Shot police dog makes full recovery

Duke, the only survivor out of three police dogs who were shot on duty while chasing down suspects in Bishopstowe, on Monday, June 14, arrived at Hilton Vet Hospital that afternoon in a helicopter that landed on Hilton Avenue opposite the clinic.

Hilton Vet Hospital practice owner Dr Martin de Scally recalled receiving the call: “Doctor please stop the traffic outside the hospital, Duke has been shot in the head. We are going to land the chopper in the street.”

A team of staff members followed Dr de Scally outside and, with the assistance of Red Alert Security, who was parked on Hilton Avenue, helped stop the oncoming traffic while the chopper landed.

“Duke’s dedicated handler emerged with Duke draped in his arms. The steep driveway was swiftly negotiated and Duke was delivered to the emergency room,” Dr de Scally recalled.

“Duke was in a collapsed state and only partially conscious. A quick neurological assessment was encouraging and we realized that despite a midline entry, the bullet trajectory to where it exited through the left ear had missed the brain, optic nerve and facial nerve. It has caused repairable temporal damage, damage to the external canal and ear pinna.

“It was the best case scenario for a point blank shot to the head. Duke was very lucky. The injury, shock and heat stroke were treated by standard methods and Duke was placed on maintenance fluids, pain and sepsis control.

“I had treated this athletic muscle bound Rotty many times before, but never in a state where he accepted our treatment unsedated. It was as if he knew what he had to do,” de Scally said.

A week later, de Scally is happy to report Duke is making a full recovery and is now back home with his handler for outpatient treatment.

“Although there is still some work to be done, we believe he will make a full recovery.” De Scally said he is “in awe” of Duke’s bravery as well as his handler’s “commitment to and his canine partner”.

“I would like to thank my whole team at Hilton Vet Hospital, as well as Duke’s partner, for the dedicated assistance in his treatment,” he said, adding the practice is saddened by the death of the other two police dogs, Shaka, and veteran police dog Simba.