The Eastcott Vets team share the Edison Park hospital with a specialist led team of vets - Eastcott Referrals. This team takes on challenging, specialist cases from all over the country. This is the story of Bella who was treated by the specialist led dentistry and oral surgery team. Her owners wanted to share to highlight the dangers of some coastal walks.
This is their story in their words:
Please read this and spread the message - Dave and I had the most traumatic wedding anniversary you could ever imagine. We took Autumn and Bella on their first doggy holiday. On our anniversary we started a walk to Godrevy Point. When we started the walk, the cliff had a gentle decline to the beach. We went up past the lifeguard station and followed the path away from the cliff edge. We didn’t realise that the cliff edge had turned to a near sheer drop. Both of the dogs were off leads and playing happily when they both ran after a crow away from us and disappeared over the cliff edge. This happened so quickly we didn’t even have time to shout to the dogs. In a spilt second our lives were turned completely upside down. For a second we expected to see the dogs run back over the edge but they didn’t, there was nothing, not even a sound. I cannot describe the terror we had running to the edge and looking down We saw Autumn on her side with her back leg kicking, she landed in sand with rocks around her, we couldn’t see Bella. I don’t know who started shouting and screaming first, both dogs had fallen 35 to 40 foot. I ran to the coastguard station to call 999 whilst Dave ran to find a way down the cliff to get to them. I still don’t know how but Dave got to the dogs within minutes, Autumn was limping, Bella had blood coming from her mouth, both dogs were in shock. I won’t go into all the details of this time other than to say we got the dogs to Animal Vets in Hayle where an amazing vet called Steve and his team took them off us. Both dogs were treated for trauma and shock. Dave and I were in a living hell. Autumn amazingly hadn’t broken her leg, however Bella suffered 2 breaks to her jaw and misalignment. The vets in Cornwall didn’t have the expertise to operate on Bella so we had to take her to Eastcott Veterinary Hospital in Swindon. An amazing vet from the Specialist dentistry team called Alix and the team looked after Bella. During her stay she had a full body CT scan which confirmed the injuries to her jaw, but thankfully no other injuries. On Tuesday 29th October Bella underwent a 5 1/2 hour operation to repair her jaw. During the op she had tracheotomy and 3 plates fitted.
Today we have both our fur babies home, we are so, so lucky they both survived and want to share our story with this message, if you are on a cliff walk even if you have the most obedient dog please, please don’t take the risk of having them off the lead,. We were walking 50 feet away from the cliff edge and didn’t see the cliff drop had changed. Please keep your dog on a lead, we don’t want anyone else to go through the horror we did or the pain Bella and Autumn have been through. The vets in Cornwall told us a lot of dogs have gone off the cliffs this year so please don’t let it happen to you or your fur baby.
We are so grateful to the amazing vets at both Animal Vets and Eastcott Referrals, we will never be able to thank them enough. The care that both Bella and Autumn received was above and beyond.
Dave for getting down to get them both is my hero, we are so lucky and truly grateful to have a happy ending, we very nearly didn’t.
images are CTs of Bella's jaw fracture and Bella snuggling up with her toy recovering from surgery
visit the Eastcott Referrals website (warning graphic images)
