Happy New Year to all readers of this the first Vet Run post of 2009.

Typically people like to start the year with positive & up-beat messages. Well this post is nothing like that, in fact it is extremely down-beat, negative and altogether sad.

Today I met Karin at the shelter and discussed the cases to go to the vet today and from her list we agreed 3 likely patients.

All of them were ‘family’ dogs of local villagers and needed the assistance of Care for Dogs to help the creatures.

2 of them had come to the shelter over the weekend, and I was to pick another up from a house in the village en-route to the clinic.

1st into the back seat of the car was Coke, who at first I thought was a female with pyometra or even pregnant, from the shape and size / proportion of body to the legs but Coke is definitely male. He was able to waddle about and lifting into the car was not a big issue.

Next we put Puerk into the back seat and Karin explained that he wasn’t walking but eating ok, according to his family.

So off we went & picked up Sua from his home in the village and to my surprise, today Khun Amnuay was carrying him to the car, unlike my last experience with him of having to run around the house and wait for him to give up the chase before catching him.

That was 3 weeks ago.

On the road, I had my usual chat with the front seat passenger and sadly it was a one way conversation. Sua it turns out was unable to hear a thing I said and in fact couldn’t see my lips moving, let alone the dashboard in front of his face, as he is blind too.

To add to that, his entire body was flinching erratically and I recalled my thoughts 3 weeks ago about whether this poor dog was suffering with Distemper.

After a relatively quiet journey but unfortunately very smelly (thanks to someone in the back seat!) we arrived to a very busy clinic and needed to wait a while for our turn in the queue. This prompted me to recall why I always try to leave the shelter by 09:00. Lunch in Thailand starts at about 11:00, happens at 12:00 and lasts until just gone 13:00. So not only do stomachs start to rumble to that schedule but enthusiasm, availability and commitment wane accordingly. Today after all the consultation, drive back, delivery of Sua back home, explanation to the shelter guys about the patients being returned and then a wash up with Karin, I finally ate lunch at 14:45.

Anyway, you don’t need to know that.

Dr Beer, the very friendly, intelligent and capable vet I usually see was quick to diagnose Sua’s symptoms to look like Distemper and I insisted she do another test.

5 weeks ago and again 3 weeks ago, we tested him ourselves using a SNAP TEST KIT and both times the results were negative. Today I was very pleased when the result from the vet clinic SNAP TEST KIT proved negative too. At least we weren’t to find we were doing it wrong or our kit’s had passed their ’sell by dates’.

Sua’s condition is severe. The vet suggested that his body would possibly give up the fight to live in just a few days. Breaking this to the family back home was not easy for me, not just the language issue but also the self realisation that you are possibly seeing a doggie for what could be the last time.

As a brighter aside, whilst waiting for our turn to come in the queue, as is my habit I start chatting to people about their pets and today I met a Scottish man who had brought 2 of his dogs in for wound dressing after a fight they had been involved with his other dogs. I had started the conversation because I had seen one of them appear very scared and urinated in a spray behind her, when being on the weighing scales.

I asked him if the female dog I saw had a fear of vets? He said “that dog is male” so I asked, why had I seen the dog squirt urine in a backward, rather than a downward direction?

Well he was as interested as I was and Dr Beer helped us out. Apparently, what I had seen was the squirting of scent from the Anal Gland. Now I know they are there, I know what they do & sometimes don’t but I didn’t realise they could spray like a Tom cat marking it’s territory. – Amazing!

The next consultation was Coke. It was clear that there was a lot of fluid in his body and for a small corgi mix dog, 16.2kg was very heavy for those little legs.

He is an old boy, quite apparent from his dental record and the vet decided to take blood and do an xray to identify just what was happening.

Whilst waiting the results to be processed, we looked at Pueng. Ah! “This is Puerk, he came to the shelter yesterday, brought in by his family to come to the clinic today, as he is apparently not walking but at least he is eating ok”

At this point, one of the veterinarian assistants said just like Punch & Judy “Oh no it’s not… he came in yesterday and we xrayed him. Kidney problem and hit by a car”

“Sorry, you must be wrong, Karin said this was …” Well after a few phone calls backwards & forwards I stood with an embarrassed look on my face hearing that the dog should continue the meds prescribed yesterday.

Apparently, the actual dog I should have brought to the vet today had been hiding earlier and will now make his trip tomorrow.

Back at the shelter I checked him out and indeed he didn’t look a happy bunny at all.

A large hernia was quite obvious evidence of his discomfort, as the external sac was very inflamed.

Dr Beer showed me the xray’s of Coke and she wanted to explain a couple of issues that could be clearly seen. Firstly, there were several areas of “mass” ,or to you and me,Cancer. In the lungs & around the heart area and this she explained would be the cause of the fluid.

But in addition, Dr Beer pointed out the presence of a Calcium Bridge, clearly visible on Coke’s spine. (Well it was when we looked at the original xray !! See arrow on photo)

Now this is very interesting. I searched the internet when writing this post and could not find any recognisable comparison to this to reference for you.

Dr Beer had explained that the calcification ‘bridge’ between vertebrae was a genetic degenerative condition that would ultimately result in paralysis. Whilst searching the www, I found plenty of references to paralysis & spine issues but nothing that described or used the term ‘calcium bridge’ I clearly saw and heard of today. Mmmmm?

So after a clean up and shave (Coke, not me!), Dr Beer did an ultra sound scan and confirmed the profusion of Cancer in the body cavity. Dr Beer then inserted a drain and syringed out 3 litres of fluid. This she said would be the seepage from the growths of blood. She added that this amount would not have accumulated in a short time but more like 6 – 8 months. Poor guy.

After the extraction of so much fluid, it was clear that Coke felt some initial discomfort. His internal organs were now rearranging themselves and he would need to readjust himself to being much lighter and give his organs time to acclimatise themselves to their new relaxed positions.

Dr Beer suggested that it would be kinder to Coke, to not start any medication and to allow him to live out the rest of his days without any further complication, as long as he was not suffering.

You can see more images of Vet Trips in our PhotoBucket albums here …

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