All Grown Up

Of the litter of ten puppies that TAA has been assisting in Ankara, four were adopted, four moved on to other locations and two have remained. Narin, the remaining female, has been de-sexed, vaccinated, wormed and flea treated. Here is Narin at about 8 weeks old

And here she is at 8-9mths of age

Pooh Bear, the remaining male (his Turkish name is ‘Efres’ which means ‘Macho’), has been vaccinated, wormed and flea treated. We hope to work with the council to get him de-sexed. Here is Pooh Bear at 8 weeks old.

Pooh Bear at 8-9mths old.

The challenges faced by street dogs

The life of a stray dog is not easy - they have to fend for themselves to find food and shelter amongst the streets - if they are lucky they will survive the first year of life. Female dogs that are not de-sexed often produce litter after litter which takes a toll on their bodies and health. Meanwhile, dogs that are not vaccinated will often succumb to diseases like parvovirus and distemper. Distemper is very uncommon in Australia because we have a high rate of vaccination and a low stray animal population in comparison to Turkey. In my 13 years of practising I have never seen a case.

Unfortunately, one of the adult dogs in Ankara, Kara, became sick. He required hospitalisation and treatment. Initially Kara was thought to be suffering from a gastrointestinal infection, but as the days progressed test results showed that he had contracted distemper. Distemper is a horrible virus which affects the gastrointestinal, respiratory and neurological systems. There is no treatment available for the virus other than supportive care throughout the course of the illness which can last up to 5 weeks. Many patients don’t survive distemper and in others the neurological damage is too severe to live a normal life, let alone to fend for themselves on the streets.

However, due to the dedication of Sebnem and her team of volunteers, Kara received treatment during several hospital admissions, and medication when back living in the local park. With the donations from our kind supporters TAA was able to contribute towards Kara’s medical costs.

Kara (Turkish for ‘black’) was lucky and managed to recover after a long battle with the virus. Whilst he has severe respiratory changes, this is able to be managed. Kara didn’t show any neurological damage and is now recovering back at the park Here is a picture of Kara in hospital receiving intravenous fluids.

At a similar time to Kara’s illness, several other local dogs started to cough. We were very concerned that they had also contracted distemper. Unlike Narin and Pooh Bear, many of the local adult population have not been vaccinated. They were started on oral antibiotics, mixed in food, to help treat for secondary infections. Thankfully the dogs were only suffering from ‘Canine Cough’ and they all recovered. TAA was again able to make a contribution towards the medical cost for these dogs with the donations that we have received.

Never ending supply of cats

Of the four female cats we de-sexed, three have remained in the area. With the coming of spring and now summer, more kittens have arrived as there are so many cats that are yet to be de-sexed. TAA will continue to de-sex the adult females that we can catch in our area of operations in Ankara and Istanbul.

Here are two of them from our last visit to Ankara in April.