Supporting the "Quinto Mondo Animalisti Volontari" Association

Project location: Italy, Lazio Region
Project start date: January 2006 - Project end date: This project covers various years
Project number: 2006-001
Beneficiary: Quinto Mondo Animalisti Volontari – Onlus

The NPF grant was used, according to the original goals of the project, for the following:

1. Special food for dogs with serious health problems.

2. prophylaxis with vermifuges.

3. Disinfestations and insectides

4. Periodical vaccination

5. Veterinary surgery and similar operations

Special food was purchased, which was best suited to the following pathologies:

• Alimentary Intolerance (Hypoallergenic food - Forza 10)

• Renal Problems (Renal o KD)

• Intestinal Problems (ID)

• Puppies food

The insecticide Advantix and the vermifuge Triantelm were purchased and given to all the animals hosted. Also, several dogs needed very specific health care and for some of them a surgery intervention was necessary. In particular funds were used for the following dogs:

-July 15 Sara 13 years old: she spent four days at Clinica Viale Etiopia, after being urgently operated. She had a sudden and unexpected mouth haemorrhage She needed two massive blood transfusions. The main difficulty of the operation was to dress an artery that was injured by an infection due to a dental problem.

The doctors also removed four other teeth, almost in the same bad conditions. At the end ot the hospitalization period, Sara started to drink and eat almost regularly and then she got back to the shelter. She still have a low value of haematocryal

Giorgio is 10 years old and looks like a golden retriever. He spent all his life in the shelter. He got an abdominal ultrasound scan in order to check both the dimension of a small mass present in the urethra and the general conditions of his prostate. Two months ago, a previous scan showed the presence of a cyst in the prostate. The result of the scan was quite reassuring for the urethra. However, the prostate is not in good condition and the problem remains. The dog can still urinate easily.

July 20 Clyde - a 10 years old pooch with a 50% Doberman in his blood - suffered from a gastric torsion He was immediately carried to the veterinary clinic Viale Etiopia where he went under a surgical operation. The operation was very complicated since stomach and and spleen were twisted Clyde lost a lot of blood and he needed a transfusion. The spleen was removed. After that Clyde went back to the shelter and he had slowly recovered. Now he is in good shape.

July 24 Sheila (8 years old pooch) has been sterilized. She entered the shelter when she was already pregnant and we cannot host newborn dogs in the shelter. She needed particular care for a week and she is now ok.

August 3 Serenella (black pooch, 12 years old), spent two days at the veterinary clinic Viale Etiopia, where she got a specific ultrasound scan at the stomach and the liver. This analysis revealed a thickening of the stomach, and an inflammation of the gall bladder. The situation was, however, not so serious to justify an operation, but her diet should be taken under care especially for the control of th cardias.

Titti (15 years old, black pooch) was maybe the most representative dog of the shelter. She never had her own box. She was always free to go around and she was comfortable with every single dog. During last November Titti started having hepatic problems and some nodules appeared on her flank. First we decided to remove the nodules but it was impossible to practice a local anaesthesia of the dog, because of her critical conditions. The removal was urgent because the nodule started to be quite large and a spontaneous laceration was highly probable and it would have been very risky because of possible haemorrhage since the flank is a very vascularised part of the body.

She got operation some day before and everything was ok. However her general conditions did not improve. After a return to the shelter, Titti died in the hospital on August 8th, 2009. It was the saddest day of our association.

August 12 Belinda (a very shy similar Golden Retriever, 10 years old) had a nose biopsy in order to understand whether a leishmania infection was present. The result was negative so we have not completely understood the reasons of her nose.

- September 2 Lalla, one of the oldest dog in the shelter, she is about 15 years old has been hospitalized for 3 days at the animal clinic in Fiano Romano She suffered from the presence of a nodule on her flank which has been removed. A sample of the removed material has been then analyzed but its nature did not suggest pessimism.

- September 15 Melly has been hospitalized at the animal clinic in Fiano Romano: she was in a very critical situation: she did not like to drink or to eat nor to walk. Her mucous membrane was almost white. The doctor put an intravenous drip and a blood sample was analysed. The diagnosis was rather sad, since her values of creatinine were absolutely out of control. Sadly, she died after returning to the shelter.

October 24. Astra, (5 years old, one of the more recent entries in the shelter) has been urgently hospitalized an operated at the Zoo Hospital Flaminio. She had a very dangerous piometra, not diagnosed in advance. The operation was ok but Astra, after two days, broke, with her teeth, the medication. So the injure was open again and she was re-operated. She spent more than a week in the hospital and her chances of survival were very low for many days because of the risk of haemorrhage. After that, she recovered very well and she was also adopted some months ago!

October 30 Lothar (a very old white Italian shepard) has been hospitalized at the Viale Etiopia clinic. He was not able to stand nor to walk. He spent almost a week in the clinic although his general health conditions did not improve in a significant way. The diagnosis was a sort of heart disease caused by hyperthyroidism and he was given a specific drug called eutirox. After that we decided that he could not stay in the shelter and he was transferred to a private dog-place (warmer and 24-hours assistance) He spent his last two months of life there.

Splugy (10 years old, male) suffers from prostate disease since 2008: he was never emasculated. Also some gallstones appeard in the last ultrasound scan. In addition he spent some days without eating. So he was hospitalized for almost a week but no additional problems arose, so Splugy was able to go back to the shelter in good conditions.