Now it’s more than 2 months since three angels (in our days they are called “volunteering vets”) arrived at the shelter supporting us with their professional skill for two precious weeks.

This time they were not send from heaven but at least for us from a similar organisation known as Worldwide Veterinary Service.

They arrived at the shelter and almost immediately started their work and while here this international team: Morgane (France), Veronique (Belgium) and Emma (England) made a real difference to the shelter.

Selfish as we are we tried to use their competence as much as we could. To that it beacme necessary to triple the number of dogs and cats collected for sterilisation. As you can imagine that increased the intensity of the work of our staff and it became a real busy time for all at CfD, especially while at the same time significant renovations of shelter facilities were going on and beside that the daily work of the shelter had to be done. But it proofed worth it.

And those two weeks passed just to fast while these three ladies did a tremendous job. Their workload consisted of about 33 sterilisations and 4 emergency operation not talking about the profound advice they offered us and many little things here and there.

Well, as an ordinary volunteer walking on the shelter ground you almost didn’t notice them, that was because you hardly could see them in the open daylight.
But if you’ve taken a look behind the office you would have found them if not in the examination room (temporary transformed out of our storage room) just a step to the right into our surgery room. There they were heads above the body of a doggie, deeply concentrated in their work.

If you need a further example to their commitment, I’ll do the witness and tell you about the morning I came to the shelter and heard about Morgane’s accident.

In the evening a washing table broke down falling onto her foot, she had to be transported to the hospital getting several stitches and examination.

I was shocked wondering about the bad luck that even hit people doing such good things.

The next day at the shelter, big surprise, there was Morgane. You had to look twice whether the woman hobbling with crooks was really her but yes she was. Well, I guessed she came for a short hello, sorry and good bye, but not with Morgane.
Minutes later while we were still head-shaking, she simply returned to the surgery resuming her work.

What a strong woman!

Thank you very much Morgane, Veronique and Emma, hope to see you again.
Your work was a real inspiration and it proofed how much Care for Dogs can benefit form the permanent presence of a vet at the shelter.

=> More about the newest developments around this aspect coming soon!

These 2 dogs have a little in common. They both have massive head injuries on their right side and both are in a serious condition.

But that’s as far as the similarity goes.

The white coloured girl called Moi, was reported to us as having been hit by a car that morning. From the state of her wounds on her head and legs it was clear this was not totally correct and she had been suffering for sometime, maybe a few days or even a week.

She was rushed to hospital by Care for Dogs and immediately put on a drip and after xray which showed no breaks, she was cleaned up and put in a safe & quiet environment for her to rest & recover.

However the other guy, Sing To is a completely different case. A couple of weeks ago, a resident of Chiang Mai saw their neighbour beating this dog over the head and after they intervened, took him to a hospital for treatment.

Well the damage was serious, an orbital fracture, his eye needed to be removed and now with complications from infections & swelling near the brain, Sing To is in a very bad way.

We are keeping a close eye on him at the shelter and will do what we can to help him.

Go is a cute little guy who 2 years ago went through an operation it seems to make a hole from his bladder out to his stomach.

Why we hear you ask.

Well we don’t know really but it was done by trained vets and the result was that he could not pee through his penis and consequently, urine constantly trickled from his undercarriage, near to his navel.

This in turn caused severe discomfort & burning with blisters & abscesses from the constant presence of urine.

Thankfully one of our dog caretakers came to hear about this poor dogs plight and rescued him to the shelter and yesterday Go could be fully examined and operated on by a vet who could not understand why on earth Go had needed to suffer all that time.

Go can now lookforward to cocking his leg again we hope, lets see how he gets on these next few days.

Earlier today this was Go waiting for his trip to see the vet.

Mondays used to be the regular day I visited the vet with various cases for a vet to examine & recommend treatment.

Often on those trips, I would take a dog (or 9 & 10) that I just met that morning for the first time, only aware of the background handed over by the folks at the shelter and a record car under my arm to support any medical report we had recorded.

Today things were very different. Two of the three dogs visiting the vet had come to the shelter in the previous week, been attended to and monitored by me and on the vet run because I was aware they needed further examination. The third doggy was seeing the vet today was coming from a foster home, where one of Care for Dogs volunteers, Gill, has a close eye on some difficult or special cases along with her many Cat’s & kittens she manages to help.

