Last week I was on my 24-hour emergency duty shift and one evening I had one of those cases where, no matter how late at night it is, you know it was well worth the effort of providing the service.

Suddenly, for the young naive vet that I was at the time, dogs transformed from being animals we studied in books to medicate or operate on,to creatures capable of mutual respect for us- Martin Debattista

An enormous Alkaskan Malamut had collapsed due to a multitude of ticks which had attacked him after he was left in a field for a couple of days. The ticks had sucked so much blood from him that he had almost died… but that’s another story.

The Veterinary Emergency Service has been running for many years now and is possibly quite unique in that it involves almost all resident veterinarians and pro-vides a veterinary service on a 24-hour basis to be able to complement their availabilty and opening hours.

As you can imagine, working as an emergency vet involves coming across a remarkable array of challenging cases and situations. But there was one particular dog I met on one of my very early duties as an emergency vet that taught me a great deal about mutual respect between vets and animals.

I recall when I was fresh out of vet school, I was lucky enough to find a job at a 24-hour clinic in Milan, the city where I had graduated. My shifts consisted of one night in four, working from 7 p.m. till 9 a.m.

At the time we typically had normal clinic hours up until about midnight, usually visited by residents who worked very late and needed to have their pets attended to. After midnight, the doors were locked and we were allowed to get some sleep; anyone turning up to see the emergency vet would have to ring the doorbell.

It was 2 a.m. during one of these shifts when I heard the doorbell ring. Looking through the glass door, I could see four youths pointing to a black poodle which they had secured by its collar using a length of string.

I opened the door and let them into the clinic, hoping it was a genuine veterinary emergency.

It actually was.

In the darkness of the street I had not noticed that the poodle had a bandage on his front paw. The young people explained that they were having fun out in the park when they came across the dog all alone with the bandage on its paw which had become so black with dirt that it could hardly be seen from afar. Clearly it had been on the poodle’s paw for a very long time.

The youths had decided to do something about it that same night. For a young vet, this was memorable enough, yet nothing compared to what I was about to experience.

I placed the poodle on the examination table. Although very thin he was still able to stand and remained very, very calm. When I looked at him he just looked straight back at me. It was as if he knew I was going to help him.

Those of you who have experience with removing very tight bandages know that the best way to remove them is to unfold or unwrap, rather than trying to insert a pair of scissors and cutting underneath. And so I did. I held the dog’s paw with one hand and with the other slowly started to unravel the bandage that had adhered to its flesh.

What transfixed me that night is that every time I managed to undo a piece of bandage, the poodle would quickly pull away his paw in pain, and then slowly put it out again into my hand, all the while looking straight at me with teary eyes.

Suddenly, for the young naive vet that I was at the time, dogs transformed from being animals we studied in books to medicate or operate on, to creatures capable of mutual respect for us. The poodle’s unwavering trust in me lasted throughout the treatment. As expected, under the bandage, I found some very sore and tender skin, something a gentle wash and some soothing cream soon helped to start the healing process.

Whenever you have an emergency and your regular vet is unavailable at the time, it is important that you inform the attending emergency vetereinary surgeon that you would like a copy of the medical details of the consultation so that you can refer the case back to your regular vet at the earliest possible time.

For the safety of your pet, it is vital that a full history of the patient is kept on file. This should avoid embarrassing situations arising at a later date when you try to obtain a late report, and it would also help your vet treat your pet with full knowledge of past medication administered.

Dr Martin Debattista is a veterinary surgeon.

Important telephone numbers

5250 2000

is the telephone number of the Malta Veterinary Association’s 24-hour service, which enables you to have your pet seen to and treated at any time of day or night by the roster vet on duty. (Each call costs €5.)

7940 4030

is a new Veterinary Emergency Helpline, which is intended to give immediate professional advice on how best to deal with your emergency.