Keru

‼️ KERU. NEPAL ‼️

In the middle of his muzzle there was a huge, open wound. Deep. Infected. Filled with dead, rotting tissue. Maggots were moving inside. Part of his nose was simply destroyed, as if someone had torn a piece of flesh out of his face and left him on the street with that pain.

It wasn’t a small wound.

It wasn’t a scratch.

It wasn’t something you could wash and wait for it to heal by itself.

It was a vast, open space of pain right on his muzzle. In a place that can’t be hidden. In a place that takes part in every breath, every movement of his head, every attempt to eat, every attempt to survive another day.

Keru was a street dog in Nepal. Weak, wasted, in very bad condition. His face was the most visible proof of his suffering, but not the only one. His whole body said that he had been fighting for a long time. That his body was using up its last reserves to keep standing, keep walking, keep breathing, to not yet disappear from this world that had passed him by for so long.

And there is a question in this story that is hard to escape.

What did this to him?

We weren’t there. We can’t write that we know. We can’t point to who is to blame or describe a scene none of us saw. But the wound looked as if it could have been caused by something sharp. By something that cut, tore, destroyed tissue and left the dog with an injury that later, day after day, turned into infection, necrosis and an ever-growing tragedy.

And yet Keru survived.

With a muzzle like that.

With pain like that.

With a wound like that.

With maggots where there should have been healthy flesh.

Today Keru is at the clinic by the sanctuary. That is where a fight began that won’t be one simple procedure, one operation and a quick end to treatment. The vets took X-rays and there was one piece of good news: despite the horrific damage to his nose, the bones are not broken. Structures within the nasal cavity may have been shifted by swelling, deep cuts and the injury, but the bones themselves look intact.

But that doesn’t change the hardest part.

The tissue has been dramatically destroyed.

Part of his skin and nose has been lost for good. The wound is so extensive that there isn’t enough healthy tissue to simply close it and stitch it up. This suffering can’t be covered with a few stitches. You can’t say: “an operation and it’s over”. Keru has to heal slowly, as a dog with an open wound that has to be cleaned, protected and watched every day so that infection doesn’t win.

Every day dead tissue is removed.

Every day the wound is thoroughly cleaned.

Every day the fight against infection goes on.

On top of that, medicines, care, good food, strengthening his body, rebuilding his strength, vaccinations and neutering only once he is stable enough to go through it safely.

Keru will never look the way he did before. He has lost part of his nose. Scars will remain on his muzzle. This story will be written on his face for ever. But that doesn’t mean his life has to be written only in suffering.

That is exactly why we are telling you about Keru today.

As part of Animals Without Borders, we reach places where animal suffering often happens far from our eyes. Countries, streets, shelters and clinics where help doesn’t come by itself, and every dog saved is the result of someone’s decision, someone’s reaction and someone’s refusal to look away.

Keru doesn’t need pity today.

He needs treatment.

He needs daily care.

He needs medicines, food, wound cleaning, check-ups and time.

He needs people who will help get him through treatment that can’t be sped up or simplified.

We ask you very much. Stay with Keru today. Help us save a dog that, with an open, infected wound on his muzzle, survived long enough for help to finally reach him.

Now he can’t be left alone.

Not after everything he has already been through.