Franzisca Vet Clinic - Help us Help Them

Reporting Period: 08.10.2020 – 08.01.2021

Despite all the odds around the whole world and the ensuing difficulties for animal welfare in Bulgaria, Franzisca Vet Clinic continued to work and rescue stray dogs and cats.

Thanks to the generous helpof many donors and supporters, our veterinary clinic admitted for treatment 135 dogs and cats, while our vets were able to perform 2 998 manipulations, treatments and surgeries.

Here are just some of the stories of the more of a hundred dogs and cats that we managed to help in a three-month period:

Lucky

Lucky was found on an illegal dump site close to mountain city in Bulgaria, when he was only 5 months old. We don’t know whether he was born stray or was abandoned there by his owners. When found, he was feverish, as he had a crashed front paw that was severely infected. He refused to eat or drink water. When he came to our veterinary clinic, Lucky received emergency treatment for the infection that was threatening his life. When he was stabilized, his front leg had to be amputated just below the knee, as the crashed part could not be saved by anyreconstructive fixing.

After the amputation, Lucky had the chance to be one of the only two dogs in Bulgaria that received a bionic prosthetic limb – an innovative orthopedic technique that had only once been done on dogs in Bulgaria before. The only other dog in the country that already had such a bionic front limb was also a dog of Animal Rescue Sofia.

Lucky recovered from the operation quickly and is now happily using his brand new bionic leg. He is now a sweet and cuddly teenager that loves to run and play and even tries to dig holes with his bionic leg.

Smurfette

Mama Smurfette and the seven little smurfs came to the clinic of Animal Rescue Sofia when the puppies were only 8 days old. Smurfette was a stray dog in a little village close to where our dog shelter is situated. People from the village fed her on the street ever since she appeared in the village, but just a week after she gave birth to 7 puppies, the mama was run over by a car. The people who witnessed the incident brought her quickly to our shelter, along with her seven newborn pups. The mama had a terrible combination of fractures – a pelvis broken at two places and a serious fracture on one of the hind legs. Smurfette was not able to stand, walk or urinated by herself. Despite the pain the multiple fractures were causing her, Smurfette continued to breastfeed her puppies not only on this first day right after the accident, but also on the many days while she was recovering from successive orthopedic operations. Smurfette is still in our shelter. She is now able to walk and receives daily rehabilitation and massages to hopefully beneficially affect the neurological deficit of herhind leg. Smurfette’s pups are now four and a half months old and all seven of them have already found good and loving homes!

Kika

Kika was found in a city in southern Bulgaria. The volunteers that brought her to our shelter shared that she was recently abandoned there. Kika came to our veterinary clinic with an enormous formation sticking out of her belly that originally looked like an enormous tumour. The X-Rays revealed that the formation was not a tumour but a gigantic hernia. All of Kika’s organs were displaced out of the abdominal wall and were held together solely by a very thin layer of skin, which was a life-threatening condition. Kika had a long and complicated emergency operation in an outer clinic that placed back all of her organs in their proper places.

After the operation Kika became a different dog – always smiling and with a forever wagging tail. She is now enjoying every minute of her life with her adopters in Austria!

Kazir

Kazir was found in the city of Samokov in Bulgaria. When found, he was a miserable dog, with a severe skin condition and an inflamed fracture of the right front paw. He also had a tick-borne disease called ehrlichiosis that was additionally jeopardizing his health. When admitted to our clinic, Kazir received anti-inflammatory treatment for his injured leg, as well as treatment for both his skin illness and the tick-borne disease. He is now a lovable and sociable dog that gets equally well with both dogs and people. He is still in the shelter waiting for a lovely home that he truly deserves.

Links:

• Franzisca Vet Clinic - Help us Help Them
• Animal Rescue Sofia Facebook
• Animal Rescue Sofia Website

Reporting Period: 08.06.2020 - 08.10.2020

The longest winter in our 10-year-long story was the summer of 2020. While the whole world was struggling, the animal welfare in Bulgaria fell into a deep crisis.

