๐ข๐๐ฟ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ด๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐๐ด๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ถ๐! ๐๐
Meet Maple - our latest Makana Vet Rescue! ๐ฅน At a whole 3kg, sheโs probably the skinniest No. 4 out there but sheโs definitely the cutest! ๐ซ
Thank you to Margie Hepple who especially brought some dry wors treats to help get Maple into the rugby spirit and to Nina Rossouw who offered to take Maple for an afternoon walk in the Botanical Gardens today! She was certainly happy to oblige on both accounts. ๐คฉ
Weโll share more of Mapleโs story soon but for now she is fast asleep in our clinic under the warmth of her Springbok jersey! ๐๐พ
Despite a busy day in the clinic filled with surgeries, procedures and consults, Dr Amy (who is our only vet) along with other members of our Makana Vet team, managed to visit homes in both Tyantyi Location and Extension 6 today.
We visited Tyantyi as a family there recently started feeding a pregnant dog who just arrived at their home. Choosing her days, the mom dog gave birth on Saturday in the pouring rain! ๐ฉ But thankfully the family managed to make a beautiful shelter out of mostly recycled materials which is perfect to keep her and her pups dry and warm in bad weather.
The family reached out for assistance as they are understandably worried about mom and her little of 8 new born pups and wanted advice/guidance. Today we visited the home to suss it out and have decided to rather leave mom be for the time being since she is comfortable and familiar with the area. We have in the mean time given the family some extra food that we were donated to help get mom into better condition and support her nutritionally while she is feeding this big litter.
Once old enough we will wean the pups from mom and then try find forever homes for them from there and of course mom will definitely be sterilised so she never has to worry about having another litter ever again! ๐๐ป
At Makana Vet we believe that our knowledge, skills and resources should not only be used to help our clients with their pets but should also be used to help animals and owners who otherwise would not have access to veterinary care. With our welfare work or veterinary work done in township communities we put the most emphasis on sterilisation and especially spaying.
Here is a short video clip of mom and her 8 tiny new born pups! ๐ฅฐ Weโll be visiting mom and her pups regularly so more updates to follow! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐จ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
At Makana Vet, we believe that our skills, resources and facilities should not only be used to assist private fee-paying clients but also to assist unowned animals who require veterinary care and pets whose owners are impoverished and cannot afford to cover the full costs of their animalโs treatment.
We do this through our Patient Support Fund where we pool contributions and donations together and charge nominal fees for these cases to merely cover the costs involved of treating a particular animal.
Our Patient Support Fund is also used to cover the costs of care for any animals that our clinic has rescued. We very firmly believe in taking full responsibility for any animals who have crossed our paths even if they are unowned. We, therefore, do not pass any animal we have rescued on to any other welfare or rescue organisation and fully absorb the costs involved even if it means looking after some of our rescues for years. We care for our rescues until such time as they find suitable homes and even then we remain as involved in their lives as possible by keeping in regular contact with adopters.
Although we continue to receive extremely generous donations and contributions to our Patient Support Fund, the need is huge and our resources remain very limited in comparison to the cries for help we hear on a daily basis. Therefore, we try where possible to only rescue animals that require some form of veterinary care where our skills are of most value and limit our intake of healthy unwanted animals.
Our latest Makana Vet Rescue is Toffee! ๐ฅน Toffee is only about 8-10 weeks old and she was found in Fingo scavenging on an illegal dump site all alone. She was flea ridden, suffering from mange, starving and had a large abscess on her chin.
Toffee is now receiving treatment at Makana Vet and has been vaccinated, dewormed and treated for mange/ticks an
๐๐ผ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
We are always ready to help when a dog or any animal for that matter needs us and last week when we got a message about a dog stuck in a sewer we sprung into action and were there within minutes.
The dog had fallen into an uncovered sewer on a densely overgrown piece of municipal land. Thankfully someone from a house nearby heard the dogโs desperate cries, went to investigate and then asked for help when they realised what had happened.
Despite the dog being understandably nervous and growling a bit, we managed to hoist the dog out and then washed her off. Thankfully she was completely uninjured and unharmed! ๐๐ป
Being in such good condition, we knew she came from somewhere where she was being looked after well and had possibly just got lost and confused. We let her go and she immediately trotted off as if she knew exactly where she was going and hopefully was on her way back home! Unfortunately she was far too quick for us to follow.
