(photo: US Army Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz, Task Force Sinai Public Affairs)
By Abigail Klein Leichman - July 19, 2015
Originally appeared here in Israel21c
Thanks to Israel’s only board-certified veterinary dentist and oral surgeon, an injured canine peacekeeper was healed and returned to full duty sniffing out explosives in the Sinai desert just south of Israel’s border.
Dano, a highly trained seven-year-old Malinois (short-haired Belgian shepherd dog), served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with the US army. While in Afghanistan, Dano was wounded in action and suffered a fractured left upper canine tooth (fang).
He was treated with a root canal and filling, and re-assigned to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai, an independent international organization assigned to peacekeeping responsibilities associated with Israel and Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty.
In April, the tooth was again broken and Dano needed immediate medical attention because of the exposed nerve.
Luckily for Dano, the MFO recently established a collaboration with the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) in Rishon Lezion, where students of the Hebrew University’s Koret School of Veterinary Medicine receive their clinical training. Dano traveled there on a Black Hawk helicopter accompanied by a doctor, veterinarian and his military dog handler, Staff Sgt. John Breyer. Read More