BB was first to be seen by the vet who remarked on the vast improvement in the wound they had seen a week ago on the neck. So too the wounded foot.

We have no idea as to how the wounds occurred but we do know they must have been very painful & driven BB crazy until we were able to give him some relief.

The guys at the shelter really do a wonderful job every day of actually catching the dog, not an easy task I can assure you as it took us 30 minutes today, then holding him still whilst meticulously cleaning wounds, applying lotions & potions and then where applicable redressing with bandages.

The wounds today looked pink, clean & dry proving BB is really on the mend.

BB came to us a week ago with a massive open wound to his neck, along with maggots and a foot rotting away too. Khun Nod had to blow dart BB to catch him in Doi Saket evading all previous attempts to capture him & help him.

But the reason BB was seeing the vet today was for a blood test as we noticed at the shelter he had blood dripping from his nose.

Under the microscope the vet was able to see a round cell and that proves he has TvT (Transmissble Venereal Tumor), a tumor up his nose, after sniffing the TvT infected blood of a female. We already have him on treatment for suspected E-Canis so when that’s finished, we shall start the Chemo on his nose. By that time his coat will have grown back on his neck and he will be ready to run around Doi Saket again !

Next up to see the vet was Tiger.

This poor guy believe it or not came to the shelter a week ago with a large hole just under his ear and he was holding his head at an angle.

We cleaned him up and started him on meds straight away and saw the fluids we flushed the wound with, come up & out of his ear. This was an infected inner ear that had burst out through the side of his head.

He must have been in agony, let alone feeling really dizzy and disorientated.

Today his ear does not have 2 opening to the outside world, as the wound has already closed and when the vet peered into his ear with the scope, she saw fungus and suggested the infection could have originated from a large build up of fungus within the ear and after an aggressive scratch with a hind leg on a regular basis, the outer surface had opened up and become the awful wound we saw last week.

The last doggy to see the vet today was Tdua Noi who we have been treating for quite sometime with limited success.

Her skin was scraped today and she is still testing positive for Dermodec Mange and her blood test is also showing her to have the condition we have been treating Heptazanoosis, a blood parasite.

The vet said that due to Tdua Noi having these for such a prolonged period, the treatment would need to be equally a long drawn out process.

Whilst I had the vets attention (not always easy) I started a conversation about Tdua Noi’s skin & in particular the profusion of blackheads, the relaxed folds of skin & the presence of hair along the back and forearms. I asked the vet about their experience with Cushings Syndrome. Sorry to be boring about this subject but to me it is something the vets here seem to be avoiding or are oblivious of.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, I rattled off the details of the other 3 cases we believe we have at the shelter (Khaow, Little James & Petal) and the vet disappeared off to consult with a few others and some literature.

The vet explained that to test for Cushings, we would need to spend 2,000 baht on a full days testing, whereby the vet would test hormone production by the Pituitary and Adrenal glands. The result the vet said would tell us if there were problems with either of these and it was possible that tumors were developing on the glands.

When I asked about medicines, I received confirmation to another vets advice yesterday, saying that Mitotane was not available in this country.

As is my want, I got busy googling and find another product Vetoryl that is widely used to treat this condition too. In fact, if you type the word into your friendly search engine, it is quite surprising the activity out there (over 79,000 items) surrounding this condition.

The vet advised that here in Thailand, treatment of this Endocrine System problem would typically be to remove the gland but that brings very high risk with complications. It would also be very expensive. Apparently 85% of test results show problems with Pituitary and 5 – 10% being Adrenal gland issues. So big issues surrounding the brain !! And the gland in a human is the size of a vegetable Pea.

So we need to think about how we deal with the 4 cases we have. Maybe we have our hands tied. The vets are not oblivious to the condition, they have no helpful answers to their clients questions. That must be extremely demorialising for them.

This Monday the routine vet trip was unnecessary, the cases we had were dealt with at the shelter by our current visitors from the UK, Veterinarian Luke Gamble from WVS and the SKY Tv film crew.

But I did go to the vet yesterday & today with a couple of dogs and they were fairly remarkable.

