A team from an independent veterinary group in Suffolk has rescued three puppies which were found abandoned by the side of the road.
FIVP member Stowe Veterinary Group, which has five practices across the county, treated the puppies for mange and malnutrition, before finding them safe and loving homes.
The puppies were found in the bushes near a lay-by in Colchester on 21 December 2023 by a lorry driver whose vehicle had broken down.
The driver contacted the partner of a student veterinary nurse at Moreton Hall Veterinary Centre, a Stowe Veterinary Group practice in Bury St Edmunds. He phoned the practice before bringing the puppies straight in.
Moreton Hall Veterinary Centre’s team soon discovered the three puppies were cockerpoos, aged approximately eight weeks old.
The trio were all malnourished and suffering from extensive mange. One puppy had lost most of her fur and her front legs were deformed through vitamin deficiency.
The team quickly got to work diagnosing the type of mange and starting a programme of treatment and nutrition.
Since the mange could be contagious, the puppies could not be rehomed until they were treated. Instead they were taken to Moreton Hall Veterinary Centre’s sister practice, Stowe Veterinary Centre, where they received 24-hour care from the nursing team over the Christmas period.
After the mange was assessed to be non-contagious, the puppies were given a foster home by veterinary surgeon and practice partner Martin Barrow and his wife, dog groomer Lesley Barrow, where they continued to receive treatment. The trio saw in the New Year with the family’s two other dogs.
With an all-clear for mites and mange, the puppies, now named Ivy, Lacy and Missy, were ready for permanent homes.
Martin and Lesley Barrow gave Ivy a permanent home. Chloe Howlett, a receptionist at Moreton Hall Veterinary Centre, adopted Lacy with her husband Alex. Missy was taken home by Andy and Ann Sedgwick, whose daughter is head veterinary nurse at Stowe Veterinary Centre.
Now, nearly eight months after they were first discovered, the puppies have been reunited at the agility course of Ipswich Veterinary Centre, also a part of Stowe Veterinary Group.
Nicola Rigden, practice manager at Moreton Hall Veterinary Centre, said: “It was so sad to see how badly the puppies had been treated by whoever abandoned them. It was so different to the cases we normally see. We were determined to do all we could to make them better and give them a fresh start, and immediately took them in.”
Image © Stowe Veterinary Group
