New Delhi: The festival of colors is here and markets are stacked with gulals. While some people enjoy celebrating Holi with lots of gulals and colors, others avoid it as the gulal can irritate their sensitive skin. While we all are busy in the celebrations, we tend to overlook what our activities can cause to other living beings. We can always bathe in our washrooms to get rid of Holi colors but the animals do not have that option.
We enjoy the festival on the cost of the street animal’s suffering. People become quite irresponsible while celebrating Holi and throw colours on dogs, cats, and other street animals as well which further results in skin infections due to continuous itching and rubbing of their skin.
However, when CitySpidey went to Sanjay Gandhi Animal Hospital, we met Dr Gajraj Singh, an animal doctor, who shared some facts about maggots. He said, “Daily we get 4-6 dog cases of maggots and after Holi, it increases to 20-30 cases. We get other animal cases as well but most of the time we get dogs. In comparison to dogs, cows are relatively very heavy. We get their cases as well but very less as they are not easily transported by people because of their heavyweight.”
Maggots can happen to any animal and once they develop skin allergies from colours or any wounds, a female fly lays its eggs on it which multiplies very fastly, creating a lump with a breathing hole on the surface of the skin as they grow.
When we asked Dr Singh about the recent cases, he said that two cases of maggots have been already filed today. As we were talking to Dr Singh we met two boys named Vickey and Ashish who were 14 years old. They came up with a small puppy who they found in Madhav park near Rajouri garden.
Vickey said, “We met this puppy yesterday, his tail was shaved so we immediately brought it here, the doctor examined and said to bring it back today for further treatments.” The doctor cleaned up the surface and covered it up. If you see any dogs having maggots then you can easily treat them.
Dr Singh added, “This treatment can be easily done by any one of us, the treatment is very simple. Put chloroform into the wound and then take out each maggot one by one. Clean the area with antiseptic. Put cotton gauze into the hole and then cover it with a bandage. The wound should be airtight so that maggots cannot breathe.” If not treated at the right time then this disease can also lead to the death of the animals. This can be easily treated within 3-4 days and we can save a life.
When you play Holi, remember not to throw colours on any animals as they cannot wash and clean themselves up. Realise your responsibility towards animals as well and make this Holi a safe one for everybody.