We wouldn’t have survived, without your generous help! During this summer and despite the odds, our clinic kept working and rescuing stray dogs and cats.

If we speak in dry facts only, our summer looked like that:

• Franzisca Vet Clinic admitted for treatment 251 dogs and cats;
• Our vets performed 3 476 manipulations, treatments and surgeries;

But we don’t work with facts. We work with animals. Each number is a story. Each number is a life.

Let us present to you some of the lives we saved, thanks to you!

Rocky, the Bolognese 

The 14-year-old Rocky faced an avalanche of trouble. He had not always been a stray dog. He had a family once, but it was difficult for his elderly owner to take proper care of him and he was often neglected. When the owner died, Rocky ended up on the street. When he came to the shelter, Rocky was in a really bad condition, with severe health issues. His heart was not only broken from the separation with his beloved person, but it was also very sick. He had a liver disease too and an additional auto-immune condition, all of which must have made life on the street really difficult for him.

We arranged a specialist consultation for Rocky with a renowned cardiologist in the country. He received an urgent treatment for his heart condition, as well as treatment for the liver problem and the Cushing’s autoimmune disease.  

Rocky’s heart condition is under control now, though he will have to receive life-long supporting treatment. He is happy in his new home in the Netherlands where he shares a loving family with another elderly dog, also rescued by Animal Rescue Sofia.

The Tick Puppies

7 newly-born helpless puppies were found by a person in the field close to where Animal Rescue Sofia dog shelter is located. The puppies were only a week old, severely dehydrated, with hypothermia and hypoglycemia, seriously anemic and practically devoid of any life! Each one of them had hundreds of ticks and fleas on it. The puppies must have stayed in the field without their mama for at least 2 days. When they were found in the field, they were wrapped in a blanket with a pile of dry food next to them, although they were obviously too young to eat from the dry food.

After the initial warming up and cleaning of a monstrous number of ticks and fleas off of them, because of the severe anaemia, they were placed in an intensive care unit in an outer specialized clinic, where after blood-transfusion, they stayed in an incubator for several days.

Here they are, back in our shelter and 20 days after admission. What a remarkable difference!

Where are they now?

One week ago “The Tick Puppies”, as we used to call them, left for the Netherlands where they will stay with our partner organization until rehomed. They are currently enjoying a line of suitable candidate-adopters and no doubt very soon they’ll join their new families.

Risotto

Risotto came to the shelter when he was only 3 months old, with a severe skin condition, a huge number of parasites, anorexic and suffering from a long period of malnutrition on the street.

We treated the skin condition and got him rid of the parasites, fed him well and gave him a lot of loveand comfort.

Today Risotto is healthy and full of energy and he is long united with his loving family.

Bozhidar

Bozhidar came to us with a severe skin condition, a serious ear infection and an infestation of parasites. He had a history of trauma after falling in a shaft, while he was still living on the street. He also had a neurological deficit in his hind legs, which was only suspectedly linked to his previous trauma.

With all his health issues that we needed to attend to at the beginning, the old trauma - a tiny fragment of a broken bone - that seemed to put pressure on the spine didn’t look so urgent. We had his life to save and we would have taken care of the limping later. After the period of treatment of the skin and ear condition, Bozhidar was put on painkillers for some period of time until he could be operated on and the broken bone removed from the spine.

After the operation, Bozhidar showed a serious improvement in his manner of walking, he is now much more active, jumping lively when he is out for a walk and definitely showing us he is no longer in pain. Bozhidar is still in the shelter waiting for his adopters, but he now stands a fair chance of adoption, since his limping is no longer an issue for the prospective adopters.

Stay with us, dear friends, and we will save many, many more lives together!

Links:

• Franzisca Vet Clinic - Help us Help Them
• Animal Rescue Sofia Website
• Animal Rescue Sofia Facebook

• Project Report in PDF (PDF)