๐๐ถ๐๐ธ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
There is always such a huge selection of dog treats available in shops that it often feels like the cats are missing out. Thatโs why we love Biskitty so much and cats love it too! ๐ป
Influencer marketing is important in this day and age so we recently asked the three-legged Crunchie Jackson-Moss to give us his opinion on the CatNip Flavoured Biskitty. He completely approves! ๐คฉ๐
Biskitty is available at our clinic in 5 different flavours - Chicken, Tuna, Salmon, CatNip and a Minty flavour for fresh breath. It sells for R50-R55 per box depending on the flavour.
๐ Find us at 59 Fitzroy Street, Grahamstown/Makhanda
๐ช๐ฒ๐น๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ ๐น๐ถ๐๐๐น๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ! ๐
Over the past week we have had to assist with two sheep and two goats who have all been struggling to give birth either because their lambs/kids have been in the wrong position or because they have been too big.
Sadly with most of them, the off spring had already passed away by the time the moms had got to us but today we had the pleasure of delivering this beautiful and healthy little lamb who was well and truly stuck!
Despite a slightly swollen head, todayโs lamb is perfectly fine as is mom and the pair of them were already bonding nicely a few minutes after we got this little one out.
Well done to our vet nurse, Sr Ger-Marie, who did the honours of delivering this little one today. She managed to manipulate the little legs into the right position and then pull her straight out.
๐ท : Video posted with ownerโs permission
๐๐ผ๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ก๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ต๐ฎ๐บ๐๐๐ผ๐๐ป/๐ ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ
On Tuesday, Dr Amy got a call from someone travelling on a bus from Grahamstown to East London asking for help with a dog theyโd seen on the side of the road. They described it as the worst conditioned dog theyโd ever seen.
Dr Amy drove out to see if she could find it and there he was - emaciated, full of mange, weak and completely starving.
He was shy but thankfully Dr Amy had some food with her and managed to catch him on her own from behind and brought him back into the clinic.
In situations like this where all our resources like space, time and most importantly funding are so limited and already stretched thin do we go with our heads or our hearts?
Put him down because itโs the practical thing to do or treat him because thatโs what we are here for and love to do?
We still donโt know the right answer.
Hallelujah is quite the famous little doggie and known well by many of our Grahamstown locals! ๐๐พ
Hallelujah has been with her owner, Azola, since she was a tiny pup and the two of them have been car guarding in New Street together for a few years.
Sadly, during the course of last year, Azola fell ill and was hospitalised. Some people close to Azola got in touch with us and asked if we could take care of his Hallelujah. After some time we realised she couldnโt stay at the clinic for any longer and we put out a call for a temporary home for her.
The perfect home offer came along and Hallelujah has been spending her days on a beautiful farm with plenty of space to run and do the zoomies! ๐คฉ๐
Sadly Azola is still not well so for now she will stay put and we wish him a speedy recovering hoping that they can visit each other at some point in the near future! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
Patient Support Fund Update โฅ๏ธ๐พ
In January 2022, our Patient Support Fund was developed to assist pet owners who cannot afford the full costs of their petโs veterinary care. It has since also been used to cover the costs of care for any unwanted or stray animals who have crossed our path because they needed veterinary assistance.
From its inception, our Patient Support Fund has helped countless animals receive veterinary care that they otherwise would not have had access to. Quite literally we have been able to save hundreds of lives as we can be certain that without this veterinary assistance these animals would likely have died, been put down or continued to breed uncontrollably.
Over the last year we have done several amputations, treated hundreds of dogs for ticks, fleas and mange, fixed up many wounds, fed up emaciated dogs and puppies, enucleated eyes and done much more using these funds. But most notably we have also done plenty of sterilisations.
Having funds available in our Patient Support Fund gives us the ability to say โyes, of course we can helpโ when we have an unemployed gentlemen sitting in our waiting room crying over his sick puppy which he walked with to our clinic. Also when we have a 17 year old boy who walks to our clinic with his two puppies because he learnt at school they should get vaccinations but didnโt bring any money with. As well as when an elderly pensioner who lives alone and his only companion gets hit by a car and needs its leg amputated. These are all examples of cases that our Patient Support Fund has helped just in 2023 so far.
