We are always at the end of a phone, responding to calls from impoverished local people and once we've collected their sick and injured animals from their homes or the side of the road, we take them into Harare, where their treatment (or euthanasia, when necessary) is done by Kamfinsa Veterinary Surgery.
Fortunately, they allow us access to a reduced rate for our welfare cases but, as we can treat anything up to 40/50 animals in a month, in spite of this generous concession, our veterinary bills are still very substantial. We try to deal with minor problems ourselves, only taking the more serious cases into the vet, but often see dogs with potentially fatal diseases like TVTs (Transmissible Venereal Tumours), Canine Parvovirus and Distemper. We're regularly called out to help animals that have been run over, poisoned, ripped open in fights or gored by wild pigs - many with broken bones - as well as to those that have simply stopped eating because they're sick or severely malnourished.
