Beautiful Babe was rescued from the streets of Matara after she was discovered on a grass verge completely hairless and a bit miserable. She looked exactly like the pig in the movie Babe, and so she was fittingly crowned by the Wecarers.

The team tell me that Babe had the most amazingly deep golden brown eyes and they knew that she was going to be a stunning dog once they had treated her, to match her lovely personality.

What caused Babe to be hairless and itchy is mange. Mange is a condition that can be highly contagious in dogs and is caused by mites living under the skin. There are two different types of mites that can cause mange and Babe had an overgrowth of one called demodex. All dogs raised normally by their mothers possess this mite as it is transferred from the mother to the pup during cuddles in the first few days of their life. Most dogosaurs live in harmony with their mites, never suffering any consequences. However, in some instances, when there is some degree of immunosuppression (e.g. stress, poor nutrition, secondary infection) then demodectic mange can become generalised and affect the whole body, as it did with Babe.

It can be a little challenging to treat but they knew Babe was a strong girl and they would do everything in their power to get her back on track. With a combination of baths and meds brought in from the UK (and lots of cuddles!), Babe was returned to her former self! She ended up being a beautiful golden, gleaming goddess of a dogosaur and was returned to her community and into the care of her guardians earlier this week. The guardians didn’t recognise her at first, but all the other dogs came running over straight away to welcome her back into the neighbourhood!

The team still have a little way to go but will visit her weekly to treat her and ensure she has slotted right back in! They miss her at the clinic, but they are so happy that she is now loving life and has the outside beauty to compliment the inside.