Jessy is a six-year-old female dog who had been living on a garbage dump in extremely poor conditions. A compassionate council worker built her a small makeshift shelter, fed her what he could often stale bread and tried to treat what he believed was mange.
It was not mange.
By the time Jessy came to our attention, she was suffering from advanced leishmaniasis a serious parasitic disease transmitted by sandflies that can cause severe skin lesions, weight loss, organ damage and, if untreated, death.
We transferred her immediately to the animal hospital. Her condition was so advanced she was not expected to survive beyond a few days.
She did.
With intensive treatment, the disease stabilised. Gradually, her strength returned. Her skin began to heal. Her appetite improved. Against expectation, Jessy recovered enough to be discharged into our Sanctuary Programme.
For whatever time she has ahead of her, Jessy will live it in safety, comfort and peace, no longer on a refuse site, but cared for properly.
Jess was originally under the care of a local vet who carried out no diagnostics and provided no meaningful treatment; instead, she was kept in the basement of the practice, as shown above, while her condition deteriorated. Although the nurses made an attempt to help and quite rightly wore gloves to reduce infection risk, Jess was clearly a critically ill patient who needed far more than distance and basic handling, she needed investigation, intervention, careful supportive feeding, pain management, monitoring, and above all comfort. Watching a very poorly dog being managed in this way was deeply upsetting, and I was extremely unhappy because in cases like this, inaction is not neutral; it is a failure of clinical responsibility.
