A nine-month-old Belgian Shepherd facing an uncertain future has been saved by veterinary
teamwork at Medivet - and the mum of one of the vets.

The dog, Qira, fractured her left hind limb while playing on 31 May. Her owner took her to Medivet
in Flitwick in Bedfordshire, where she was examined by Branch Partner Dr Nicolas Caron. Qira’s
owner was unable to afford the cost of surgery to repair the fracture so Dr Caron contacted the
team at Medivet’s 24-hour veterinary hospital in Hendon. The two Medivet practices worked
together with her owner to have Qira signed over to the charity ‘All Dogs Matter’ and agreed to
carry out the surgery in their own time so that she could be re-homed.

Surgery was carried out on 3 June by Dr Pedro Guimaraes (pictured at top), who is studying for a post-graduate
certificate in surgery, under the supervision of Dr Jerry Dunne (pictured below), Branch Partner and Senior Surgeon,
at Medivet Hendon. On hearing of her plight and seeing photos and videos sent to her by Jerry, his
mum, Ann Dunne, who lives on a farm in County Cork, Ireland, fell in love with Qira and has now
adopted her. Jerry Dunne will be taking her to her new home in Ireland as soon as her recovery is
complete.


He explained: “Qira is a lovely, young dog and we wanted to give her a chance. A CT scan revealed a
long spiral fracture of the left femur extending from the proximal. While complicated it was
perfectly repairable. As Pedro is our Junior Surgeon and working towards a surgical certificate, we
saw Qira as a perfect case for him to lead on under supervision from me and we did the surgery on a
day off.

Dr Nicolas Caron at Medivet Flitwick added: “One of the things that really sets Medivet apart is our
Partnership ethos. It encourages us to collaborate with other Medivet practices and vets, and to
work cases together to help diagnose and treat our patients. Qira is a perfect example of this. I
worked with my colleagues at Hendon to agree the best approach to her situation, and Jerry and
Pedro did a great job on the fracture. It’s great to know that, between us, we’ve given her a future –
and, because she’s with Jerry’s mum, we’ll be kept up to date with her adventures too.”

Jerry continued: “Qira is making an excellent recovery and I’ll be driving to Ireland with Pedro soon
to introduce her to Mum and her new home, where she’ll have plenty of countryside to enjoy. She’ll
have a wonderful life there and I know Mum will spoil her rotten.”

Medivet is an independently-owned network of 250 veterinary practices, and 15 fully-staffed 24
hour veterinary centres across the UK, of which six are 24-hour veterinary hospitals. Underpinned
by its partnership ethos, it is forging a national network of partner-run practices, offering
outstanding veterinary care to patients all under one roof.