On 21 May 2018, Pumba was brought in to the Shire of Campaspe Animal Shelter by the community ranger. When he arrived, he was a terrified, severely emaciated dog with mild dehydration and loose faeces attached to material and plastic hanging out of his anus. Poor Pumba thought the world had let him down! But within days he regained his faith in human kind and after four months of intensive care, many veterinary visits, treatments, lots of nutritional food and love, Pumba was a much happier and healthier young lad.
The Shire of Campaspe Animal Shelter shares their story of Pumba – a wonderful transformation of a companion animal given a second chance in life.
On arrival, Pumba was cleaned up, treated for fleas and worms, and started him on four feeds a day. His original bloods showed he had regenerative anaemia which is not uncommon with severely emaciated cases and his original faecal sample showed some hookworm cysts. Pumba instantly started to gain weight form the premium regular feeds. We did regular blood tests and health checks with the vets during his stay.
Photo: Campaspe Animal Shelter
Within a few weeks, Pumba was gaining weight and no longer scared, but his anaemia wasn’t improving at the rate we thought it would. So after many discussions with the veterinarian and pathologist, it was suggested that maybe he did have a hookworm burden and that we should worm him more regularly. His next faecal tests showed no signs of parasites but his anaemia was still only slowly improving. The pathologist then advised that maybe Pumba could have an iron deficiency and suggested an iron injection to be given, we did this and rechecked his bloods once again a week later. Again a small improvement.
As everything else with him was going well we opted to hold off on doing another blood test for a month so we could hopefully see a greater improvement in his anaemia, and thankfully that is exactly what happened!
By this stage when we took Pumba back to the vets for this last blood test they didn’t recognise him as he had gained so much weight, his coat was shiny and changed colour. Pumba had transformed into a happy and healthy lad.
Much to the delight of everyone in the Campaspe Animal Shelter and the vet clinic, Pumba was given the seal of approval to get desexed and find a home. Even with With his poor start in life and being abandoned in less than hygienic circumstances, it was amazing to see this sweet young lad ‘Pumba’ still had a happy and positive personality. He had certainly not let his past get him down.
On Friday, 5th October after months of rehabilitation, Pumba found his forever home and a new bestie, Albus.
The Shire of Campaspe Animal Shelter is our Winner of the Outstanding Council Animal Shelter 2018.