Yesterday morning (Sunday) we (everyone ! – lights, camera, action & talent) headed off to find a vet with an xray facility for an investigation on a dog that was brought to the shelter Saturday evening. The poor thing was in agony and with Lukes assistance & wonderful medication he has in his magical black box, she was allowed to rest a short while and await the trip in the morning for an xray.

She could not use one of her front legs, there was a massive rotting wound on her back and she screamed when we lifted her or touched her side. The story from the lady who rescued her, was that she was hit by a car a couple of days ago and didn’t seem to be getting any better.

Anyway after a very disappointing trip to Purpoon Clinic, who flatly refused us to film the dog entering the building, and honestly that’s all they wanted to do, we found another vet clinic that did allow that shot and a whole lot more.

Moo Yong, the dog was xrayed and her blood analysed too.

Not only did she have a broken back, she had a massive tumor around her spleen and her blood showed evidence of parasites. If that wasn’t enough, there was blood coming from her vulva which could have also been a further condition of stump pyometra but without an internal examination, that wasn’t clear as she already been sterilised.

The prognosis was so bleak for this girl and we had a huge discussion about whether to remove her from the clinic and try to treat her for any of the conditions and cause her further agony and distress or put her to sleep there and then.

It was not an easy decision but in the end, it was the obvious one. She was put to sleep and out of her misery.

For readers interest, it is our common experience that vets in this country are not immediately prepared to consider putting an animal to sleep, no matter what the condition. It’s something related to their veterinarian ethic and also their Buddhist beliefs.

Many vets would prefer to try a series of treatments and checks to at least be able to say they tried, that they gave the animal a chance, that they didn’t just kill the animal without practicing their profession.

Totally honorable and understandable but in some scenarios, this can lead to tremendous conflicts of interest and confuse carers by providing them false hope and of course ultimately further agony to both animal and carer.

Please be assured we think long and hard before making a decision like this and always have the animals welfare as the main priority.

Whilst visiting the vet for Moo Yong, we brought along another dog for a blood test. Boof!

This lovely guy who had been rescued to the shelter by Teresa for treatment for TvT had not eaten for 3 -4 days and was very depressed.

Under the microscope the heartworms were clearly visible and the blood check indicated parasitic presence. The vets were concerned about Boof’s condition and wanted to get him on a drip as soon as possible.

Boof went back to the shelter and was put on a saline drip in an attempt to help him regain some strength. He was so dehydrated and weak. His breathing was laboured and he was a very sick looking dog.

This morning (Monday) I took him along to the vet again, we needed to know definitively if there were Adult heartworms present in order to define his treatment.

A ‘snap test’ is the way to do this, a very expensive blood test used to diagnose various blood conditions.

The result was not just to confirm the presence of adult heart worms but also proved a blood parasite condition called Anaplasma phagocytophilum.

Well this is amazing. Have a read for yourselves, this is a google search for the term “phagocytophilum”

So the upshot of this, is that Boof, who came to Care for Dogs with TvT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor) now has a serious heartworm condition and a parasite is eating his blood too.

As I came to the vet today with Boof, I brought along Nuu Daeng, who in July this year had 2 pins inserted in her leg after being involved in a road accident and breaking her leg.

The Xray today showed one pin was slightly out of place and possibly causing discomfort and her bone had healed nicely so the rogue pin could be removed.

So I left Nuu Daeng for an operation on her leg and headed off back to the shelter for a consultation with Luke.

My timing wasn’t good, Luke was being filmed cutting into Magnums paw that had refused to heal for nearly 9 months and the Livestock department were on site watching the operation behind the camera.

Boof needed a drip and careful monitoring, something which we cannot guarantee at the shelter without a trained vet on site. I drove Boof to another veterinarian clinic to admit him for intensive care.

My day was already a little stressful but was about to totally fall apart. I arrived at the clinic, opened the transportation cage door and the docile, lifeless Boof, made a dash for the tailgate and lept off the truck and ran into the road, in front of passing traffic, horns blasting and cars swerving. Boof made a 90 degree turn and ran to the rear of the clinic.

After 30 minutes of coaxing, food wasn’t tempting, he had refused that for the last 3 – 4 days already, one of the clinic staff scrambled on her hands & knees under the building in an attempt to catch Boof.

