Mayhew International Autumn Winter 2016

Mayhew International Issue 21

working to alleviate the suffering of animals abroad

Autumn/Winter 2016

It’s been a great year at Mayhew International and inside this Autumn/Winter issue you can read all about Dr. Mo’s work in Afghanistan and PetFund, the animal therapy project we support in Moscow. You can also see how your donations helped Animal Nepal rebuild their Dog Isolation Block following last year’s earthquake and have a peek at the three Georgian bear cubs enjoying their new home in Greece.

Mayhew International is part of The Mayhew Animal Home.

Registered charity no. 1077588

Afghanistan After a flying visit back to the UK in May, Dr. Mo, our Afghanistan Project Manager, is back in Kabul. With a busy remit with the Government, he has still found time to continue assisting and training the young vet team at Nowzad’s clinic. Dr Mo has been training their team now for several years. They frequently have complicated cases and Dr Mo’s expertise has been invaluable in saving these animals and getting them on the road to recovery.

Beautiful Sharif was originally found as a pup with a tight cord tied around her neck. She was also suffering from chronic mange. The team at Nowzad were able to remove the cord, the wound healed and she has since grown.

However, the healed tissue had become fibrotic and she couldn’t stretch her neck properly, causing her breathing and eating difficulties. Dr. Hadi of Nowzad called in Dr. Mo for assistance and they operated on Sharif’s neck. She is doing really well and recovering from the first operation, but it is likely that Sharif will need to undergo two further operations to fix her neck completely.

But it is not only dogs, Dr. Mo has also been helping cats for Nowzad . CJ had a fistula at the corner of his eye with discharge coming from the hole. If left it could have seriously affected his eye so Dr. Mo operated on and has successfully repaired the fistula, saving the eye, and CJ is now recovering well.

Bandat, a white male cat, had an old fracture in his left hind leg which had not healed properly. He was taken to the Nowzad Clinic and the vet team called 2

Mayhew International _ Summer 2016

in Dr. Mo for help. Bandat was prepped for surgery by the Nowzad team and then Dr. Mo carried out orthopaedic surgery on the leg and Bandat is now recovering. The surgery went well and was an excellent training experience for the team.

You may remember that Mayhew International donated a blood and urine analyser to Nowzad, which they are using at their clinic in Kabul. The Idexx VetTest Chemistry Analyzer is a blood testing instrument that analyses and profiles samples to help vets make more accurate diagnoses and prognoses when assessing cats and dogs, including organ condition and blood coagulation.

The equipment can also check kidney enzymes so it is a great piece of equipment for the clinic to have. Dr. Mo met up with Pen Farthing, Founder of Nowzad, and Najwa, the local manager to see it in action.

During his time in Afghanistan, Dr. Mo will also be delivering lectures and workshops at Kabul University Veterinary Faculty, as well as providing further vet training at Kabul shelter Tigger House.

Dr. Mo continues to negotiate with the

Above: Sharif in surgery.

Above: CJ after his operation.

Above: Sharif after his operation.

Above: An X-ray of Bandat’s orthopaedic surgery.

Above: Mo with Pen Farthing and Najwa

relevant Government departments and Kabul City authorities on humane dog population management. Kabul city still uses strychnine poison to cull the roaming dog population in the misguided belief that this will prevent the spread of rabies and decrease the number of dogs on the streets. Stopping the culling of

dogs is vital before any sustainable mass vaccination or TNR programme can be implemented. Dr Mo has the Ministry of Agriculture on side with his plans, as well as World Health Organisation Rabies representatives so we are changing attitudes which is the ultimate goal.

www.themayhew.org

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Moscow PetFund, the animal visiting project in Moscow that is similar to our TheraPaws® programme here in the UK, has been busy rescuing, training and rehoming dogs from the streets and shelter of the Russian capital. Thanks to you Mayhew International has been able to fund this worthy project and is now also sponsoring the neutering of the dogs via vet Valentina who received training from the Mayhew vet team last year.

PetFund has carried out 43 visits in the first half of the year and reached over 2000 people including children at an orphanage, older people, hospice patients, people with disabilities and school children. A total of 16 of PetFund’s fully trained dogs have been involved in this year’s visits.

