Monday is Wiang Kum Kam day

Jill came with me to visit the old city complex today.

We first of all went to the front entrance where the buggy rides start and met up with one of the guides there, Jak. He is a dog lover and after chatting with him last week, he has agreed to single out 2 females each week for me to collect and arrange sterilisation. Today he came to me carrying a dog I had never seen before and when he said I dunno, I said to our new volunteer, 'would you mind ?' We named her Jill. Next he brought along Urrr Lurr, a black and white female that I had seen on previous visits and noticed her stiff rear left leg. Today I saw that her right eye looked not so good and I was so happy he had picked her on the first trip. They will go back to the shelter today and be kept away from food & water overnight for their surgery tomorrow. ( See 27/03/2007 posts for pic)

Whilst at the front of WKK, we gave some Ivomec to Sua and Jak (not the guide but another dog that didn't have a name!) and considering this is only the 4th week, Sua's coat is looking much better and Jak is up & about with a bit more vitality.

Next it was a trip into the centre to visit BuunLai, BuunKeow & NongLai. The 3 were sleeping in the shade of the Tamarind trees and after a little persuasion, greeted us with sleepy eyes and enjoyed the chews we gave them. BuunLai enjoyed his Ivomec in some left over currant bread I had put by for them.

I also showed Jill a paradox. Near to these 3 dogs who are lovingly fed by the village barber, is a house with a poodle on a leash. He is about 8 - 10 years old and his teeth are rotten. His gums are in poor condition and he is quite subdued. I told Jill about how 2 weeks ago the owner had asked me if I could help the dog as he wasn't eating. I looked in his moth( the dogs!) and knew at once. How could this poor little pooch endure the suffering of putting more food into its already painful mouth. Apparently they just feed him rice, nothing solid and definitely nothing that he could chew to clean his teeth. Anyway I bought some antibiotics for them (the cost of 3 loaves of bread or the equivalent of 4 litres of diesel). Looking at the dogs teeth this week, the gums have lost the gingivitis but that will return after a few more helpings of mushy rice gets stuck between those already decaying and broken teeth.

Jill & I returned to the shelter and she met some of the residents. I think Jill connected with many at that first meeting.

Bill is getting ready for her trip to the states!

11 dogs

Started off with a trip to the small animal hospital in Chiang Mai to see the Orthopedic specialist with 3 dogs we have with bone problems.

Firstly there is Bill, the vet said the damage seen in the Xray was so old that surgery was out of the question and as the teeth were so strong, he would not recommend extraction either. Some student observers washed her mouth out for her and they asked a lot of questions about Cfd work.

Then there was Nong Dai, the puppy I picked up yesterday with what appeared to be paralysed back legs. The vet identified a damaged spine, vertebrae 8 & 9 were compressed together and there was a definite kink at that point. The vet suggested that to operate would not guarantee success and felt the chances of improvement were very low.

Finally there was Chrissy. A shy girl that is foster cared at Karin's home. It appears from Xray & the vets diagnosis, that she has a luxating patella which is why she occasionally limps. The vet said that to operate would most certainly cause more distress to the dog than to leave it alone and try to help the dog with anti-osteoarthritis medication instead.

Visited Hillside Condo 2 car park to see a dog that was reported to us recently as having an injured leg. Sure enough, his right front leg is lame and he doesn't use it. The security guard says that a motorbike hit him 2 years ago and the injury got wet and it didn't heal properly. (Well that's what he said!) So here is another case for next Thursday Orthopedic trip.

Next we visited a local vet, who was caring for a little terrier that had been beaten up by some other dogs & had some nasty bite wounds. We will take this little fella to the shelter next week and we are sure he will find a home very soon.

On route back to the shelter, we stopped at Mr Chan Pizza to check how the remaining 6 of the 9 pups were and to give them a spray for fleas & ticks. Amazing, someone had taken away another 5 and therefore only 1 remained. She looked so lonely. She will now join her 3 other brothers & sister back at Karin's home.

So, back to the shelter and drop off the 4 dogs on board. Then picking up Daeng & BuunKeow for their TvT injections, along with Mee from the village to have his ears looked at. Karin also took Coffee along and asked the vet about his ears.

Great news about Daeng, her tumour looks a little smaller already and certainly not bleeding like last week. Only 1 injection & that has had an effect.






BuunKeow's tumour is internal so far so not noticeably different but certainly no blood coming out of her vulva.

Mee's ears no longer had maggots in them, thanks to the efforts of the owner, applying medication every day but they were now still very dirty and needed to get a thorough clean daily too. At least the dog didn't scream this time every time the vet prodded his ears.

Coffee tipped the scales ( literally) at 36 kilos and it seems his ear canal is smaller on one side and therefore harder to clean inside. Karin said that when he was originally rescued from a temple, he had a wound from a severe bite on that ear, so this may be why he now has a reduced opening to that ear.

Ok, so that's the second trip over. Finally Karin & I went to the rear of Airport Plaza to meet up with a dog loving woman who told us about some of the dogs living around the car park there. We picked up 1 gentle girl we named Freeway ( after a sign on a truck near her) and we will get her sterilised next week.

Tuesday with JJ & NuDee

After yesterdays fiasco of losing JJ, today I returned to his haunt to find him and keep my eye on him till he stopped running off. First of all I discovered his hiding place, his bed and then managed to get him to eat a little mixture of sardine & sedaline. Mary was able to join me and we followed him about, through bushes, under floors of buildings and then full circle back near to his bed where I was able to cover him with a blanket & carry him off to the car.