As he exited on the opposite side of the building, initially evading capture, 4 dogs in the vets garden surrounded him and forced him to turn himself in. Phew!

In the clinic, he eventually accepted food, grilled squid, very chewy & smelly but he ate.

He will stay there until he shows signs of progress and allow us to get antibiotics into him to kill the parasites and then be able to kill the heartworms but that will be another long story as they are very dangerous to treat, they could kill him by dying & clogging his heart.

Oh, the Tvt treatment will have to take a back seat for while ! What a guy!

This morning I had the greatest of pleasures in sitting with a dear old friend during our trip to the vet with some other folks in the back but when we were in conversation, they didn’t really matter, we were mates, we were pals and we weren’t interested in what went on outside the truck cab.

First it was a conversation about the weather and what was becoming of the shelter. We chatted about the new building work and I explained about the 3 rooms and the new toilet, with an improved shower facility for the residents too. She seemed thrilled although it was hard to tell because she just had a wide beaming smile since we left the shelter anyway.

For anyone who hasn’t met Sheena, you will hardly understand.This girl is a treasure and a very special character. All I will say is, get yourself over to the shelter asap & introduce yourselves, she will be sure to make you very welcome.

At the vet clinic, Dr Bing discussed the cases we had on board today and seemed a little set back by the prospect of dealing with 9 dogs sat in the waiting area looking at the wall, waiting their turn.

Dusty is still waiting her Entropian operation, as her lungs have been a little watery, showing signs of numonia, we are reluctant to risk an operation under anesthetic just at the moment. The vet listed to her lungs this week and they are improving but we shall await another week of recovery with meds to help her. Until then, sadly she will have to continue crying with irritated eyes from the in-curling eyelids.

Sheena, well, we checked her blood and found all was ok except her platelets being slightly low, so we will continue to treat her bladder problem, reassured by the blood test and will pep her up a little with FBC.

Nu Daeng was 3rd, she was hit by a car a month ago and had pins inserted in her front leg.

Her hip had been badly fractured and that seems ok now and from the xray, the front leg appears to have calcified nicely. So next week she can have her pins removed.

IceCream, or I-Team if pronounced by a Thai person, came along today for a check on her leg.

This little girl was a dumped puppy that was removed from her mother far too soon.

The immediate effect was that her bones failed to develop properly and when the rest of her body grew, the stress on her left femur which was stunted in length, made it snap. It subsequently calcified but at a bad angle and then later it broke apart again.

Now her rear left leg has quite a lump showing at the hip but it’s only when you see the xray that you realise this leg will probably never be strong and one option the vet suggests, might be to amputate the leg, to relieve her of the constant break, heal, break heal syndrome.

She is a lively girl who we have tried to keep calm these past few months to give her the chance to heal the leg fully but sadly that is taking it’s toll on her by removing her from the natural rigors of growing up amongst other fit & playful dogs. When you are near her you feel her sadness and to know she is so young, makes you feel sad for her.

A couple of months ago, Mii (Bear) came to the shelter from her stretch of road where she hangs out, with a tumor on her side.

She had it removed and recovered well at the shelter and was returned to her old haunt. She has friends in homes near the road where she lives, they feed her and call Care for Dogs to tell us she is suffering albeit they say she is not in their family.

(Ermmmm funny people… you tell me !?)

Today, Mii is showing signs of developing more tumors. 3 actually. The vet felt them, took biopsies and recommended we try to slow their growth down with a medicine called Cyclophomide for a few weeks to see how she responds. But also suggested we commence treating her with chemotherapy.

Her kidney & liver as well as other blood indicators are all healthy so she is fit enough for the treatment.

Now if you thought ‘Gremlin’ or creature from another planet, you would have shared my thoughts too. MiMi is a spinldly legged bundle of wiry wool with eyes that belong on a child’s toy.

The combination is quite scary but when you cuddle her you realise she is warm, friendly and in need. Her flesh has some rashes on, which are bacteria and her teats are enlarged suggesting she might be pre or post pregnant. Ultrasound showed no foetus but suggested an enlarged uterus.

This little urchin, came to the shelter yesterday after being dumped at a temple and we have no background history. So we shall observe her a little more.

