Saving Bonzo's leg

I have started this new thread following a great gesture of DrHeckleAndMrSnide (see:How to get round the UK quarantine law)

A quick overview;
Yesterday morning I was called by people who have a beautiful local male dog called Bonzo, which we vaccinated and sterilised some six months back.

Bonzo was hit by a motorbike and had a badly broken leg, the skin was broken and the bone sticking out. In such situations there is little we can do except giving a painkiller, bandage the leg so it can not move much and organising that the dog gets to the vet.

Luckily we have a good vet orthopedist in Goa but he explained that the only way to save the leg would be to join the broken parts with a metal plate. The cost for such operation will be INR 5,000 which is a lot of money here. There is no way the people can afford it themselves, they are really poor.

The alternative is to amputate the leg which will cost INR 1,000 but as it is a very young dog we find this a very difficult choice.

Reading this story DrHeckleAndMrSnide wrote the following:

"I am willing to donate a thousand (or a little more too) bucks and if there are 4 others on this forum who want to do the same, we could help out. I'm not sure about the money transfer logistics, though, since I'm in Bangalore."

This morning we were contacted by a Dutch tourist who heard the story and also offered INR 1,000.

Bonzo's owners are also trying because as the son says "That dog is my mother's favorite son so we have to try." However their family income is just under INR 6,000 per month so it is not so easy for them.

But, so far so good and so we have new hopes to save Bonzo's leg.

Will let you know how this ends.

This is Bonzo. He has the plastic collar so he will not try to bite his leg.

I am happy to report that we got another INR 1,000 through a IndiaMike member!

Now we almost have a new leg for Bonzo!

I am happy to let you all know that due to the generosity of a few India Mike members we were able to give Bonzo the leg-saving operation.

It took a long three hour operation to put everything in place but it all went fine.

Bonzo looks a bit miserable now but the operation went well and the surgeon has good hopes that Bonzo's leg will heal completely.

He will now be with us for a month aftercare so I will keep you informed about any development.

Thanks again very, very much for those who allowed us to make this happen!

That is a very inspiring story. Way to go all of you generous people! Awesome.

Hi All,

I just wanted to let everybody know that two days ago the pins were taken out of Bonzo's leg and he is now running around.

He does not stand 100% on the leg yet but we can see that he is using it more and more often. He is even playing with two other dogs which are up for adoption.

The holes where the pins were need to close before he can go home but we hope that he will be back in the first week of 2010. Isn't that a good way the start the New Year!

All this has been possible because a few India Mike members were prepared to donate towards the operation. The owners of Bonzo are very grateful, especially the old mother, who is very attached to the dog. So MANY THANKS and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!