At the vets, I could see there was a strand of what looked to be a stitch from a couple of inflamed spots next to his willy. You can see on the pic, there are several lumps & bumps there. The vet said he would operate immediately as there was puss coming from each end of the strand and it seemed there was something wrong under the skin.

Sure enough, as you can see from the second pic, its an 18inch length of surgical gauze that had been left inside him, possibly to act as a drain to an abscess or something. But..... months ago.

Anyway its out now, the scar of the op will heal up and he will be fine. He is now back at the shelter for a week of R&R and after he gets his stitches out, he can go back to his home, hopefully a bit fatter & healthier.

I also visited Rama IX park to see NuDee. He looks great and was pleased to see me. He was full of smiles and his willy is looking normal, his head on the level and therefore no ear infection and best of all, his coat is thick and fluffy. Wish Nola was here to see him now, he would love to see her I am sure, armed with a big bowl of yummy food & vitamins!!

Later, back at the shelter I checked out Bill, Wallace & Mutt. Bill as usual looked very happy and Wallace looked so lively & almost handsome with his brown hair! Mutt appears to have a severe nervous problem going on. When he moves about, his legs seem to dance and he looks like a bucking bronco at a rodeo, all because he is excited to greet someone.

A full load today

Mutt, liver problem , showing yellow gums last time, seems better today. Vet advised to still keep islolated and continue same medication for another month as he felt the parasites in his blood would still be active.

Wallace, the poor guy with severe mange pee'd & poo'd from fright as i lifted him onto the vets table. The vet said he was astonished and amazed as this case was the first he had seen with both types of Mange , Sarcoptic & Dermodex. He said the effect on the ears was due to sarcoptic and the rest of the body symptoms had needed a scrape test to prove which type of mange Wallace had. He prescribed .4cc of Ivomec 1xweek +Cefelexin 250mg 2xday. He also suggested we de-worm him as in his poo we saw both round and flat worms.

Misha is bleeding again from her vulva but this time the blood is dark, despite not having blood last week. Vet said this was definately due to her being on heat. - As we are currently treating her for heartworm and she is to get her second jab in 1 month, we will have to wait 2 months before we can sterilise her and stop her having this unusual heat.

Bill (Elephant Bill) is doing ok and today I asked the vet what the chances of her having an operation to improve her ability to eat, therefore rearrange her jaw. He said the best they could do would be to take some teeth out and cut the others. I was horrified that teeth might be 'cut' which might lead to later problems. Anyway, she is eating quite well and Kh Yom is helping the process by washing her mouth with gentle hose pipe spray every day. She now smells a lot better as she has had couple of showers too. Lets see how she gets on.

Naiomi & Bailey, 2 young pups previously diagnosed with Distemper, now appearing to have survived it. Their green nasal discharge has gone, lungs sound ok, no temperature and no hard pad. What a relief. Maybe there is a chance for these poor things after all.

Leo, only surviving baby of Leonie is looking quite weak. This week I have been watching the mother remove the food & water bowl from the baby's reach & bury it. She seems not to want humans to help her pup. Vet recommended to keep isolated & continue with same meds.

Diane is with the vet today for the op on her problem dew claw. Vet said he would do both the hind legs at the same time & same cost he said. Oh well clouds with silver linings come in strange shapes!

Elephant Bill

Teresa joined me again today for the weekly feed at Doi Kam. A few of the pack were there to see us and get fed.

On the way up & back down, stopped to try to catch the TvT female around Royal Flora. Still the males got in the way but she did get some food from us. Called her Daeng.

The growth of the tumour is about the size of grapefruit and is bloody and a vet has told me, very painful.

Visited shelter to collect Jack, Misha and Patchok for their 1st Heartworm jabs at the vet today and to our surprise, Kam had given birth to her pups overnight. She was proudly feeding them, laying under one of the salas and all 6 looked healthy.





Today Karin, Teresa & I took the Heartworm cases to the vet and then went to Lamphun to perform a follow up visit on an adoption.

We eventually found the address, despite the adopters attempts to put us off we felt, and to our total disbelief, found a puppy that had 1 month previously been happy go lucky and was now very scared and frightened of any one touching it. It was in a cage and when the people took it out, it was firmly held and not allowed to play naturally. Furthermore, it just stayed in one spot, not inquisitive, seeking play toys or making friends. Momo bit me when I tried to touch him and his eyes spoke volumes. We told the adopters we were not happy and removed the puppy from the home.

We then went to the Lampang Elephant Reserve and looked for a dog that a kind person in America told us about. Apparently the dog 'Bill' had been kicked in the head 2 years ago by an Elephant and today, wandered about the reserve in a sad state. After a very protracted exercise, we managed to catch Bill using a tasty sandwhich laced with Sedaline sedative. Strong doggy, walked for ages after eating it but finally gave up after being surrounded by some of the reserves vetenary team.

We took Bill to our local vet and found that she had no movement in her jaw and could only lick through one side of her mouth where there was a gap in her teeth. The other teeth were badly infected and caked with debris, much of it was Elephant poo and the vet removed twigs, stones and so much rotting material that made the air in the clinic putrid. It would appear that she found poo was nutricious and soft, whats more, readily available!

Blood tests were carried out too and apart from her obvious poor diet and therefore low blood count, she has a clean bill of health. She seemed to have been previously sterilised too.

Took Bill back to the shelter and gave her a thorough clean & spray to remove the lice, flea and tick infestation. She smelt a lot better already.