Grove Lodge Vets Twitter Appeal Helps To Save Dying Puppies’ Lives

Original tweet which alerted Virbac How a single tweet from local vet group attracted help from pharmaceutical giant Last Tuesday night eight puppies were left to die in various soaking wet cardboard boxes on a cold, miserable, winter's evening in Sussex. These various coloured lurcher pups were eventually discovered huddled together for comfort and warmth in a dark, lonely field in Lancing, terrified and dangerously ill. Fortunately a member of the public stumbled upon these eight shivering dogs as it’s unlikely they would’ve survived the night if they had not been found. Realising these pups needed urgent medical attention they were taken straight to the 24 hour Grove Lodge Veterinary Hospital in nearby Worthing, where vets found them all to be in a terrible condition - severely emaciated, having vomiting and diarrhoea, and infested with worms. Local rescue charity Worthing & District Animal Rescue (WADARS) kindly agreed to take on the pups and pay for any treatment needed to save their tiny lives. At the vet hospital, on-duty nurses decided to name them after eight of Santa's reindeer and set about looking after them in Grove Lodge Vets’ specialized isolation ward where all pups underwent blood tests which revealed they were all riddled with a highly contagious and potentially fatal canine disease called parvovirus. In isolation: Grove Lodge Vet Heather Watson and trainee nurse Hayley Telling with two of the poorly parvo pups Senior Vet, Nicola Bromley said: "Parvovirus is so dangerous as it’s a highly aggressive and extremely difficult virus to treat. Sadly it’s not uncommon to lose maybe one or two pups due to the severity of this condition. We can use anti-viral medication but these are very expensive and currently we're doing all we can to help WADARS afford these specialist drugs.” So in order to help raise vital funds to buy the urgent medication required to treat all eight dying pups, Grove Lodge Vets tweeted the pups’ story, included the special @ParvoAlert tag (used to spread awareness of viral outbreaks to fellow dog owners - and as a result it was seen by in house vet Simon Boulton from global pharmacological giants Virbac, who on seeing the tweet on his phone immediately contacted Grove Lodge Vets and generously offered twenty five vials to help treat the dying pups saving the charity thousands of pounds. Virbac’s Simon Boulton says “It’s not the puppies fault that they have not been vaccinated, they’ve got no real hope apart from Grove Lodge Vets taking the time and effort, as well as donations from generous people to get them better. It’s a lot to ask of a vet’s practice, with strict barrier nursing and emotional bond, and they are helpless and defenceless. There are still some members of the public who think parvovirus doesn’t exist now, but as a vet, parvovirus is close to my heart, which is why I started Parvo Alert on Twitter to raise awareness.” Vet Nicola continues “Brilliant stuff! As a result of the parvo pups publicity on Twitter we’ve been given the free interferon treatment for all of them from Virbac who saw the appeal on our @GroveLodgeVets Twitter-feed. This would have cost WADARS over £3000! This hopefully means the pups have a much better chance of surviving. Thanks Virbac!” With most rescue shelters at this time of year struggling, either being full or overflowing with unwanted puppies and dogs, local charity WADARS and now Southern Lurcher Rescue (a small, voluntary registered charity based in the South, dedicated to the work of rehoming unwanted lurchers) have kindly come forward to help offer rehome the pups. If you’d like to rehome one or more pups, or even make a festive contribution towards treatment, call WADARS on 0300 3030 999 as funds are urgently needed to help look after not only these puppies, but also all other unwanted healthy animals too. Your dog can be protected from parvovirus with a regular vaccination as part of its annual booster injection. So don't take the risk; ask your vet and make sure your dog is vaccinated. Finally, these eight puppies were obviously completely unwanted, and left to die in a field. Dog owners can avoid unwanted litters and serious health issues by simply neutering their dogs.

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