Flooding and Landslide Emergency Appeal

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FLOODING AND LANDSLIDE EMERGENCY APPEAL

Help us repair the major damage done to our cancer treatment facility

At around 1:35pm on Saturday the 28^thof September, heavy monsoon rains caused a land slide behind our cancer unit, washing tons of earth, debris and trees down the mountain side.

Our cancer unit sustained substantial damage washing away two buildings and damaging the fence. The landside has effected about 50% of the unit and unfortunately 3 dogs have been confirmed dead, another 4 either buried or missing. Everything in the path of the mud and water was destroyed.

KAT’s head vet, Dr Samir Thapa, has been at the centre continuously ensuring the 25 remaining dogs who were injured, but thankfully survived, are able to receive the care they need.

However, our cancer treatment unit may be out of action for a number of weeks while we try to repair the damage and make the area safe again. The centre was the first place in Nepal to treat CTVT cancer, which quickly spreads through the stray dog population and causes terrible suffering to the dogs affected. Due to the complexity of treating these cases, many other vets and organisations are unable to help.

We need to re-build our damaged facility and repair the fences to ensure that our treatment programme can begin again ASAP.

On top of this, we are also responding in other ways, as we expect the stray animal population to be badly affected by the spread of disease and lack of food. More details about our priorities and the background of our work on canine cancer can be found below.

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Some of our dogs recovering from treatment for CTVT who thankfully survived the flooding.

OUR PRIORITIES DURING THE FLOODING CRISIS:

Over the coming weeks and months, we anticipate shortages in all basic necessities, spiking fuel and food prices, and a lack of safe drinking water. Stray dogs are also at risk as much of the city is underwater.

Safety & Security: Although the landslide has stopped, the rain continues. Our priority is to secure all animals in a safe, dry, and warm location by erecting temporary accommodation on the other side of the shelter for dogs undergoing treatment. While some key supplies and stock have been lost, the team has enough medication to continue cancer treatment for all current dogs.
Emergency Rescue & Triage: We will face some very hard decisions in the coming days, as we already have 10 times more reports than we can handle. We will do our best to remove animals from immediate danger and prioritize those who have suffered life-threatening conditions.
Food & Water: Based on the flooding map, we estimate that 5 of our 7 water stations are underwater. When floods occur, stray dogs (who eat and drink off the ground) immediately lose access to food and water. Our priority will be to prevent mass disease, starvation, and illness by providing water and food to the worst-affected areas. Once the water subsides and it is safe, we will coordinate with volunteer groups to provide ongoing food and water distribution.
Warmth and Shelter: As we enter winter, the combination of flooding, lack of shelter, food shortages, an influx of injured animals, and the destruction of our main shelter is devastating for both our team and the animals. We will set up temporary shelters to keep the dogs warm and stockpile blankets, towels, and gas bottles to ensure we can provide hot food as frequently as possible.

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BACKROUND INFORMATION ON THE CANCER OUR PROGRAMME TREATS:

This form of cancer has many different and complicated names, but the most commonly used is Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumors (CTVT), which is a sexually transmitted tumor of dogs that mainly affects the external genitals, but also other body parts as well.

It is one of only three known types of cancer that can spread between individuals of a species in the whole of the animal kingdom. In Kathmandu Valley there are an estimated 7,500 infected dogs and this number grows month by month.

One of the main reasons as to why this cancer is spreading so rapidly through the stray dog population in Nepal is thus the many years of unchecked breeding and lack of systematic health screening conducted in the stray population.

Scarily however, this cancer can be transmitted through direct transfer of cancer cells, for example when a dog sits in a particular area and the cancer cells from their bodies are left on the ground, and then are picked up again when a new dog rests there.

How Do We Fight Cancer?

In our position at the forefront of animal welfare in Nepal, we at KAT, working with such prestigious Universities as Cambridge and the London School of Tropical Medicine and Royal Veterinary School, have been conducting research into this type of quickly spreading cancer and have developed a program to control its transmission and safeguard the welfare of the dogs in Nepal.

