always prevention is better than cure so please be mindful of a few other things a ‘responsible’ pet owner can follow while using the lift with their pet, to avoid inconvenience to the fellow lift users:

1. Make sure that your pet dog/cat is vaccinated to avoid any health related arguments from fellow building residents.

2. Keep your pet animal on a leash.

3. If your pet is aggressive and has a tendency to bite strangers, then it would be better to put a muzzle around the pet’s mouth while you move your pet in the lift. You can remove the muzzle once your pet is out of the lift.

4. Try using the lift when no one is in there, alternatively avoid using the lift when someone (you know) having a canine/feline-phobia (i.e someone who is well-known to be scared of dogs/cats) is already travelling in the lift.

5. Make sure that your pet doesn’t pee or defecate in there, so avoid taking young untrained pups in the lift as else you would most likely end up creating a lot more disgruntled neighbours or should we say enemies!

6. Take care of the health and hygiene of your pet dog/animal, give it a nice bath regularly so that it doesn’t emanate any sort of stinking odour in a public place like a lift, which may else be a cause of inconvenience for the fellow residents of your building.

* Credits: We deeply thank AWBI’s lawyer Anjali Sharma, PAWS founder trustee Nilesh Bhanage and Vishruti Aggarwal for sharing their experiences, the video link and the consumer court judgement with us.