We are so willing to do the work but even though we do everything for our Patient Support Fund at reduced rates, it sadly still all costs and we desperately need help to keep doing the work that we do.
Our Patient Support Fund has sadly gone far into the red and if we donโt get additional contributions in soon we will be forced to turn away animals and owners without funds whe
Our adorable little Wednesday was getting a bit too involved with todayโs cleaning efforts at the clinic! ๐
Wednesday is just one of our rescue pups who is currently looking for a home and is available for adoption.
Wednesday was found with her sister recently by some people cleaning up litter around Grahamstown/Makhanda. They were not in great shape so were brought in to our clinic for help. Her sister sadly didnโt make it but despite the bad start in life, Wednesday has blossomed and has grown beautifully. She has an adorable and sweet personality!
If youโre looking for a new puppy to add to your family please get in touch with us on 0797876479.
Nearly every day since the start of the year we have had members of our team on the ground in various parts of the Grahamstown/Makhanda township helping animals and their owners.
On one of Dr Amyโs recent rounds she came across the lovely Gypsy with her litter of 7 new born pups in Extension 10. Gypsyโs owner had got in touch because her other dog had been in a fight and was wounded. As expected the fight was between two intact males after a female on heat.
When asking if there were any other dogs in the family Gypsyโs owner pointed to a little structure covered in a picnic mat. Underneath was a small table, some blankets plus Gypsy and her pups. A very neat and secure structure to keep everyone safe!
Gypsyโs owner was telling us that she is currently out of work but if she does find something again sheโd like to save up to buy a little house for them. Thankfully weโd just been given one and will be dropping it off soon.
We were so impressed by Gypsyโs ownerโs efforts to care for her pups so we managed to drop off a 20kg bag of puppy food as well. Gypsy has lost a lot of weight while feeding these pups and her owners are currently only able to feed her maize meal.
Once Gypsy has weaned this litter we would love to get her sterilised which her owners are delighted about and weโd also like to castrate Gypsyโs friend to prevent all the fighting over the ladies which seems to be a regular occurrence!
All of this help and assistance is made possible by the contributions made to our Patient Support Fund! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
Last week we celebrated yet another amazing adoption and we are delighted to see how happy little Flop is in her new home! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
Flop was part of a litter of pups we rescued from outside the traffic department in the Grahamstown CBD area in August. Eventually Flop ended up being fostered by Vicky Muskett and thankfully she was adopted just in time for Vickyโs move to Bettyโs Bay.
Flop is now living a luxurious life on a farm in the Cathcart area and we couldnโt be more excited for her! What a happy ending! ๐คฉ๐
Our latest Makana Vet Rescues are these two adorable but itchy little pups who we know are going to look absolutely beautiful in no time at all! ๐๐พ
While dropping off a dog that was treated and spayed at our clinic, we found these two little precious things. Their mom also has really bad mange and is in desperate need of putting on weight - feeding pups is no easy task!
The owners have agreed that we can spay her once she is in better shape but they didnโt feel they could care for the pups. Sadly unwanted puppies are a very real consequence of the welfare and sterilisation work we do.
With so many puppies already in our care and looking for homes, putting these little mangey puppies down was discussed very seriously by our team. Do we have the resources and are there enough homes?
But there was just something about them and underneath the hairless and malnourished bodies we could already see two adorable pups. So we have been treating them and caring for them for about a week now and they are already starting to come out of their little shells.
Caring for pups like this is funded entirely by our Patient Support Fund. Once better this brother and sister duo will be put up for adoption! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and donated following our plea for help yesterday with these two cats! โฅ๏ธ๐พ
We have had an overwhelming response and once again are blown away by peopleโs generosity and kindness. We received both several donations of bags of cat food as well as monetary donations into our bank account.
We were delighted to be able to drop off a 2kg bag of good quality cat pellets and some soft food sachets as a start this evening. The rest of the food we have kept safely tucked away at our clinic marked specifically for them and we will take it to them once what we have given today starts to run low.
The monetary donations we will put towards deworming (which was done today), tick and flea treatment as they are covered in fleas and sterilisation once they are in better condition - they are both intact males. Whatever is left over we will use for food once what we have for them has run out.