One lucky recipient is a little girl called Xenia who has cerebral palsy and loves spending time with PetFund dog Asya.

Xenia finds it difficult to get up without assistance so she spends most of her time sitting or lying down. Her mother tried to encourage her to get up herself so she could play with Asya better and this proved to be the perfect motivation for her. After a lot of perseverance Xenia

has managed to get up and move about by herself and can’t wait to see Asya again so she can greet her. This is a fantastic example of the positive effect animals can have on people and their quality of life.

PetFund has also had many successful rehoming stories lately such as Aurora and her pups, Alma and Cherry. They were thrown from a car by their previous owners but luckily were found

by PetFund. They were taken in and given lots of love and have now all been neutered, vaccinated and trained. Alma and Cherry have found new forever homes already and Aurora is still waiting to be adopted but we’re confident this beautiful lady will find a home soon.

Above: Bringing joy on a recent visit in Moscow.

Above: Thanks to your donations Mayhew International has been able to fund this project.

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Above: One of the PetFund dogs on a hospital visit.

Above: The PetFund project is similar to our TheraPaws® programme in the UK. www.themayhew.org

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Bear cub update

Nepal

Mayhew International is delighted to bring you an update from the Arcturos Sanctuary in Northern Greece, the new home of the three orphan bear cubs from Georgia.

Last year the Nepal earthquake shook the country and Mayhew International was quick to step in and offer assistance to Animal Nepal who we have worked with there for several years.

For the first few days after being released into their new and larger enclosure, Louisa was very brave and adjusted to the change in her surroundings quickly. She would eagerly approach the feeding stations and the Arcturos staff and she was very playful, happy and active. Mollie and Georgia, however, took a little longer to adjust and were quite apprehensive to begin with and hid in their dens. Gradually their confidence grew and they started coming out to feed at night time when it was quiet, and slowly but surely they got used to their new environment.

Louisa quickly made friends with Patrick, a male orphan bear cub who was already living at Arcturos and was introduced to the Georgian group, and they spend most of their days playing together, climbing trees and swimming.

All four bears are now quite comfortable

Above: Louisa and Patrick.

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Mayhew International _ Summer 2016

and familiar with their new enclosure and they are happy to see the staff in the mornings for their breakfast of apples, melon, plums, bread and other tasty bear food! During the days they love to play together, although while the weather was hot over the summer they would often relax in their shady dens and come out to play in the cooler afternoons.

The four bears will remain in this enclosure for a full year and they will be transferred to a new, even larger enclosure next Spring, where they can live out their days happy and free.

Thank you again to all everyone who donated to our Bear Cub appeal this year. This happy ending was only possible because of your support.

You can watch a video of the bears playing at: www.themayhew.org/ rescued-georgian-bears-update

Above: Mollie and Georgia.

The building suffered severe structural damage with the worst hit area being the dog isolation unit, leaving the team without somewhere to hold dogs that could be potentially carrying infectious diseases.

We launched an appeal and thanks to the funds raised by generous Mayhew International supporters we were able to help them get up and running again.

Initial funds were used to purchase a

solar–powered electricity system and now we are delighted to have received an update from them letting us know that our further donations are helping to fund the new Isolation Block at their shelter and clinic in Lalitpur. It has taken a bit of time but now construction has started and the building is well underway and will contain kennels and an examination room. We will continue to keep you updated.

Above: Emergency treatment directly after the quake.

Above: Building the Isolation Unit in Chobhar.

Above: Work progresses on the Isolation Unit.

Above: Another view of the ongoing construction.

www.themayhew.org

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An evening at

Buy your tickets now!

for Mayhew International

Sunday 2nd October, 6.30pm Burgh House, New End Square London NW3 1LT • Entertainment by Kate Daniels Jazz Quartet • Drinks & nibbles • Actor and animal welfare campaigner Peter Egan as compere • Raffle A fantastic fundraising evening in aid of Mayhew International and to celebrate World Animal Day

Visit www.themayhew.org/burgh-house Or call 020 8206 5872 £15 per ticket with a free glass of fizz on arrival