Mies, Switzerland – It was 3:00 a.m. in Florida, USA when Spaz, a Chihuahua mix, woke his hearing impaired owner with an urgent plea for what she thought was an outdoor potty visit. After the two arrived outside, she realized that her home was on fire.
She would have never heard the smoke alarm. She wasn’t wearing her hearing aid.
Ms. Miller acted as a keen receptor for her dog’s message – because she had learned his language. Had she not been sensitive to her dog’s body and verbal language, she may have dismissed his need to go outside as a plea for attention or a testament of hunger. Thankfully, she was fluent in the language of dog.
A similar situation recently arose in Majorca, Spain. A Pomeranian named Tschuti discovered his owner’s husband unconscious in the garage, with what doctors would later determine to be a ruptured aorta (a deadly condition). Tschuti alerted his owner, a nurse, who called an ambulance. The man was rushed into surgery, and his life was spared. Had it not been for Tschuti, he would likely not have made it…
And if it hadn’t been for Dr. Nortey Omaboe at Cabinet Vétérinaire International, Tschuti would not have been able to perform his life-saving feat. Only a few years prior to the incident, Tschuti was tetraplegic. He couldn’t walk; couldn’t even lift his little head. After an extensive stay in intensive care, the expert care of Dr. Omaboe, and fluent communication with Tschuti’s owner, the dog recovered, and proved himself man’s best friend.
Dr. Omaboe sites both dog hero stories as prime examples of how the elimination of language barriers can save lives – whether the barrier exists between humans and animals or between two humans speaking different native languages. When he sees clients in his Geneva veterinary clinic, he’s able to converse fluently in English, German, and French. He sums up the seriousness of language barriers in animal hospitals when he says, “If I were not able to communicate freely with dogs’ owners, then crucial questions, answers, information, and instructions would be missed, placing dogs’ wellbeing and lives in jeopardy.”
Switzerland is a country without a single national language. Instead, it has taken on the language of its bordering countries, including English.
Rather than limit himself to ministering to only a small portion of the Swiss population’s dogs, Dr. Omaboe has chosen to expand his practice, and his ability to heal, by tripling his language capacity. Not only does he speak the language of dogs, reading their subtleties for valuable diagnosis information, but he can give and receive valuable information from their owners…the ones with the keys to the preservation of their best friends.
“Kudos to Spaz and Tschuti,” says Dr. Omaboe, with a sprinkling of pride and a flood of understanding. “Dogs and owners have demonstrated gives-and-takes that not all relationships can accomplish.”
But, Dr. Nortey is working on changing that.
To learn more about breaking veterinary language barriers and caring for your own hero dog, visit http://www.animalhospitalsaveterinariansveterinaryclinic ...
