Thiruvananthapuram: Senior veterinary surgeon Deepu Philip Mathew at Veterinary Polyclinic, Chengannur (VPC), operated a female eight-year-old Labrador Cookie under a generator as there was no power supply. The pet owner got the generator so that Cookie could be saved from a badly infected uterus and mammary carcinoma.
This calls for an alternative power source at least in referral veterinary hospitals.
The incident happened on Thursday when the KSEB had informed the public in Chengannur that there will not be power supply from 9 am to 5 pm.
Unfortunately, the staff at VPC had utterly forgotten about the power failure alert. Cookie and her ‘parents’, Prof (Dr) Mohan Varghese and Sophy Koshy, residing at Thadiyoor in Pathanamthitta rushed to 20 km far VPC in Alappuzha district with severe pus discharge.
The local veterinarian referred Cookie to VPC which led Dr Deepu to undertake the pathology blood results of the pet dog.
He cautions the pet dog lovers that female dogs have got more chances of getting an infected uterus if they are not allowed to breed.
“Cookie was very sick, dehydrated and oozing with pus. There was no way I could postpone the twin surgery of removing her uterus and ovaries as well as the mammary carcinoma. Unfortunately, there was no power supply and after several hours of perseverance Cookie’s ‘parents’ managed to hire a 7,500-watt generator for Rs 5000 for five hours,” said Dr Deepu.
Every year during the summer, VPC experiences severe water shortage where the staffers which include two veterinarians, livestock inspector, two attendants, a part-time sweeper and a clerk to store clean drinking water in whatever containers they can. Though there is an inverter at VPC, it does not help to sterilise the instruments. With this incident, Dr Deepu decided to give a proposal to the animal husbandry
department to provide a generator. Already, the staffers at VPC are awaiting an ultrasound scanner with colour Doppler worth '15 lakh as well as X-ray facilities.
Sophy Koshy is all praise for Dr Deepu and his team for saving Cookie at the nick of time.
“I had great difficulty in getting a generator on rent as the commercial establishments had hired almost every set owing to the daylong power break. It is sad that veterinary hospitals lack even the bare amenities. Cookie is recovering fast where she has started taking food and water,” said Sophy, a higher secondary school teacher.
