Mar

Basil Laying Paralysed in Scrubland Clings to Hope

Basil arrived to us Easter weekend in a terrible state. It was an emergency; we had received an alert of a young dog laying paralysed in scrubland, by the side of a road, unable to move. Life on the streets is hard enough, yet suddenly being quadriplegic meant certain death for young Basil.

Astonishingly, upon examination, our vet said that he had most likely been in this condition for 2 whole weeks, which is simply unimaginable; the level of suffering poor Basil had endured, unable to find food or defend himself. Someone had clearly been feeding him, as there were bowls left next to him, so exactly why veterinary help had not been provided remains a mystery, although locals informed our volunteer that the only local vet there is always “too busy” to attend to stray dogs.

The Xray’s immediately showed the true extent of his condition; he had been shot and also suffered a serious fracture injury to his neck, with a fragment of his cervical vertebrae completely missing. It’s unclear whether the cause of the neck injury is from the trauma of the bullet passing through, or from a car accident, or from a beating by the many thugs that dominate the streets ‘stray dog bashing’ – a local “sport” 🙁

To be honest, we are completely overwhelmed at the moment. With our shelter completely full, and donations at a very low ebb, we are struggling to pay for food for all the shelter dogs and it is proving very difficult to quickly rehome the dogs to Western Europe due to the sheer high costs and logistics involved. Yet we couldn’t just leave Basil to die.

Yet we believe we can fix Basil. We have done it before and with your help we will do it again. Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to euthanise him, yet the right thing to do is provide him with everything he needs to be able to heal, because we believe where there is will to live, there is hope.

And there is hope. Basil has some feeling in one of his back legs, so all is definitely not lost. For now our vet has immobilised Basil’s neck and given medicines and supplements to help generate nerve damage repair.

We are of course, eternal optimists here, spurred on by our past successful rehabilitation cases who prove to us time, and time again that where there is loving and skilled care, miracles can be achieved.

Please, if you can, give us a hand covering our mounting costs, not just for Basil’s vet bill, yet simply the bare necessities of life: food, shelter and medicines that we are really struggling to cover this year.

Please, if you can help, contribute here.