Project Description: KAT over the past 6 months (2019-2020) has been developing a systematic project which aims to drastically improve the welfare of stray dogs in Nepal simultaneously reducing the provenance of this type of cancer. The project can be broken down into 4 stages:

1) Preparation: KATs team will perform population wide screening surveys to collect data on the prevalence of CTVT within the stray dog population of Kathmandu- at the district level. During this data collection phase dogs which are found infected will be brought in for treatment, allowing both a baseline survey to be conducted at the same time as a case finding campaign. During this preparation phase KAT will also be building a Cancer ward to house dogs undergoing chemotherapy and or surgical control of CTVT along with required barrier nursing and isolation protocol to ensure biosecurity is maintained.

2) Targeting: We will use the gathered data during the preparation phase to provide for a more targeted intervention in areas which have the highest recorded incidence rate of CTVT (hot-spot approach).

3) Intervention: From the targeting data, maps will help pinpoint areas with high rates of CTVT. Through a combined rabies vaccination program, our team will capture and screen (physical exam) upto 70% of all stray/free roaming dogs for cancer and admit those infected for treatment. During this time, more widely we will be providing education to the community and key animal welfare groups to recognise the symptoms/signs of CTVT infection and understand that it is easily treatable if reported early in its infection. KAT will be widely promoting its hotline number during this time to increase the number of cases reported.

4) Follow-up: Data collection is a critical part to measure the impact we have on improving the welfare of the stray population. We will ensure this in two ways; a population level survey after the project to measure the prevalence of CTVT and gauge the reduction in incidence the program has had. And at the individual level, randomised in the UK through admission numbers, 1 in 3 dogs which have been successfully treated and released will be selected for recapture, to assess the relapse rate on CTVT to ensure the intervention is effective. This will be published as a separate report.

For the cancer cases admitted, we take each dog on a case by case basis. Research on the commonly used treatments for CTVT found the majority of respondents (82.2%) reported that they use either vincristine alone or vincristine in combination with surgery. This mirrors our own medical data which has been largely successful with 8 out of 10 dogs making a full recovery.

Our veterinary surgeons determine the best cause of treatment with either surgery, chemotherapy with a drug called vincristine or a combination of both drug and surgery. Current best practice on the use of vincristine for CTVT shows that 80 to 100 percent of tumors usually went into complete remission after treatment, however the number of vincristine doses claimed to be required for complete remission varied between respondents. Depending on the gender of the dog, size and location of the tumour it can take between 2 and 8 injections as well as surgery to ensure the dog is healthy and can lead a good life. Depending on the response to the drug, stage of cancer growth, age and overall health of the animal, in some circumstances a decision may be taken to euthanize the animal to prevent prolonged suffering. All euthanization decisions conform to KATs official PTS policy which meets international welfare standards.

What your Support will Go Towards:

Population screening survey and data will be collected on the prevalence of CTVT within the stray dog population of Kathmandu- at the district level
The use of gathered data (historical and prospective) to provide for a more targeted intervention in areas which have the highest recorded incidence rate of CTVT (hot-spot approach)
Using the data collected, provide targeted sterilization in areas of high CTVT incidence to reduce the risk of transmission during canine mating
Set up a cancer ward at KAT to house dogs undergoing chemotherapy and or surgical control of CTVT along with required barrier nursing and isolation protocol to ensure biosecurity is maintained
In areas identified as having high rates of CTVT, through a combined rabies vaccination program, capture and screen (physical exam) stray dogs for cancer and admit those infected for treatment.
Provide education to the community and key animal welfare groups to recognise the symptoms/signs of CTVT infection and understand that is is easily treatable if reported early in its infection
Provide material to the public on the potential CTVT epidemic, build community ownership in the program and ensure a wide number of the community know how they can report the cases to KAT.

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