street-dogs Archives - GlenMyu Estate Luxury Bed and Breakfast

Ben Fogle and the Sri Lankan Vet

Ben Fogle and the Sri Lankan Vet

Ben Fogle and the Sri Lankan Vet.

Channel 5’s New Lives in the Wild revisited Janey, the British vet, who cares for dogs in Sri Lanka.

Ben Fogle’s original visit to see Janey Lowes work, was aired in 2019 on the Channel 5 series.

The latest program highlights how the charity WeCare Worldwide is struggling to cope with the growth since 2016. Capacity at it’s home in Talalla, funding and a shortage in medicines such as rabies shots are key issues.

You can read more in the following Daily Mirror Article.

Janey is confident in approaching street dogs in Sri Lanka. You can watch this clip on Facebook of Janey and Ben meeting a stray dog.
Janey diagnoses the issues that the dog has before starting some treatment.

Click on the following link to be redirected to Apple TV to find out how to watch the programme.

Ben Fogle has an Instagram page where you can read all about the people and places he meets and visits on New Lives in the Wild.

Janey, the British Vet doing amazing things in Sri Lanka

The British vet is located on the south coast of Sri Lanka. She has been doing amazing things for the animals that she treats since she moved to this paradise island.

WeCare Worldwide is a worthy charity which is in need of support.

Please visit their website to find out more information and see how you can provide help and support.

You can follow Janey on her Instagram account to see what she has been doing since the TV program.

Animal Charities is a website which has a blog on what animals charities you can help.

They have highlighted WeCare Worldwide on their most recent blog.

If you want to know more about Janey’s storey, you can read this article “Rugby WAG turned street vet reveals how a row with her ex at the airport changed her life forever” published in MailOnline in May 2021.

Other Dog Charities in Sri Lanka

Dr Janey does fantastic work. There are several other organisations that also support street dogs.

Local to GlenMyu Estate is Dogs’ of Ella.

Dogs of Ella

We, at GlenMyu Estate, are aware of the work that the Dogs of Ella charity does for two reasons.

Firstly, we met co-founder of the charity, Jessica Nehlich, when we were visiting the vet in Bandarawella with some of our dogs for treatment.

Jessica was there with three dogs being treated by Uva Pet Care Animal hospital.

We also knew about Dogs of Ella as we have had guests from Germany and the Netherlands who have visited the charity, volunteered and provided some financial support.

Embark Passion

Philanthropist, Otara Gunewardene, through the Otara Foundation, founded Embark which work to improve the welfare of street dogs in Sri Lanka.

Many dogs are provided with healthcare before being fostered or adopted.

Here are some videos that show the great work that the foundations supports.

Tails of Freedom - rescuing commercially bred dogs in Sri Lanka

Another excellent initiative is by Tails of Freedom which is a non profit organisation in Sri Lanka.

It is dedicated to the rescue of abused purebred companion animals.

We support rescue dogs at GlenMyu Estate

At GlenMyu Estate, we love our animals.
We have taken in and re-homed many puppies since we moved to the area in 2018.
Our rescue dogs are an important part of the estate and our guests really enjoy interacting with them.

They are used to regularly receiving and entertaining our guests.

You will also find rescue cows and chickens at the estate. We enjoy telling our gifts all about stories of how they arrived here.

Stay at GlenMyu Estate and meet our rescue dogs, cows and chickens.

A stay at GlenMyu Estate as you explore the Sri Lankan Hill Country.

We only have three bedrooms and you will need to book early during the peak holiday season.

The estate is usually within an hours drive of the major sightseeing locations such as Nine Arch Bridge, Ella Town, Upper Diyaluma Waterfall, Lipton’s Seat, Bambarakanda Waterfall and many more,

GlenMyu Estate is listed on Booking.com and Airbnb.
Contact us by the WhatsApp button on our website for direct booking rates.

Ben Fogle and the Sri Lankan Vet Read More »

Our Cow and a dog. Wandering around GlenMyu Estate. Inspires my though for the day

Rescue Dogs of GlenMyu Estate

Our Animals at GlenMyu Estate, Our dogs / By Mikeez

Rescue Dogs of GlenMyu Estate

Since we moved to the Sri Lankan Hill Country we have adopted many rescue dogs at GlenMyu Estate. Some have been kept on the 5 acre estate, some have been re-homed and unfortunately we expect to have to continue to do this work.

We try to give these orphans a good start in life by providing them with nutritious food, added vitamins & minerals and the necessary vaccinations to protect them against diseases.

It was not part of our plan and we did not really expect to have dogs on the estate. We thought that it might deter some people from booking a stay with us in the Hill Country.

