This is not all about horrible gory wounds dripping with blood and scenes of horror, well except for one dog, its about blood and bone checks.

Bones

2 dogs along today for bone troubles were Daeng Spa & Coke. They have both previously been through surgery for broken bones, pins inserted and both told to lay up and rest! Fat chance.

Coke, a chocolate Lab, has managed to disturb one of the 2 pins from it’s original position and it currently causing an infection where it is almost punching it’s way out of the flesh at his shoulder. Today the vet drained the infected fluid from the area and removed the stitches from the original operation. Coke will need to listen seriously to the advice about taking it easy, otherwise risk full recovery.

Daeng Spa is now walking well on her rear leg but is limping on the front left leg, currently held straight with a cast and bandages. Today we found that the cast had caused a rubbing wound and this had become infected. The vet modified the cast cleaned and dressed the infected area and bound her leg back up again.

We will need to check in about 2 - 3 more weeks if these 2 have been able to knit their ones together successfully or not.

Blood

Lorde, the little Corgi look-a-like has in fact lost some weight and her mammary tumor removal wound has healed nicely. Today she is along for a blood test as we would like to commence treatment for her TvT. The results show that she is slightly anemic but that her liver and kidney tests are within the acceptable ranges. We will feel slightly more comfortable with her not being anemic and will pep her up a bit before starting the course of Vincristine jabs.

Bella is doing well after her leg amputation 2 weeks ago and the wound has healed over nicely. Today she is at the vets to have her blood checked to see if she is well enough to have her diseased eye removed. Sadly the platelets are still not showing a good enough reading so we will need to keep her on FBC for a while longer.

Macha visits the vet today for diagnosis on her nose problem. She is a lovely small framed black dog who was minding her own business at the shelter, just trying to bide her time, awaiting someone coming along to hopefully adopt her. Then she somehow upset another dog (possibly by just looking cute) and that dog bit her on the nose! Since then, she has been scratching & rubbing her nose and a sore patch has developed.

The vet did a scrape to see if there were any signs of mange but it seems that the irritated patch is being caused by a bacterial infection and her licking it is not helping.

And the nasty story on today’s vet run is about Doi. This dog lives near the shelter with a family who have several dogs around their home. Doi got into a fight it would seem a while ago and the bite wounds on his neck turned into septic pussy abscesses. These in turn attracted flies and they just love rotting flesh.

So today on his first trip to the vet, the wounds were thoroughly cleaned and as much of the wildlife removed and antibiotic and healing ointments applied and secured with bandaging. He will need these wounds cleaned and dressed daily and receive medications to help them heal.

When you visit homes like the one Doi comes from, you get a sense of helplessness. The brown earth recently pounded by torrential rains, colours everything in sight to the height of a human. Wooden buildings bleached from the hot sun looking dry and ancient, with similar qualities seen on faces of toothless and grey haired wisen old ladies. Chickens peck and scratch at fallen leaves and their brood of a dozen chicks mimic where ever they venture. Establishing how many dogs live at this place, in, on and under these brown dry buildings is hopeless, there are just too many to count.

Doi will spend a few days at the shelter and receive his medication, after which he will rturn to his family home.

Last up onto the Vet’s couch and not about blood & bones, was a little pup we had rescued from almost certain death, living in a dilapidated old building being used as a recycling yard along with about 40 other dogs. This little girl called Belle is this week feeling a little bit down in the dumps and she was along for a routine check over to see if there was anything really wrong with her. Result from the checks was that she is maybe just needing time to adjust to her cleaner and healthier surroundings! We will keep our eye on her and hope she perks up a bit.

You can read some more about Daeng Spa, Bella and Lorde on the 18 August Vet Run here …