We couldnโt wait to give them their first good meal and there was a lot of very excited meowing before they both dived in and we caught it all on camera. The best part was that we had a number of eager little onlookers and just by doing things like this is a form of education in itself.
Thank you once again and we will definitely post more updates! ๐
๐ธ : Video posted with ownerโs permission
Our clinic is closed on Sundays but that doesnโt mean that behind closed doors we arenโt busy caring for all the patients in our hospital. Hereโs a sneak peak of us hard at work from behind our closed doors this morningโฆ ๐คช
PS All these little kittens are currently looking for homes! We have 13 in total ๐ Theyโve come into our care as their mothers all required veterinary care. All moms are now sterilised! ๐คฉ๐
Fifteen puppies born on rubbish dump desperately need help or will have to be put down! ๐ข
The Makana Vet Clinic team have been asked to assist two litters of pups who were born on the rubbish dump in Grahamstown/Makhanda within the past few weeks. We were recently alerted to a pregnant dog on the tip and we searched and searched and searched some more hoping to get her and do a pregnant spay. But sadly on one of our visits we discovered sheโd had the puppies and another dog in the area had given birth too. The total number of pups between the two dogs is 15! From 2 to 17 virtually overnight! ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
For the most part the pups and moms have been safe living with their homeless owners in the bush surrounding the dump but this week their ownerโs belongings were stolen, trashed and burned down and their owners reached out for assistance as they simply cannot cope with all of these pups while trying to literally rebuild their lives. Weโve said it beforeโฆ Unwanted puppies make a hard life even harder.
Today we stood at the rubbish dump without knowing what to do with the overwhelming population crisis we currently have on our hands and these are just the puppies we know about.
We are a veterinary clinic first and foremost and although we focus on and prioritise welfare work we have finite resources and limited capacity to help and we have reached that. In fact we reached it a long time ago. But these puppies needed to be removed from an already volatile situation.
We are willing to be the hands that do the work and the people on the ground but we cannot be the funds and everything else that comes with it. We need help, support and involvement from the public and wider Grahamstown community.
With our resources as limited as they are at the moment we are facing the very real possibility of having to put all 15 of these puppies down unless we get any further help with a) feeding them and b) networking them to help find homes.
Thankfully we were
Yesterday we were alerted to a very pregnant dog on the Grahamstown/Makhanda Rubbish Dump so today, despite it being a very hectic day at the clinic, we decided to pay the tip a visit.
Last year shortly after our clinic opened we did a lot of work at the dump and since then itโs been a while since weโve been back, this was just the sign we needed to get us back there for another visit.
We didnโt find the pregnant dog we were after but we will definitely head back tomorrow to see if she is back with her owner. Thankfully though we managed to connect with some of the other dog owners and took in a dog for castration and ear marked another dog for spaying next week.
Most of the dogs at the tip these days are not actual residents of the dump but visit there daily following their owners there and back home again in the evenings.
Thanks to our funds from Rotary we will be able to assist some of these dogs with much needed sterilisations which we are certain will only be a relief for their struggling owners.
Will definitely keep you posted on our progress!
Nine puppies and their mother rescued from rubbish filled valley
A dramatic video for one of our most dramatic rescues yetโฆ ๐๐พ
We were recently alerted to a litter of small puppies who had been born behind the Grahamstown/Makhanda traffic department.
This amazing mother had dug a hole in the side of the embankment to give birth and keep her puppies warm and dry but with the impending cold front we needed to get them out of there and somewhere warm/safe not to mention off the streets to stop the breeding cycle.
In a dramatic rescue we managed to get all nine of the pups and their mom safely loaded and on their way to the clinic. Mom is understandably very nervous and protective but is starting to come out of her shell more and more each day.
With the number of pups and dogs currently needing our help, we sadly came very close to having to put these pups down and our resources for puppy food are very limited.
We hate always having to ask for help but without the support of the public we cannot do what we do. If weโd left these pups they could have died a very cold and painful death.
If youโd like to help us help mom to raise these pups, donations can be made to our Patient Support Fund.
Account Name: Makana Veterinary Clinic
Bank: FNB
Account Number: 62886213132
Account Type: Cheque Account
Reference: Patient Support Fund
