Dubai Camel Hospital expands to deal with growing demand

The hospital’s stables will be expanded to accommodate 30 camels

A camel is seen during foot surgery at the Dubai Camel Hospital in Dubai, UAE, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Satish Kumar
Powered by automated translation

Due to popular demand, the Dubai Camel Hospital is expanding.

The new Dh40 million facility near the Marmoon racetrack in the Dubai desert is a treatment centre for race camels, dairy camel and beauty pageantry queens.

The hospital's stables will be expanded to accommodate 30 camels from 22. The majority of its patients race camels, which can sell for hundreds of thousands of dirhams and win owners millions in cash prizes over the course of their life.

The UAE’s camel population has exploded since the advent of the professional camel racing industry and the hospital has customised equipment for the beast’s unusual proportions, including an operating table modified for a camel’s long neck, long legs and hump.

“Dubai Camel Hospital is a unique hospital catering specifically to the needs of the burgeoning camel industry that has been flourishing and growing by leaps and bounds over the past few years,” said the hospital’s director, Mohammad Al Blooshi, in a statement issued by Dubai Media Office.

In Abu Dhabi alone, the camel population near doubled to 408,000 between 2010 and 2017, according to official figures.

When the current facility opened in late 2016, there were already wait lists for camel owners from across the Gulf. It can accommodate up to 22 camels. The hospital’s international veterinary team treats everything from a camel’s broken bones to a lopsided gait.

“We have just started functioning at the new facility and the hospital will certainly be involved in veterinary medical research studies in the near future,” said Mr Al Blooshi.