The month of May in Chiang Mai is usually hot but this year it seems more so than previous years. Maybe it’s the lack of Air Conditioning in the new truck we have purchased and the breath of a hot dog sat on my lap on the truck’s bench seat !

The truck is fabulous. It takes me back to when I started driving.

Double de-clutching and experiencing the ride & the sounds like we used to do, before we all got wrapped up in cotton wool of modern cars. I love this truck.

In the front with me was hot breathed Chino, back to the vet for a check up after dieting for a week. In the back were Tara, Dam, Mama & Noni.

First on the vets table was Chino and it was noticeable from her weight loss since last week, that she is taking the diet regime seriously.

Dr Beer listened to her heart & lungs and confirmed they were just the same as they were last week.

So the recommendation from the vet was to continue with the diet and just make the most of her for what time she has left.

She is an old girl, she is coming to the end of her life but she isn’t quite ready to go yet.

Tara was next to be seen. A few months ago, we were treating her for dermodec mange, giving her Ivomec and also cefelexin antibiotic. At that time, she had lost a lot of hair, especially around her face & chest and her flesh was very pink and inflamed.

That cleared up after a struggle and she was looking better when this week we noticed she was suffering with Warts in her mouth.

This is a viral infection and according to our contacts in America, this condition is treatable with a particular antibiotic but this is Thailand and we will have to hunt that down. The vets do not stock it.

If we cut them out, we risk them growing back with a vengeance & spreading, we could try making a kind of antidote from sampling the cells and then injecting her with that solution and risk the same. Some cases of this just clear up but they are typically just one or two warts. Tara already has more than 20.

Lets hope we can get the antibiotics.

Noni, the little fluffy scruff who also lives with Fred, this week developed a haematoma in her right ear.

This is a in simple terms a burst blood vessel and a swollen ear and this will be very painful for her.

So tomorrow she will come back i for minor surgery to have the ear opened up and the problem tissue taken out and then repaired with a few carefully placed stitches.

Next up on the table was Dam who last week we were very worried about, as her blood test showed a seriously unhealthy level of red blood cells and she was believed to be infected by a blood parasite.

During the week, she has been on a course of meds and nursed by a very caring dog loving family who live next to the shelter.

Today the vet made tests on her urine and that checked out to be “Normal”.

Blood was tested again and the result was very encouraging as the vital attribute counts of Dam’s blood have stabilised. So as blood was being tested again, the sponsoring family decided they wanted to know once & for all if it was E-Canis or not. Therefore they agreed to pay 800 baht for a specific test.

The test kit is called a SNAP 4DX and after a few minutes the result was clear.  This link shows how to interpret the result.

Not only does Dam have E-Canis but also Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Shock horror !

The poor girl has been infected by ticks carrying the disease but the good news is that we can treat condition.

Last but not least to be seen by the vet this week was Mama.

Last week she came to the vet for sterilisation, along with her 2 daughters. Then during her post-op recovery at the shelter, she started to go off her food.

Today the vet tested her blood, proved that she was slightly anaemic and prescribed a supplement.

Note the interesting mark under the hair on her back here – A knife wound? Certainly not an operation scar. But the hair has grown back now and under the strong lights and being at the right angle it is clearly visible. What history has she at the temple where she lives.

Maybe her health before & during pregnancy wasn’t so good and having given her best to those 2 girls, she was feeling run down.

Last week, it was a similar story with a cat !