Radiology is here but we need your help to ensure it stays.

The WFFT Hospital this week became the first wildlife rescue center in Thailand to be equipped with its own digital X-ray suite. Most western veterinary hospitals will appreciate how much better the vets can now do their job and help improve the quality of the medicine they practice.
For a small NGO reliant on donations and volunteers to finance the care of the 600 animals living here this is a big gamble. It has also been a huge logistics task. The most suitable place to house the X-ray was the managements office. New offices have had to be installed and furnished. Then came the trauma of the move which is always stressful. Thankfully this went without too many problems and only a couple of computers playing up.
Once emptied the old office had to be modified to match safety standards. Thankfully the builders managed this in a few days and after a visit from the decorators we were ready for the installation. It took two days to install and set up the unit and we are now very proud to say the digital X-ray unit is now fully operational and had proven invaluable in its first day of use.
Gogo is a white handed male gibbon who hadn’t been eating well for 4 days. He was sedated and examined and we found he had a dental abscess. Blood tests were taken and apart from slight dehydration they were good. Four days after his dental he still wasn’t eating well. He was re sedated and his mouth and bloods re checked. These were found to be good. We decided to put the X-ray machine to use. Dental X-rays were good but a check of his chest and abdomen revealed there was actually a foreign body in the abdomen. Gogo has not vomited so it was decided not to go to surgery immediately but to re X-ray in 24 hours to see if the foreign body is moving.
We hope in the years to come the X-ray unit will continue to help in the veterinary care we provide and also help in the education of the vet student volunteers who pass through our doors every week. It has been the piece of equipment most visiting vets have wished we had. But it has been hard to justify the expense. Most of the locals who bring their domestic animals for treatment can’t afford to pay vets fees and there is no way we can charge them enough to cover the costs of the machine . We see many animals who have been in collisions with vehicles and suffer fractures. Previously we have had to send them to local practices. Many can’t afford this so the animals may simply suffer.
This is where we need you’re help. The digital X-ray unit costs 1,500,000 baht ( around $45,000). The vet team would like to ask for your donations to help pay for this machine so that we can take better care of the wildlife in our care and the local domestic animals who we treat for free. If you can make a donation, big or small, we will be very grateful. We see some tragic cases and our hearts sink every time we have to send an injured animal away for X-rays not knowing if it will get the treatment it requires. By being able to diagnose here we can ensure that we can provide treatment . Whether owners can afford it or not we never want to turn an animal away again. Thank you in advance.

www.wfft.org/donate/