Some other dogs we met today

First of all today's photogenic dog award goes to Wan. She just needed to cool down!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting up with Amandine who has just flown from the USA for a 2 month holiday to work hands on with Care for Dogs.

Amandine founded Care for Dogs with Karin a year ago and is currently working & studying veterinary practice in America whilst at the same time trying to raise funds and awareness of our efforts to help the dogs here in Thailand.

We visited a temple in the city where we have been helping the health of the dogs there, vaccinating, feeding and dealing with some TvT cases. Amandine set about taking ticks off as many dogs that would allow her, much to the amazement of the school children who were fascinated that foreigners would get down on their hands and knees and de-tick so many dogs.

We saw the deteriorating state of some pups that were born about a month ago. More worrying, are that 4 more pups have been born there this week. This is so sad. A month ago we rescued a pregnant dog from here back to the shelter & she too has now had her litter at the shelter. This temple has been in need of help for so long. Lets hope we can now make a difference and sterilise all the females as soon as possible.

Our next stop was to check on a couple of dogs Amandine had helped when she was last here. We called in at Big C & met Valentino ( along with his friend Diane). Unfortunately his condition has deteriorated and the mange that plagued him before has returned. Amandine gave him some mackerel & Ivomec and made a deal with him, that if he took the medicine, she would visit him regularly to give him the mackerel.

Next we visited a temple near to Big C, Wat Don Chan. This was the site of an awful massacre of many dogs about 2 years ago, when the labourers killed, bar-b-q'd the dogs and left their heads for all to see. Apparently the number killed was thought to be well over 20. Today we found a few dogs there. A couple in a bad condition with Mange and a monk who wanted his pet Tshizoo vaccinated.

After giving appropriate medication and making another promise to return regularly, we made our way to Wat Doi Kam. I haven't mention the situation here recently, mainly because I have become so upset by the treatment the dogs were receiving by the monks and staff there but also because the numbers of dogs had dwindled away from 15 in February this year to 3 last month. Then out of the blue, some of the dogs that I feared killed or otherwise missing returned. The Doi Kam Pack has now reduced to 11 but this is made up of 4 new faces. Nik & Nak are 2 little cuties dumped about 4 weeks ago. They are obviously from a family environment and are quite affectionate. They have short legs, smooth brown coats and very kissable heads. 1 is female, so we shall sterilise her but today we took both of them to the shelter in a hope that someone might like to adopt them.

Whilst at the temple, we tried ( & failed !!) to blow dart a female that had now finished nursing her single remaining pup. Never did know how many she had, she hid them in the forest and only recently has the scrawny female pup ventured out for food along with her mum. Hopefully we can catch them both soon.

Dam has a brain infection & TvT

Dam ( means Black in Thai) is a cute short legged adult dog. She came to us a month ago from a kind Thai citizen who found her being beaten up and badly bitten by other dogs in the street near her shop.

She initially took Dam to a nearby clinic and after minor surgery to repair her wounds and provide her antibiotics & anti inflammatory medication, Dam came to us to recuperate further, before returning to her street life near the kind lady's shop.

The wounds healed nicely and we sterilised her 2 weeks ago.

Recently we have noticed she is curling her head backwards towards her tail and stumbles easily when walking. We thought it might be connected with the previous wounds and possible muscle & nerve damage.

Today she went along for a check up and the vet suggested the problem might be due to brain damage / infection termed Encephalitis. The link on wiki reflects a very dark picture. However, this link relates to the same condition in children. This is slightly more positive, so we will take proactive steps to help Dam with her condition.

But!!! Whilst at the vet's, I mentioned that Dam had become the admiration of many males at the shelter ( canine!) and as she had been sterilised, was there something else happening in her vagina? After an internal inspection, Dam appears to have another problem. Transmissible Venereal Disease (TvT). She has a tumour about the size of a small grape within her vagina.

We miss you so much Mira

Sadly this diary entry records the passing of a much loved dog at the shelter. Karin's email to the team is shown below and her words reflect our emotions too. She will always be with us in our hearts & minds.

Dear all

With a heavy heart I have to inform you that our dear shelter dog Mira passed away last Friday night.

We found her in the morning lying on the dog sala opposite the house, and she must have died a few hours ago. We hadn’t notice any signs of sickness the day before, she looked happy and playful as usual. She didn’t have any injuries and we assume that her death was caused by diaphragmatic hernia.

Mira was dumped at a crematory together with her siblings when she was a puppy in July last year. The children who lived nearby “played” with Mira by throwing her around like a ball, and from all those falls she suffered a diaphragmatic hernia. A kind woman found her and brought her to a vet, and after that we took her and her siblings in. We knew we couldn’t have Mira sterilized as this would have caused a collapse of her lung. All her siblings got adopted and though Miras adoption chances were low due to this problem, we thought she could spend several happy years with us. But this wasn’t meant to be.

What makes me sad and up-set is that this is most probably another case where human abuse led to the death of an innocent animal, it’s a shame what sufferings humans are able to put on animals.

Wherever you are now, Mira, hope you’ll be happy in the land behind the rainbow. Thank you for the love and joy you brought to us.

Karin