TvT Program - Its catching.... Literally

Today I took 5 cases of TvT to the vet for their Chemotherapy. There were meant to be 6 cases but the last one was a village owner dog Phuky and she was not at home when I called.

Unless you are there, I am sorry to say you might not appreciate the circumstances. Can I just say the neither the guy making straw hats from strips of bamboo, the bamboo splitting process factory next door, the party of elderly ladies gathered around a front porch or the wide eyed & expressionless open mouthed singlet guy knew what on earth I was looking for, let alone had they seen Phuky! I accepted defeat once more and thought it better to take 5 rather than excite them more and keep looking for the 6th case.

I refer to the excitement of the dogs because transportation of dogs can in itself be very stressful for them. Some salivate as if they were Rabid, some vomit, especially if they have eaten anything before hand and some just wreck the cage and hurt themselves in the process.

Today, BuunKaow was on board and she hates being caged. She had her teeth at the bars from the outset and was woofing, yelping & screaming all the way. I checked in on them on the back of the truck when I stopped for Phuky and they were all fretting but never the less sat or laying quite ok, apart from BuunKaow of course. When I arrived at the vets, she was already out of the cage and standing in a small space between the 6 cages I had on the back, thankfully not running off. With a little assistance from the vet staff, we caught her and got her inside. Not a happy bunny.

Anyway, in the 6th cage I had Naiomi, along for a skin scrape & sure enough, her balding patches are early Dermodex mange and her lumpy ear is due to a Haematoma or in other words, a burst blood vessel in the ear. This was possibly caused by a bite or scratch. So on top of her visit recently regarding her anal & mouth warts, she has this on top. These are due to poor health and the vet suggested that because she had suffered with Distemper recently, her immunity was low and these issues were the small price she is paying but at least she is alive.



Most of the TvT cases were showing signs of improvement both visibly and by evidence of maintained or increased weight. The vet suggested that BuunKaow may well go home next week and hopefully Daeng as well. Its been a long haul for her but now her weight is going back on and her tumour is just a feint growth inside, there looks to be a brighter future for her.



Paulines leg and vulva are much improved and Nam Pueng is coping well too. Her tumour has not reduced as quickly as some but you can see it is definitely receding & healing.



But bad news about the village dog Lai. Her vulva had puss coming from it and the vet recommended she should have antibiotics as well as the chemo. In the back of my mind I worry about Pyometra but lets see next week how she is.




This was the first TvT Program trip to this particular veterinary practice. As you may have read recently in these pages, we had established a cost saving scheme with them and from here on will manage to treat cases a lot cheaper. This is such good news for the dogs of Chiang Mai. Next week, we will have another 2 cases to join the program, to replace the 2 that will hopefully have completed their treatment.