Friday Vet Run

Taking the trip back to the city with JJ were Mutt, ET, Kachou Daeng & Kam along with her 5 pups.

Mutt had been suffering with parasites in his blood and a chronic liver condition. The effect was that his hair had dropped out in places and lost co-ordination of his legs. Today he is having his blood tested with a result available tomorrow. But already it is clear that his liver has improved as his gums are a natural colour and his hair has grown back. At least we can now take him off his medication.

ET is suffering with a runny nose and conjunctivitis of the cornea, Kerititis, which is also termed corneal ulcer. This problem seems to affect many dogs we have cared for. For humans, having their sight affected is very distressing, imagine what it must be like for a dog, especially one that is living rough on the streets. ET was rescued from Kachou, along with Daeng, as they were seriously in danger of being poisoned.

Kachou Daeng came along for a general check up and proved to be ok.

Kam is doing her best to mother her pups. They are now a month old and the vet warned that the mother's immunity that is passed to them, generally only lasts 1 month. So watch this space but lets hope they all survive. From the photo, I think I now know who fathered the puppy's. Taylor has that loose skin look about his face too!

After lunch (Pad mee hoc kiang, aroy mak!) I picked up Mira, Wallace, Yaa, Duchess and a village dog Aidut.

Mira was bitten yesterday by BuunKeow and her left front ankle is infected and swollen. The vet flushed it out with providene and left the wound open. He gave her an anti inflammatory injection and suggested she take Rimydil too.

Wallace came along for a check on his eyes & a limping back leg. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with his leg but said the eye was an old corneal ulcer which didn't need any treatment. The vet was amazed at the improvement in Wallace since he first saw him, his skin improved and his hair growing back. Poor guy was so scared at the examination that he poo'd and wee'd constantly. I already stunk from Mira's vomit but now I felt I was unclean!

Ya, had previously suffered from TvT but after the tumour subsided, her vulva prolapsed and just lately it seems a little more inflamed. The vet examined her and said that the tumour was not returning, if it was he said, there would be blood.

Next up was Duchess who Kh Yom thought had puss coming from her vulva. It transpires that there is a slight infection of the external skin of the vulva (labia) that would appear to be from constantly being moist and dirty. This would be due to the condition of incontinence she suffers as a result of nervous trauma. We will need to try & clean her more often and then try to keep her dry. The vet suggested baby nappy's/diapers/pampers. (Sorry but wikipedia is fascinating sometimes!)

And finally there was Aidut. He had blood taken for a full blood count, as parasites had previously been busy eating his platelets and his blood was so thin at one stage he had blood running from his nose. We will await the result to see if he needs further treatment. He is more lively this week and apparently according to his owner, back to his old self.

On the way back to the shelter, I pulled off the road to help a dog out of trouble. Some stupid, immature, inhumane and despicable person (a lazy singlet wearing greasy looking guy actually) had tied a plastic toy to the dogs tail.

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!

Sunshine gets his op

Today I took Sunshine along to the clinic for removal of the pin from his leg. Whilst he is under anaesthetic, he will be sterilised too.

Also took along Donna for sterilisation. She is cute quiet fat thing!! Only young but already very chubby.

Mutt is back for a check on his Hepatitis, his gums are still very yellow and is still needing to be quarantined away from contact with other dogs as the parasites in his blood could pass to others through fleas or ticks. Vet commended to continue with the same meds and see again next week.
Jack came along for his final, final, final check on the status of his TvT before he is started on the pre-Hearthworm treatment of Aspirin. After a week he will then receive his Heartworm treatment which will consist of 2 injections within 24 hours of each other. Vet did liver & kidney function checks of blood and said the readings were within normal range. He is 21.7Kg and his kidney reading is .79 & liver 43.8. He said there was need to x-ray as the readings were good and the sound of the heart was indicating stage 1 or 2 of the Heartworm disease..

Misha came for much the same as Jack. Final check before starting Heartworm treatment and a check as to why she is bleeding from her Vulva still after 1 month of heat already. Found that the bleeding today had stopped and the smear taken was completely devoid of any blood !! I was happy for her to have finally stopped her heat. Her Kidney & Liver blood tests showed .65 & 36.4 respectively and after an Xray she was confirmed to be at stage 3. Her heart appears to be weak and she will need to have 3 injections for the complete removal of the Heartworms.

And finally today, 2 of the remaining pups of Leonie, Leo & Larry. Both have round worms in their diarrhea and should be de-wormed asap. Both were shoing nasal discharge and very weak.

Picked up Sunshine in the evening and the vet was alarmed that he could not remove the pin as planned. Instead he just cut off the protruding length from the top. It seemed that calcification was so advanced that the pin had joined with the bone and was immovable.