Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Paws Darwin Community Vet Sarah Vanderstelt says she performed a 3-hour surgery on a pet dog slashed with a machete

Transcript

Paws Darwin Community Vet Sarah Vanderstelt says she performed a 3-hour surgery on a pet dog slashed with a machete · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We understand that a family pet in Bachelor has been
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: slashed by what vets say was a machete or a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: sharp blade. He's undergone extensive surgery for serious injuries, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the community vet who did the procedure joins me on
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  Speaker 1: the line right now from Pau's Darwin community vet, Sarah
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  Speaker 1: van der Selt. Good morning to you, Sarah.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you doing or not too bad?
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  Speaker 1: What state was this poor dog in when he was
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: presented to you?
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  Speaker 2: Look when I saw him, it was the day after
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  Speaker 2: he had arrived at the clinic. So initially the wounds
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  Speaker 2: were very clean because it was such a sharp blade
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  Speaker 2: that had been used to cut him. But by the
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  Speaker 2: time I was doing his surgery, unfortunately, because so many
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  Speaker 2: blood vessels had been servered, a lot of that tissue
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  Speaker 2: had died, had broken down. So it was a pretty
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  Speaker 2: horrific surgery to try and save enough skin to be
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  Speaker 2: able to hopefully close that wound.
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  Speaker 1: Oh goodness me, Sarah. What makes you think that those
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  Speaker 1: wounds were from a machete or from a sharp blade?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, unfortunately, I've seen many different types of wounds,
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  Speaker 2: from wounds on fences, pigs, other dogs, and they they
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  Speaker 2: always just looked ragged and dirty, but this was clean.
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  Speaker 2: And it was so long and deep that I can
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  Speaker 2: only think it was some an actual blade, a blade
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  Speaker 2: that was designed to cut flesh. Oh my goodness, at
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  Speaker 2: the size of it, I can only think a machete
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  Speaker 2: or something about side far out.
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  Speaker 1: How did the surgery go? How's the dog going at
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the dog is back with his owners. It was
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  Speaker 2: so cute when they came to pick your page. Loves
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  Speaker 2: them so much. But he does have he's got big
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  Speaker 2: drain in his wound. We had to make some extra
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  Speaker 2: incisions to release the tension to close to close the wound.
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  Speaker 2: So he is most likely going to have to have
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  Speaker 2: some some future surgeries as well. So we'll we'll reassess,
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  Speaker 2: assess the wound, see whether any more tissue has died,
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  Speaker 2: and then you know, figure out whether whether we need
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  Speaker 2: to take out any more more tissue there.
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  Speaker 1: What type of dog was it is he?
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  Speaker 2: What type of dog is this little one? Oh, he's
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  Speaker 2: a large Darwin Special would call him. But yeah, look
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  Speaker 2: he's a sweet dog, sweet owners. And you know the
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  Speaker 2: most beautiful thing is when we put the thing on Facebook.
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  Speaker 2: We've had a lot of community donations, and it's actually
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  Speaker 2: covered the surgery, of the initial surgery. And when we
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  Speaker 2: were able to tell these people, because were planning to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: pay it off through center pay and all of this,
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  Speaker 2: to tell them that it was covered.
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  Speaker 1: It was just, yeah, oh, how wonderful because I would
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  Speaker 1: imagine that, you know, like, it is quite a hefty bill.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that you guys do so much for
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  Speaker 1: the community.
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  Speaker 2: Pause do do concession rate. We do do concession rate,
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  Speaker 2: but this was I mean, this was a three hour surgery.
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  Speaker 2: This was a big, a big surgery. So there still
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  Speaker 2: was a bill for them. And yeah, that that has
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  Speaker 2: been beautifully covered by some lovely members of the community.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that is really nice to hear, Sarah. Is there
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  Speaker 1: still going to be quite a bit of aftercare for
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  Speaker 1: that dog?
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  Speaker 2: There is even everything going as well as we could imagine,
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  Speaker 2: It's still going to be quite a long healing process
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  Speaker 2: for him, and like I said, quite likely that there'll
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  Speaker 2: be future surgeries as well for him.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I know that you have got to post
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  Speaker 1: up on the Pause Darwin facebook page. Sarah, does his
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  Speaker 1: family have any idea what has happened, like how he's
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  Speaker 1: ended up with this massive word.
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  Speaker 2: I know they just found him like that in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: I don't really know the backstory there, but I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you can only imagine waking up to find your dog
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  Speaker 2: in that in that situation would be pretty traumatic.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it is absolutely horrendous, so horrendous. But it sounds
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  Speaker 1: as though is.
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  Speaker 2: His name Bear?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like Bear has received some great treatment
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  Speaker 1: and is obviously being well cared for. If people do
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  Speaker 1: want to find out a bit more info, they are
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  Speaker 1: able to jump on the pause Facebook page. But Sarah,
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  Speaker 1: have you ever seen anything like that in your time
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  Speaker 1: as a vent.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I have been cases where people have abused animals
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  Speaker 2: in of them, but this is certainly probably the worst
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  Speaker 2: or one of the worst that I've seen. That the wound.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think the pictures on Facebook do justice to
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  Speaker 2: how huge and deep this this this wound was.
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  Speaker 1: Was he lucky to survive?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, very lucky, very lucky. And I think it's only
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  Speaker 2: because he had a little bit of extra padding that
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  Speaker 2: that didn't go like either into his spine or into
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  Speaker 2: his abdomen, in which case he probably wouldn't have survived.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, how absolutely horrendous. Sarah, Thank you so very much
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  Speaker 1: for your time. Thank you for making us aware of
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  Speaker 1: you know of what has gone on. And like I say,
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  Speaker 1: if you know, if anybody wants to jump online, if
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  Speaker 1: they do want to make a donation for beers Bear's treatment,
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  Speaker 1: they can jump online head to the Pause Darwin Community
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  Speaker 1: vet page. Thank you so much for having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: No worries. Can I just say, Katie, we have a
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: radio on in surgery that we have tuned into me
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the time we listen to your I love it. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know it will be very excited.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know whether my dulcet tones would help you
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  Speaker 1: during surgery or not.
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  Speaker 2: There Sarah, but I love that. That is really nice
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  Speaker 2: to hear. Thank you, Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: I have a great day. Thanks so much for your
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  Speaker 1: time this morning.