A few people have booked and cancelled when they find out that we have dogs – which is fine with us. We would not want anyone to feel uncomfortable staying here at GlenMyu Estate.

We have however, been surprised that, often the dogs are the star of the show. Our welcome message includes a small commentary about the dogs and we have had lots of people really excited about meeting them.

As it is a little dangerous interacting with dogs in Sri Lanka due to the risk of rabies, guests are delighted that they are able to pet the animals at GlenMyu Estate. They know that the dogs are all vaccinated and there will be no issues.

Also, our dogs are so used to meeting new guests sometimes they are quite blasé about the situation. We find that when the vehicle carrying our guest arrive they just want to have a sniff and then they get on with their daily lives. If however, guests make a fuss of them, they know that the guests are dog lovers and that they will get plenty of attention when they are here.

We didn’t plan to have dogs however Clove was delivered to us and we have never looked back. You can read about Clove’s story on the following BlogPost.

Donie is the mother of Patch and Biscuit

Here is Donie with Patch and Fleur in the background.

Patch is Donie’s son and was born at GlenMyu Estate.

Donie (and Kahlu) were owned by the caretaker to the construction company who built the main structure and roadway into GlenMyu Estate. The contractors were here for about one and a half years and both Donie (and Kahlu) were supposed to go with their owner onto the next site.

Donie had a litter whilst living at GlenMyu Estate and her son and daughter, Patch and Biscuit, survived.

We decided that we would keep Patch and Biscuit as we brought them up on the estate and it was their home.

The caretaker was happy for Donie to stay and Kahlu was to go with the contractors to the next construction site…..however….(read about Kahlu’s story here).

Patch and Biscuit - brother and sister!

Patch and Biscuit have different colourings however, they certainly act like brother and sister.

Like most siblings, sometimes they get on well together and sometimes they don’t. Patch acts like a guardian to both Donie and Biscuit and will run and protect them if there is any disturbance.

However, Patch has a large appetite (being the boy!) and he will try to take food off Donie or Biscuit once he has gobbled up his breakfast or lunch. Motherly Donie is happy to share her food but Biscuit will snarl at him warning him to keep away.

Donie is a great mother and she still, after almost 4 years, cleans Patch’s eyes and ears almost on a daily basis. Sometimes Patch looks a little embarrassed when this happens, however we have also seen him offer his ears and eyes to his mother to clean!

Clove and Roti

We made a mistake!
Being new to having dogs were foolishly missed the time when Clove was on heat and were not able to stop her mating (with half the neighbourhood!)

Oh No! Puppies!

We have realised that when you give a puppy a really good start in life, giving them a wholesome diet supplemented by vitamins and minerals, that they will be very healthy. In turn this appears to have made Clove very productive when it came to having her first litter. Fro our discussions with neighbours they would expect a litter of perhaps three, four or five.

Can you imagine our horror when Clove had her litter and produced nine puppies over a very long night.

Unfortunately two of the puppies did not survive the next day and we were left with seven healthy and hungry little ones.

Support or work with the rescue dogs by staying at GlenMyu Estate

I think of GlenMyu Estate as more of a social enterprise than a “proper” business. By opening the house and grounds to paying guests we certainly benefit by being able to live in a nice environment whilst meeting really interesting people.

By holidaying at GlenMyu Estate you also support the staff that we have by effectively contributing to their wages so that they can support their families.

You also are providing money so that we can support the work we do with rescue dogs, providing them with a good start in life prior to being rehoused into loving homes,

We have lost count of the number of abandoned puppies that we have taken in that have been dropped close to our gate or brought to us by our staff.

At the Estate we have decided that we can only have a maximum of seven dogs. This is still too many however we got to seven and decided that must be the limit. The puppies that we take in are given a good healthy start and then we make sure that they go to good, loving homes.

We ensure that the puppies get all the relevant vaccinations and also have committed to pay for neutering and spaying in the future if the owner wants to go down that route and doesn’t have the funds to meet the costs.

In conjunction with a local vet we have also supported the funding of sterilisation of dogs owned by poor villagers who cannot afford to pay the vet bills.

We support these costs due to, as you will see from your travels around this Paradise Island, that there are too many street dogs that are in really poor conditions. By reducing the number of litters. Most females can have litters two or three times a year. Even if a mother has three puppies twice a year the number of dogs increases by six, so you can understand the problem if there is no control.

If you want to find out more about a stay at GlenMyu Estate please click on the following link to our website.

You can also see some videos on our YouTube Channel for the dogs on the following link.

