Dogs,Dogs & more Dogs

Today Karin & I teamed up again to visit some previous adoptions and take care of some other doggy matters together.

After this mornings vet trip for TvT & Sterilisations (starting out at 09:00), we visited a temple near Hang Dong where there were apparently some serious cases of TvT. None of the dogs were around when we arrived but Karin said she would follow up tomorrow. (She did, there were 3 serious cases of TvT)


Next we did a couple of follow up visits in the village near the shelter.

(Yes that is a dog in a metal bowl for a bed, next to an electricity generator for welding!!)

Aidut was the dog who previously had a problem with blood parasites and this week we are checking if he had been given his medication. Some of it was missing from the bag but about 80% of what should have been given was still there.

He was covered in red dye and the owner said the local authority vet had visited the village, giving sterilisations on the spot for 100baht. Poor Aidut showed the wound to us readily and we saw the stitch, on the scrotum, and noted it was looking unhealthy. The vet had taken the money & run. No meds, no after care. No collar to stop Aidut licking & no bandage covering the wound. Maybe their policy is to reduce numbers by sterilisation.....?! We bandaged the wound & gave him a collar for a few days. He sat in his bed for a diary photo. We hope he doesn't move about too much in his sleep!

Another doggy Bouy, living at the same home as Mee, was also not eating for a while. Turned out he had some pretty nasty gum & teeth infections & would need some antibiotics & maybe an extraction or 2.

Next we headed to Airport Plaza, returning Freeway after her sterilisation last week and gave her vaccinations too along with a few tasty snacks to welcome her home.

We met the very kind lady from the Plaza office who regularly feeds the residents of the car park. One poor guy was having problems walking on a hind leg and another had got thin & not eating. The vet said the leg problem was an old injury to the tibia and there appeared to be some ligament damage in the elbow area. He suggested anti inflammatory tablets to relieve the problem but said there was nothing more that could be done.

He said the problem with the other fella (gingjok) was not obvious but should be observed.

Next we visited a pair of previously adopted puppies and gave them their second vaccinations. They were very playful and were obviously enjoying their freedom in a new home.

We came across this poor fella wearing a big leather muzzle with the price /product lable still on it, exactly infront of the dogs eye view. Looked like Hannibal Lecter. He also had 2 big ding dong clang clang bells on his collar. That all came off, poor guy.

So back to the vet & pick up the sterilisations but enroute, we stopped off to see another serious TvT / Cancer case and took her along with us for a blood check.

We also caught up with some other dog loving people who had 2 Golden Retrievers & 2 Dalmations.

The female Dalmation Tdik, had puss coming from her vulva and it looks like Pyometra. I will take her to be sterilised & clean out the infection on Saturday.

By now its getting late, 20:00 and some folks turned up at the shelter, wanting to adopt. In the darkness ( and the smog of distant burn offs!) these 2 young people met Karin & she introduced her to some dogs and fell in love with Mom Maem and adopted him. I got home at 21:00

JJ is still at the shelter but Daeng is not so good

Picked up Freeway at the shelter for sterilisation today, along with BuunKeow & Daeng for their TvT injections. Stopped off in Wiang Dong village to pick up Mee for an ear inspection and Meow ( a cat ) for sterilisation too. (Forgot a travel cage and had to improvise with a zip up bag)

Kh Yom had told me that Daeng had not been eating for 2 days and when I asked the vet if we should suspend the treatment, he agreed and recommended a course of Hepatatonic tablets for a week to improve her liver as the chemotherapy she is having seems to have attacked her liver. The good news is that the tumour is now very much reduced but this has been at the cost of causing her to suffer. She is now so skinny that her ribs are sticking out.





Later in the day I asked Kh Yom to try feeding her with something really tasty & gave him a tin of sardines.

BuunKeow is doing fine, her tumour is much smaller too.