Dumped along with MiMi was MoMo, a slightly larger & more distinctive poodle. Folks at the shelter suggested she visit the vet today for a check up as she was not eating yesterday and was quiet but the vet could find no obvious signs of ill health so again we shall have to observe her for a while to see if she has anything other than emotional upset. Being dumped cannot be easy.

Patient number 8 today was Maggi / Henry, who a month ago was here at the vet for an infected anal gland problem.

Well, the infection is back, the crimson coloured blistered exterior of his left anal gland area, show the signs of his irritation and after being carefully shaved by the veterinarian assistants, the vet recommended a new course of medication to reduce the irritation, reduce the swelling and hopefully remove the infection from the anal gland.

In 2 weeks we shall need to check again if the inflamed area has improved before a possible surgical procedure is considered.

You may be asking yourselves why Magnum, the last dog on the table today, is always the last to be seen. Well, everyone at the clinic is petrified of Magnum and with the obvious obstacle of his big plastic collar on the transportation cage access door, getting him out of the cage is a real nightmare which often turns into a real bun fight and open brawl between the vet staff, trying to prize him out without any flesh getting in the way of his teeth.

Magnum is a real sweetie really, he is a nice guy but it seems that when he is couped up in a cage with that new friend around his neck, grabbing hands and funneled visions & sounds must get to him & push him over the edge. Poor guy.

Well today, once again, his wound has improved, it’s dry and a healthy colour but there is still a a way to go before it could be termed as healed. But it would seem that thanks to daily Metrodinusol tablets (spelling ?? Google doesn’t know about it yet !), the wound now looks better than it has in over 8 months.

If you drink coffee or tea, it’s time to make yourself one, take a seat and read this report about a very interesting vet trip.

But first, the shelter is seeing a major change at the entrance, with the development of a clinic, surgery and office / store, which is very exciting and needs a lot of discussion, organisation and planning. It also needs funding and we are shortly to launch a “Brick by Brick, Paw by Paw” fundraising campaign to sponsor the construction.

We appreciate that this is the ‘cart before the horse’ but the project has got a head of steam and the wheels are rolling, if we put it off until later, we could wait for the cows to come home and besides, we are confident that our chickens will hatch and they will come home to roost !

So enough of the metaphors, as you can see from the photos, the area is taking shape.

Having arrived at the shelter @ 09:00 it was 2 hours later that I left the shelter with 11 dogs on board en-route to Purpoon Clinic.

Max, Dusty & Judy White were in the front with me this week and when I accelerated hard, the windscreen washers squirted as Max wanted to be looking through the same bit of screen that I did and Judy & Dusty took turns to climb on my lap and see just how close they could get to me. I must say, Judy won by a mile, she hugged me real tight.

At the vet, Max was first to be seen. This morning we noticed he had clotted blood on his head and also his eyes were turning blue just lately. The vet shaved away the surrounding hair and revealed 3 puncture wounds.

Dr Beer flushed them out and dressed his head, bringing back memories of a year ago when we were accustomed to seeing Max with his ears bandaged every week.

Max’s eye’s it would seem have got his old complaint back, ‘Dry Eye’ which is currently causing him to have runny and blueing eyes. He is getting on in years which doesn’t help and the slight corneal ulcers caused by the dry eye will need drops possibly for the rest of his life.

Judy White was next to be seen, this week she had been peeing blood in her urine and Dr Beer suggested an xray to reveal anything happening inside her bladder.

The result was just a load of poo.

There is no obvious explanation of the blood but we shall observe her more closely in the coming days.

Judy is now very old. We think she may well be the oldest resident in the shelter in terms of age.

She has a heart murmur, severe arthritis and a history of tumors but she is hanging in there and has a great appetite and a very pleasant nature.

We hope we can give her the comfort she needs at her time of life.

Dusty was next up on the table and although we are waiting in terms of queue length, to have her Entropion operation done, she has become lethargic.

The vet listened to her lungs and they appear to be moist, rattling & weezy. Seems she has pneumonia.

So now we need to deal with that, before we can put her under anesthetic for the eye op.

Tac, a gorgeous looking guy took a turn for the worse this week, becoming depressed, high temperature and going off his food.

We had reacted correctly it would seem in the meantime, as tests today showed he had lost his temperature, he seems brighter but we have done a blood test to ascertain if something more sinister is eating him up.

