| DORY - Arrived 24th June 2004
|
| Dory was found by a seal watching tour operator from Skye on the 22nd of June. She was alone and tried to follow the boat. The next day he went out again and the same pup followed them. At this point he became concerned, having dealt with abandoned pups in the past, and decided to take her in to a rehabilitation centre. Once back on land he contacted his local veterinary surgeons to ask for help. We were contacted by the vets and asked to take Dory. An SSPCA officer on Skye arranged transport to Fort William where a member of the Animal Care team met him.
| 
|
| On arrival at the centre Dory was left to rest and then given an initial assessment. She was in very good condition and had been kept hydrated by staff at the vets on Skye. The only thing she really needed was a general course of anti-biotics and plenty of food.
Dory is now being fed on multi-milk, special milk for seals, and will continue on that until she is 2 weeks old. Once she reaches 2 weeks we will slowly wean her onto fish, replacing one milk feed each day until she eats only fish.
At the moment she is sharing a pen with Coral and loves her company. Unfortunately this pair is the messiest by far. Their pen is covered in grease so that when you step in to feed them it feels like skating on an ice-rink. This is not the only problem we have to contend with as they vie for our attention. They try to push each other out of the way and suckle on our wellies, making us slip around even more!
|
| Updated 31st August 2004
|
Sadly I have to inform all our website users that we lost Dory.
Our loss was very sudden and caused huge concern within the team. We noticed Dory looking lethargic and poorly on the morning of Sunday 8th August 2004. She was moved from the weaning pool to a dry pen in quarantine so her condition could be closely monitored. Our local veterinarian was called as her condition worsened and he advised a painkilling injection and a drip. Before the intra-venous drip could be set up Dory passed away.
A post-mortem investigation carried out on Dory showed she had died of pneumonia that affected a large segment of her right lung. Losing a pup after they reach this stage of rehabilitation is a huge shock and caused great concern over the other pups. However, all the others seem to be in perfect health and are progressing well.
|