Dog Health Day Clinic Held for Valley’s Indigenous Families

Dog health can impact on the well-being of children and the families that keep them.

RSCPA vets recently joined with North Coast Area Health representatives to host a dog health day, based at the old preschool building in Bowraville.

The two-day clinic, on April 28 and 29, gave indigenous families from Bowraville, Nambucca Heads and Macksville, an opportunity to have their dogs desexed, microchipped, vaccinated, and wormed to try to stop the spread of communicable diseases and control the dog population in the communities.

“By bringing down the population, you ensure that every dog gets more love and care, and the family has more time to devote to them,” North Coast Area Health environmental health officer Robert Barnett said.

The local community at Bowraville identified to the local health service that there was a high number of roaming dogs in the community, which posed a health risk for everyone.

The RSPCA has run similar programs in Wilcannia and Walgett, which aimed to educate people on how to keep their pets and family healthy.

Conditions that can be passed from dogs to humans include hydatids, round and hook worms and ringworms.

Cats, which were also desexed and health-checked on the day, can be a concern for pregnant women due to toxoplasmosis.

“The main way to prevent catching anything from your dog is to wash your hands after handling them and before eating,” RSPCA training co-ordinator Narelle Maxwell said.

“Also, it’s important to keep the animals’ sandpit clean. It comes down to simple things, and it’s important to educate kids on how to keep their animals and themselves healthy.”

Three RSPCA vets and two vet nurses were on hand over the two days for the animals that were brought in. More than 50 animals were seen, some for

simple health checks and others for desexing operations.

The days gave local animal controller, Reg Clough, an opportunity to gain the practical experience needed to become authorised to install microchips in animals.

It is a service he would be able to offer locally into the future.

Among the locals to bring along their pets was Gillian Williams from Nambucca Heads, with two of her own dogs and Oof, her son’s Irish wolfhound. She said it was a good opportunity to have the dogs looked over and make sure they were in perfect health.

RSCPA vet Ann-Margaret Withers said the two-day program was the first of its kind on the north coast, but could be expanded to Kempsey and Coffs Harbour, due to its success in Bowraville.

The team thanked the local Gumbaynggirr elders, who suggested the use of the old preschool as an ideal location for a make-shift animal hospital and Macksville Hospital, which came on board with supplies when the group’s oxygen ran out.