This weekend, folks at the petrol pump we often visit at lunch times, told us about a recently dumped Chiwawa dog on the pump forecourt. He was brought to the shelter as he has runny eyes & nose and in any case too small to just leave wandering around without someone to help him.

Dr Beer did the tear test, the blue light test and took blood to investigate a theory she was forming. When she pulled the eye lids back, the profusion of tiny blood vessels and the blue ring around the outside of the Iris gave her one diagnosis. The onset of Glaucoma.

Next came the blood result. Under the microscope & sadly not on my camera, was a very scary view. Many strings of red circles like a chain, swirling around in the microscopic view of the blood sample. Here are a few images that google finds …

Dr Beer suggested this could be Typonosome, a blood parasite and very rare in Chiang Mai. When we discussed this at the clinic & later at the shelter, we realised we had come into contact with dogs with this a couple of times over the years and it is very serious.

Listening to Pacco’s heart, the vet recognised abnormal behavior and suggested Heart Worm but without spending a lot of money on a specific test, we could not be sure. His lungs were weezy too, so the sounds of the body through the stethoscope earpiece were rather strange but the irregular drum beats were distinct.

Blood results also showed she has poor liver condition.

With so many things going on, maybe the dumpers of this little fluffy bundle of fun, got a little worried at the thought of spending money on treating him in this condition.

But this dog was a family dog, possibly bought from a market or breeder and kept by a family that did not consider the ever present risks of blood parasites.

Yet again, Care for Dogs witnesses the dangers of dogs not being vaccinated. It is cases like this that reinforce our commitment to vaccinating as many dogs as possible and enforcing the regime of vaccinations for puppies and other dogs that pass through our shelter or live at temples or on streets where we visit.

He is now on some medication but this are early days for him, the struggle & the treatment to overcome all of his issues may well itself kill him.

Dog number 6 today was Bhee. He has been seen by many passers by, hopping on 3 legs with the 4th one raised up, jay-walking the Samoeng Road & Canal Road, near Nong Kway market.

This week someone pointed out that his left eye was very runny so we brought him to the shelter to join this week’s vet run.

Dr Beer took her magical blue torch and shone it into Bhee’s left eye and immediately diagnosed Posterior Lense Luxation. Well that’s not the words she used but I understood what she meant & as you now realise, I google a lot!

When she looked at his left back leg, the one he preferred to carry, not touching the ground, he squealed & I grimaced every time she touched his knee. She suspected a ruptured Cruciate ligament and as the link above also confirms, closer examination should only be made with the patient under anesthetic. So he will be fasted overnight and revisit the vet in the morning.

Poor Bhee, who I must say is a terrific character. So gentle and passive, cute and affectionate and for a homeless dog, he has terrific interpersonal skills.

Next up were 2 dogs who live in a house near to one of our volunteers homes, Laa & Dam. Laa is a Labrador looking dog I think but right now, without hair, it’s a little hard to tell. The skin test today confirmed Dermodec Mange. His house mate, I say that as Dam (the black one) stays inside the house whilst Laa is kept outside with another dog, is a bit of a mystery.

The family say that he started to walk strangely after an injection he received. We will never know the real story but Dr Beer thinks that Dam might be suffering some sort of paralysis from a misplaced injection, or even more likely blood parasite damage & nothing but coincidence with the apparent injection.

His liver is ok & we will see what the full blood check reveals in a couple of days time. Meanwhile we shall start him on a course of blood parasite treatment & nerve improvement meds.

His emaciated and atrophied body makes you feel very sad, especially when you think about the family having 3 dogs, 2 of them here at the vets with advanced conditions. Neglect, ignorance and misplaced priorities, are issues we wrestle with daily.

Billy was next to be examined by Dr Beer.

He came to us a few months ago with awful tumors and open flesh all over his neck, back and head.

His TvT treatment has now finished and we would very much like to return him to where he came from. But a hole at the top of his nose, near his eye, is constantly full of mucus and looks as if it could be something sinister.

The vet tentatively looked at the little hole and soon realised he was in pain and feeling very uncomfortable with her investigation.