As for Mee's ears, the vet asked if the owner was actually cleaning them every day, as today they looked just as dirty as when we saw them a week ago. When I took him home, I demonstrated to Kh Sunisa how to clean them. I laid him on his side, filled his ear with cleaning fluid & then massaged for a few minutes, letting the solution soften all the crusty dirt within his ear. Then with tissue, cotton wool or similar, wipe out the entire ear until dry and cleaner than when started. As you can imagine, Mee was having none of this, the first time but once he knows its better for him, he settles down to a nice massage. The secret is to let him know you are confident enough to do it & then he relaxes and lets you do it. If he is not sure, then he will object and that is possibly what had previously been happening.

Mee also had his dew claws clipped as they were extremely long and curling round onto the pad. On one pad, he had 2 claws (nails) growing next to each other. After all he is 15 and has seen lots of changes in his time. He has seen floods( he lives next to the river) and he has wondered about trees falling on him ( there are several large trees nearby and some massive stumps left to rot). He has survived plots to poison his mates in the same road and seen young pups come and go, none of them having sense enough to take things easy and slow. He is a wise old timer!

Meow & Freeway had successful sterilisations, both very sleepy on the way home.

And.... Each time I visited the shelter I looked for JJ. Sure enough he is still there. He is sleeping alot today after a hectic week on the run. Kh Yom removed his stitches and he is ready to go home. At lunch time I met with the kind lady who initiated his rescue in the first place and told her about the rescue last night. She handed me 2,000 for the people who found him and she agreed that it would be best to get him back to his home this Friday. At least that way, he might build his strength and confidence on his own turf.

Delivered the reward to Nuang & Nung at their 4 metre x 4 metre cycle repair shop with approximately 10 bikes in various states of repair. Nuang stopped what he was doing and stated that he did not want the money as he did what he did because he loves dogs. Nung said the same and before I left, the pair of them were close to tears as the reward amounted to more than the payments they would receive for the bike repairs. It was an emotional moment for me too and I could not embarrass them further by taking a photo. Later Nuang asked me for a big sticker like I have on my car, he wants to advertise for us.

If this wasn't Thailand, I would have given him a big hug but there we go, this is Thailand!

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.

Now I know even more why I do what I do

This morning Karin & I teamed up and visted the Small Animal Hospital in Chiang Mai to discuss with the Orthopedics specialist about a couple of cases we want him to see.

After that we visted Teresa, another volunteer, who offers foster care for puppies and also saw Sunshine (now Jasper). He is doing well now and is not limping at all. He is putting on weight slowly and is enjoying all the love & attention that he gets from Teresa & Nok, as well as the company of the pups.

I think they are going to have great difficulty letting go of those puppy's as they have grown so attached to them.

In the afternoon, wee returned to the shelter to collect Daeng & BuunKeow for their TvT injections, Luca, a cute little white puppy (pic) who is breathing badly and whilst there, we picked up Molly, as she was bleeding from her vulva. She is now 6 months old, so chances are it is her first Heat.




Sure enough, time to sterilise. We are so close to Molly, adopted by Kh Yom & Paen at the shelter, that we forgot to add her to the sterilisation program!

Then we went to a house in the village to see a dog with an ear infection and another that needed sterilisation stiches removed. Karin took the stitches out while I cuddled Luca and then we took the dog with the ear problem, Mee, to the same vet with us.

Daeng was ok after catching her, she didn't bite but she is extremely scared of people. The others were ok to handle except for Mee.

We needed to muzzle him as he was really upset from his ears hurting real bad. They had maggots in them and one side was ouzing blood. As you can imagine, he walks with his head at an angle and is in constant pain.





Took everybody home and when we returned Mee to his owner, she said that another dog Daeng Gwaa, who was very friendly with her from a neighbours house, was in danger of being killed. She explained that the neighbours father was threatening to take a gun to the dog if Daeng Gwaa kept chewing shoes and playing near his home. She said that he was also the man who people thought poisened many dogs in the area last year and had been to the dog meat restaurant, not far from the house, to ask if they were interested in another dog.

As we sat talking to her and offering to take that dog with us back to the shelter, the man passed by on his bike. He is a farmer, dressed in blue overalls, straw hat and flueresent green wellingtons. He looked about 60 + years of age. We looked at him and had many thoughts. The girl eventually decided after much persuasion from us to let us take the poor dog away. She has several dogs of her own and I fear for them.

What sort of world do we live in?