Here are some pics of some of the puppies we have re-homed.

Rescue Dogs of GlenMyu Estate Read More »

Abandoned Puppies

Charity work in Sri Lanka, Our Animals at GlenMyu Estate, Our dogs / By Mikeez

Abandoned Puppies

On Sunday morning (18th September 2022) four abandoned puppies were left at the main gate at Glenmyu Estate.

Our existing pack of seven dogs alerted us to the new arrivals with excited barking and running up and down to the gate.

I was brush cutting at the time, keeping GlenMyu Estate neat and tidy in anticipation of new visitors to enjoy a stay in the hill country.

Eventually I cut the engine on my machine and investigated what the fuss was about.

I had a feeling, as this was a Sunday, that perhaps some puppies had been left on the road

Why Sunday?

Unfortunately since living in the Hill country since 2018 we have found that puppies are dropped off on a Sunday or a Poya (Full Moon) day. I can only surmise that people believe that sympathy and charity will be provided on a “religious” day.

Hoping for 1 or 2 and finding 4!

I was a little taken aback when I discovered four abandoned puppies snuggled up together at our gate! There was only one action to take – call for back up from my wife!

My wife - the Queen of abandoned dogs.

I asked for my wife to come and see the new arrivals and decide what we should do. We are reluctant total on more dogs as we already have seven on the estate.

GlenMyu Estate has five acres for the dogs to roam so realistically we could cater for more.

However, there are several factors why we have decided that seven is a maximum that we should have.

One factor is cost. Feeding seven dogs is expensive and as food prices have risen substantially this is becoming more of an important factor. Dogs in Sri Lanka are mainly ‘rice hounds’ (unless they are a pedigree dog). Their diet is mainly rice with some protein (usually fish or chicken) and some finely chopped vegetables. The cost of rice has more than doubled in the last six months and we buy around 100 kg of rice a month.

Another factor is that dogs are social animals and they need attention. I find it challenging spending enough time with each dog individually during the day and adding more friendly faces would add to this difficulty.

Ticks, fleas and worms

The abandoned puppies were full of fleas, ticks and you could also see from their extended bellies that they had worms. The worms are typically passed through from the mothers milk and needed to be treated as they can be deadly in such small fragile beings.

Our plan with the Abandoned Puppies

Unfortunately we have been through this process on several occasions.

We have lost count of the number of dogs that we have taken in and rehoused since we have been in Beragala.

Ruwanthi cleaned up the puppies, removing ticks and then dusting them with tick and flea powder. The temporary visitors dropped off from the puppies in their numbers.

Some sustainence in form of rice mixed with chicken juice was gobbled up by the hungry four.

A cardboard box with some fabric to provide some warmth would be the puppies temporary home.

Regular meals are needed for puppies at this age so that they get a good healthy start in life.

Worm treatment was a priority so I made a trip to the pharmacy in Beragala to buy some liquid worm treatment for the puppies.

Ruwanthi administered the medicine that evening and we were presented with the results in the morning. Not a pretty sight and to clean however it was a very important task that had to be completed.

Vitamins and minerals

To support that good start in life we provide vitamin liquid to provide the puppies with the best chance of survival and to become strong enough to survive life in the tropics.

A trip to the vet

We will take the puppies to the vet to get them checked out and some advice on what we need to do going forward. There will be vaccinations for rabies, parvo and DHL to come when the puppies are old enough.

Parvo is a contagious virus which mainly affects dogs. It is spread from dog to dog, directly or indirectly through contact with their faces.

Vaccines can prevent infection and mortality can reach 91% in untreated cases.

DHL is active immunisation against a Canine Distemper virus. It is required for puppies beginning at 6-8 weeks old, boosted twice at 3 week intervals and then a year later.

Abandoned Puppies on YouTube and Instagram

I decided that I would record our journey with the 4 new puppies as it would be of interest to dog lovers around the world.

You can see my videos at the following links.

GlenMyu Estate - YouTube Channel

D'Dogz Adventures of the Magnificent Seven Dogs - YouTube Channel

By Staying at GlenMyu Estate you can help abandoned puppies.

We use some of the surplus income we make at GlenMyu Estate to fund the costs of our wonderful street dogs that are resident at the Estate.

We also use funds to support abandoned puppies like these four paying for their food, medicine, vaccinations and vet bills.

We also have funded a spaying a neutering program locally helping those villagers who cannot afford the money to operate on their dogs to control the street dog population.

Find out more about GlenMyu Estate

To find out more about a stay in the Sri Lanka Hill Country at GlenMyu Estate please visit our website by clicking on the following link below.

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