So Billy will also come in again tomorrow for further examination under anesthetic but Dr Beer already thinks Billy’s eye and the bridge of his nose, may have been severely damaged by the invasion of TvT, eroding the bone.

Khaow came to the shelter a while ago with very little hair. She resembled a tiny Rhinoceros with her folds of skin on her rump, folding over her tail. She has been very grumpy & intolerant and her hair remains sparse and her skin totally exposed except for her front legs.

Today it all became clear.

Dr Beer opened a book at the page, revealing Khaow’s condition to be typical of Cushings Syndrome, although this link doesn’t show images, many others on the net do and the photo I took today is identical to the book & others on the web.

Comedones, or to you and me, Black Heads or Acne are a further symptom of the syndrome and therefore Khaow seems to have over productive Adrenal Glands.

The other reason she came along today was that she has started limping. Currently it’s on her front right leg but the joints in that leg and the other 3 are noisy and likely to be suffering with pain & stiffness. Once again very much symptomatic of Cushings.

Magnum who for those that haven’t read previous vet trips, has been in this collar now for 8 months, trying to protect him from biting his own foot, which has a serious wound that just seems not to heal.

After a glucose test last week, proving that he is not diabetic, he has been on a new medication and the wound this week looks more healthy & definitely on the mend (again) so lets hope he gives it a chance to fully heal.

It was a long vet trip & most were asleep by the time we headed off back to the shelter. Exhausted ! A bit like this report really!

Anyone who has been near an Alsatian dog will know what I am talking about when I say “Big Dog” and indeed, if you have sat next to an Alsatian whist driving a car, you will know exactly what I am saying.

Having a big dog like Freedom around needs a sense of humor and bigger transportation cages than we can afford and a bigger cargo area on the truck if we had those bigger cages, for all the others to fit.

The vet trip this week saw 7 dogs travel to the city in the truck, so Freedom came in the passenger area with me & Noi Na, a sweet little creature with a profusion of warts developing in her mouth right now, who chose to hide from Freedom, by laying across my back with her head tucked into my shoulder bag near the door.

Yes I was driving like this and on top of a big dog foot on my leg, a head and occasionally a bum & a tail in my face, the most troubling thing was the increasing amount of moisture I could feel dripping down my back and also out of my bag.

I would like to tell you now, Noi Na wasn’t sick but the moisture was the hyper salivation from the stress of the journey, made worse by the presence of the big dog on the seat beside us.

At the vet it was a great relief all round to get out of the cab and find some individual space in the clinic.

Noi Na was first to be seen, regarding her warts. Previously, we have treated dogs suffering with the papilloma virus that causes warts using a medicine that seemed to make no difference to Noi Na’s growths.

Dr Beer today suggested that there are many types of wart and these are possibly different to the other types we have successfully seen treated.

She therefore suggested surgery to remove them, about 10 – 12 from the lining of Noi Na’s mouth.

So tomorrow she will undergo minor surgery.

The big fella Freedom was next to be seen. I say ‘seen’ but how could you miss him? He is huge in a room with a vet, 2 assistants, the table, 2 chairs and my camera. Anyway, he is getting his skin problem back again, that makes him itch like crazy. His skin feels a bit waxy and the smell is quite distinct but because we don’t have a fluorescent ‘disco’ blue light at the shelter, we depend on Dr Beer to have a look at his coat with the lights out.

Indeed the self diagnosis we could make at the shelter was confirmed, he needs medicine to treat his fungus and this will need daily treatment for at least 6 weeks & more likely longer. But his itching will stop fairly soon when he starts on antihistamine.

Dusty the scruffy little girl with a wound to her head & ear a few weeks ago, is today looking a little better and now we can see that besides her left ear being a little painful as it is still in recovery, she has inrolling eyelids, otherwise known as “Entropion”, which will need a minor operation to make them curl out and stop her from constantly having watery eyes.

Tduk Tdik came along again today, a local village dog, who has a mammary tumor.

She came a few weeks ago and the vet said that it could be operated but only if it gets bigger.

Well through the snarls and growls & grumpiness, we finally managed to get her on her back and to look seriously at the growth.

In the photo it is the lump that resembles a males genitals, the lumpy knurled bit of raised flesh. Yes it was bigger and Dr Beer recommended an operation the following day.

