THE Kloof and Highway SPCA has once again emphasized the importance of animals to be vaccinated.
This is after a stray dog which looked normal tested positive for rabies, a few days after it was brought to the SPCA.
According to Kloof SPCA’s Brigitte Ferguson, their inspectorate department received a call to collect a stray dog from the Westville area last week Monday, April 4.
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“A house owner had noticed the dog lying by her gate so she opened the gate and he entered the property and made himself comfortable in their garage. Fortunately the owner made sure that the dog was isolated from her animals and she never handled it,” said Ferguson.
The dog was collected by field officer, Philani Nzama.
On arrival, Ferguson said the dog, which was a stray, had the checks that all animals entering the SPCA have, of being scanned for a microchip and then inoculated as no inoculation history was known.
“The reception staff then checked for a lost report and notified the kennel staff that they did not have a lost report on record for this dog. The dog was admitted to our stray kennels, and we hoped that his owner would claim him soon,” she said.
On Wednesday morning, April 6, inspector Tania Ungerer who was doing her morning kennel round noticed that the dog was exhibiting some strange behaviour that it had not shown the previous day.
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“The dog was skittish to the slightest noise , object and even to the leaves in his kennel. The howl in the video is often typical of a dog with rabies . All this was confirmed by Petros Ntuli an experienced animal handler. The dog was displaying very strange neurological issues.
“The difficult, but responsible decision was made to humanely euthanise the dog and the body was immediately sent off to the state vet for rabies testing,” said Ferguson.
On Friday, April 8, the SPCA received the results which confirmed their worst fears, the dog was positive for rabies.
“This dog that had appeared the day before to be completely normal, this dog that had eaten and was drinking water was positive,” said Ferguson.
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