Animal hospital gives pets a new leash on life

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The Beit Berl teachers' college in Kfar Saba has recently opened a fully equipped emergency medical clinic for animals, only the second "pet hospital" in Israel, reports www.mynet.co.il. The new clinic, which is open 24 hours a day, contains X-ray, ultrasound and CT medical imaging equipment to help diagnose problems, and four main "wards": emergency and intensive care, oncology, radiology and surgery. According to the report, the college has already operated the "Havat Da'at" veterinary clinic for the past 18 months, but has now inaugurated its new 24-hour "animal hospital," only the second such comprehensive veterinary hospital after the one in Beit Dagan, near Rehovot. A spokesman for the new clinic said the aim was to provide specialist veterinary care that smaller clinics could not provide, with neighborhood veterinarians and local zoos from around the country referring complex cases to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. The spokesman said that, for example, a dog with a suspected slipped disk was recently referred to the hospital, only to be diagnosed with cancer of the spinal cord, necessitating the animal's euthanasia. But in a better outcome, two animals from the Gan Garu Australian wildlife park near Beit Shean were successfully treated at the hospital - a koala that had a cancerous tumor successfully removed surgically, and a kangaroo with a broken leg, for which the hospital constructed a special splint. "The aim is to open a specialist center beyond the usual veterinary care... We do not vaccinate or neuter (animals), and we do not sell anti-flea products," the spokesman said.