L-R: Gerhard Putter and Simon Tappin, Clinical Director
A leading Cambridgeshire veterinary dentist has used a teaching trip to Borneo to deliver a much-needed dental unit donated by an animal hospital in Six Mile Bottom to an orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centre.
Gerhard Putter, small animal dentistry and oral surgery specialist at Linnaeus-owned DWR Veterinary Specialists, travelled to Borneo with colleagues, where a busy volunteer schedule saw them working with local vets and teaching workshops.
Among the highlights of the trip was the presentation of a dental unit, donated by DWR Veterinary Specialists to Orangutan Veterinary Aid (OVAID), a charity which supplies veterinary surgeons working with critically endangered orangutan in Malaysia and Indonesia, with equipment, medicine and training opportunities.
OVAID organised and sponsored the teaching trip, which also included Laurent Locquet, specialist cardiologist at DWR Veterinary Specialists, and Aleksandr Semjonov, a specialist anaesthetist from Estonia.
The overseas trip saw the trio spend a week teaching at the Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group (OVAG) workshop, followed by a second week carrying out a clinical and teaching workshop with local vets from all the major orangutan rescue centres across Borneo and Sumatra, who jointly care from more than 880 rescued orangutan and sun bears. The OVAID workshops were held at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) in Samboja Lestari, where the dental unit is now being used.
Gerhard said: “Many animals at these centres require dental treatment but until now the veterinary surgeons had very basic instruments to extract challenging teeth, so this dental unit will be invaluable.
“We had an enjoyable and informative time installing the dental unit and training the veterinary team at the centre, who clearly have a passion for their work and the welfare of orangutan.”
OVAID, who also supplied digital dental radiography to the BOS Foundation, is keen to accept donated veterinary equipment, especially dentistry. To learn more about OVAID, visit https://www.ovaid.org/. OVAID is happy to accept used dentistry equipment and have it serviced before it is delivered to the orangutan rescue centres.
Gerhard recently joined DWR Veterinary Specialists to head up its new dentistry service, which is one of just a very few specialist-led veterinary dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery centres in Europe.
DWR Veterinary Specialists offers specialist-led care in anaesthesia and analgesia, cardiothoracic surgery, dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, cardiology, dermatology, diagnostic imaging, diagnostic pathology, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, interventional radiology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, physiotherapy and soft tissue surgery.
For more information on DWR Veterinary Specialists, visit www.dickwhitereferrals.com or search for DWR Veterinary Specialists on social media.
