Misha is fit to sterilise and Benji the Collie too

Well there are good, happy & fun things that happen when you work with dogs and then there are extremely sad times.

Today I visited "Baan Ma kap Maew" veterinary clinic, bringing 5 doggy's along for sterilisation. Misha has now finally recovered from her Heartworm treatment and her long period of 'heat' has finished so today the vets did a final analysis of her blood & Xray of her heart and following a positive conclusion, she was sterilised.

Also on the list today were Chok, Kam, Daeng & Benji. I have not written about Benji here before but he is the Collie that was brought to the shelter entrance by his owner a few weeks ago and officially dumped, being thrust into the hands of the shelter caretaker and then riding away on his bike.

Benji, it turns out has contact dermatitis and has skin rashes all over his back. We have been trying to keep these wounds clean and dry but that is near on impossible with a guy who likes to swim in the pond, so although he is actually black & white, most days he has a touch of brown about him too! They are showing signs of improvement though.( Earlier photos of Benji)

Anyway, when I visited the clinic this evening to collect them, there was a family huddled around a large Golden Retriever on the inspection table in one of the cubicles.

It was quite obvious from the faces that the doggy was not well and I could also see the Dr crying as she attended to him. Everyone was holding him and stroking him, talking to him and I could see his head rising to take in his surroundings. I could see they were saying goodbye and when his breathing calmed and his body ceased to move, the family just looked at their boy and cried, for he had gone.

By this time I was in a position to leave, with all my 5 loaded on the truck. I stopped to express my sadness for their loss to a man who stood in the shadows of the entrance, hiding his tears and trying hard to fight off the emotion of the occasion and the families distress. We talked about Mharx and his long 13 years of life and what a wonderful companion for the family he had been. He then asked me about my dogs and I explained the background. I passed on my card and bid him farewell.

I was halfway back to the shelter when I received a call from the bereaved family to ask if I knew of a suitable place to bury Mharx. After a long discussion and a return trip, I picked him up and took him to the shelter. There is a pleasant spot across the road from the shelter, in a Lamyai (Longan fruit) & Banana orchard and tonight under the cover of darkness, with torch in hand & several litres of water to loosen the parched and solid soil, the caretaker Kh Yom buried Mharx.

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.

Weekly Feed at Wat Doi Kam

Tried to catch the TvT bitch on the way to the temple this morning but the other male dogs kept getting between me & her and I could not get near her. Keep trying ......

Felt bad when I got to the temple. Only saw Sonja and Dam. But after a lot of calling and whistling, a few more turned up for a decent meal.

Today I managed to see

1. Sonja - Feet much better for the rest at the shelter 2 weeks ago.


2. Dam - Bully boy


3. Oscar - Gentle old boy but definatly the boss


4. Gina


5. Pat


6. Taylor - Mange getting worse


7. Blackie - Limping on her front left paw (can't get near her)


8. Butch - So sad ( I just want to give him a big hug)

Where have the others gone? There were 15 here a month ago. Kam & Sandy are at the shelter right now but that still means that another 5 are out there somewhere.

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.

Weekly feed at Wat Doi Kam

This is amazing. Been trying to get Kam to take food from my hand since starting these feeds 2 months ago without any sucess what so ever.

I have been sceming about how I could catch her and get her sterilised.

Horror ! Today she walks up to me and literally jumps into my arms. Her teats are enlarged and her tummy too. Her mood is friendly and she is definately pregnant.

The rest of the pack are here and enjoying the quieter times after Royal Flora.

Wat Doi Kam

Met up with John, one of the other volunteers and we sat in the carpark drinking coffee, listening to Treepies, Laughing Thrush and Barbets, generally watching the dogs and enjoying the fresh and natural jungle environment.

We had gone along to see the dogs and maybe talk with the monk about feeding the dogs using the dry food that John was delivering from Care for Dogs.






Kam would not come within 2 metres of us. John showed me how he would try to encourage Kam to come near him and we schemed how we might catch her. Nets, traps, bait & maybe asking a local vet to come along with a blow dart and catch her that way. We just want to sterilise her before its too late.




I vowed to come here more often and get closer to the Doi Kam Pack and help John to keep these creatures as healthy as possible.


Noticed that Dam was limping. had a bald patch around one eye and his willy had a lump at the base of it, larger than we had seen before. Took him to the vet and found that the eye was due to a fight injury, the limp was not seen at the vets (attention seeking ?) and the lump was because he was because he was excited to see us!!! How embarrassing for us so called doggy experts!still, it gave him a change of scenary for the afternoon!