Search-and-rescue dogs at the site of the World Trade Center collapse are getting the best available medical care, thanks to volunteer veterinary technicians and veterinarians, including Nishi Dhupa, director of emergency and critical care at the Cornell Hospital for Animals.
A specialist in emergency veterinary care at disaster scenes, Dhupa brought supplies and equipment from the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine when she reported for duty Sept. 17 to the first-aid tent and mobile veterinary hospital at Church Street and the West Side Highway in New York City.
"When the dogs come off their shift on 'the mound,' as everyone calls it, we check their footpads for debris and lacerations and wash their eyes with a special solution, then do a quick medical exam," she said. "If the dogs are covered with debris, we have a makeshift shower with a bucket and a hose to decontaminate and cool them down."
Because the dogs are working among "hot spots" from fires still burning in the rubble, overheating is a constant peril, and some are suffering exhaustion and heat stroke. Seriously injured dogs are sent uptown to the Animal Medical Center, while others require hydration with intravenous fluids, Dhupa said. "We try to talk to the handlers to let us keep the dogs on IV fluids, but they're anxious to get back to the mound."
Another problem is canine depression, she said. "These dogs are trained to find live people -- it's positive energy for them -- but they're just finding cadavers and body parts. The handlers try to stay upbeat, because the dogs take cues from them, even though they [the handlers] are very upset and moved to tears. Besides veterinary attention, we also give them affection -- the handlers are bringing dogs back to get cuddled -- and the dogs are really perking up when that happens." In fact, the presence of the search-and-rescue dogs is cheering up other rescue workers as they go about their grim task, the Cornell veterinarian reported. "People like to talk to them. There's a positive feedback thing going on at the mound."
While veterinary personnel administer critical care at the World Trade Center site, others are looking after pets that owners were forced to abandon when they fled their nearby apartments on Sept. 11. At Rockefeller University, biomedical researcher and veterinarian Fred Quimby, who retired recently from Cornell as director of the Center for Research Animal Resources, rallied fellow faculty and staff members to take abandoned pets into their homes until the animals can be reunited with their owners.
Dhupa also credits the volunteer veterinarians and technicians from throughout the city, the state and around the country who are helping, as well as the Suffolk County SPCA for sending the mobile pet hospital and the companies that donated dog food and supplies. Her brother, a critical care physician at St. Vincent's Hospital, persuaded a pharmaceutical company to donate nebulizer medications for the search dogs, and Rockefeller University located a supply of doggie goggles to protect the animals' eyes (although most of the search-and-rescue dogs were having trouble getting used to the eyewear, she said). "There's an amazing outpouring of assistance; people are opening up their hearts."
For the Cornell veterinarian, the most heartening sight is the dogs and their handlers at work. An estimated 200 to 300 dogs -- mostly German shepherds and black or yellow Labrador retrievers -- were brought from as far away as Iowa.
"Our proximity to the site is disturbing," she said. "We can smell the acrid, chemical smoke. Everything is covered with a layer of dust, and when the wind shifts, you can feel the particles hitting you. We can see the smoking rubble.
"But the dogs are wonderful," she added. "They're providing therapy for us all."
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