Noi is a new casualty on the trip today, she needed a skin scrap to ascertain the definite condition and indeed she has Dermodec Mange which we will treat over the next couple of months with Ivomec, along with antihistamine, antibioitics and have her wear a collar to stop her scratching herself as in addition to the skin condition, she is giving herself an eye condition too !

From the constant scratching, she has irritated her eyes and now she has Corneal Ulcers which will need drops every day for at least a few weeks to reduce the irritation and allow them to heal.

She is also a local village dog and as we cannot guarantee that the treatment plan will be adhered to, she will stay at the shelter initially to ensure she gets the vital meds she needs.

Last week, Magnum came to the clinic to have an assessment on his foot. He had come to the shelter in January 2009 with a toe missing and a pad injury. Since then he has been wearing a collar, having his wounds dressed and as & when, he would receive antibiotics.

A few weeks ago, his wound got better, the vet said leave off the bandage. The wound deteriorated. With bandage back on, the wound got better again. Last week, the vet suggested that oxygen would help it and with the bandage off again, the wound opened up!

Dr Beer said Magnum had an abnormal healing quality and this was stopping the healing process.

So to take a different approach, Dr Beer suggested a glucose (diabetes) test and we will bring him back tomorrow after ‘fasting’ him with nil by mouth over night to see if a blood test for sugar level reveals any anomaly.

Before redressing the wound, Dr Beer sprayed on a solution she recommended for use with this type of wound. It’s called “Nano Wound – First Aid Wound Care” and should ideally be sprayed 2 -3 times daily on an open wound. She added that a wound that typically might take 1 – 2 months to heal would heal within 2 – 3 weeks with application of this spray. Mmmm… Hello ‘vet Planet’ can we have some free samples please

Last up this week was Perry, the severely paralysed from the waste down little dog who had 2 broken & healed in the wrong position, back legs who gets around by dragging his body on his  immobile limbs causing flesh wounds.

Fred, one of our volunteers and translator for the Dutch website, fostered Perry this week and is concerned about the dogs poo & pee, in terms of it being constantly runny and without any control.

The vet did a stool test and that seemed to contain nothing unexpected but when ever we touched perry, like a plastic bag of water with a puncture hole, he leaked. With his penis constantly extended and the flesh in his groin area rubbed raw and probably inflamed by the urine, he is in a bit of a mess.

Equally Fred is concerned about the constant wounding occurring on Perry’s rear limbs from the dragging on hard surfaces and suggested we try to make Perry a ski , shoe or pad to allow him to move about on.

Well the veterinarian team demonstrated their artistic prowess and came up with something constructed from a plastic saline bottle and some bandaging all wrapped around some very special heat molded splint material but as perry moved about later, it was clear it hasn’t quite met his needs. But it’s nearly there.

After a break for lunch near the shelter, kh Nod returned from a blow dart outing in preparation for tomorrows Sterilisation run,  sucessfully catching 2 dogs at a temple for their operation tomorrow.

Also on the truck was Spot, the doggy with the tumor on the vet run last week having just come back from another trip to the vet. She is having trouble with her wound failing to knit back together and she is losing a lot of blood.

We are keeping her sedentary in a cage, in the dry and yet she is not healing. We are very concerned about her inability to recover.

Today the 5 dogs visiting the vet along with our new man at the shelter, kh Suriya were a typical bundle of joy, moaning, groaning and making a nervous mess for us domesticated animals to clean up.

First up on the table was Nuu Daeng who was rescued last week from one of the busy underpasses, locked into the 4 lane carriageway by high concrete borders, after she had been hit by a car and sustained a broken leg.

At the shelter during tehe week, we have kept her sedentary, bandaged and along with medication for the inflammation and healing, she has been wearing a ‘no-lick’ collar.

Silly me, I suggested for the short trip to the vet and in order to actually get her into a transportation cage, we could take the collar off for the ride. Wrong !

Looking at the completely striped open wound that Nuu Danaeng had exposed en route, I felt totally embarrassed at having made the mistake.

Anyway, the wound is healing, the stitches were removed and the leg redressed. Needless to say, she wore a borrowed collar for the journey back to the shelter.

Next up was Angie, who last week we discovered had a blockage in her left tear duct, this week was having problems eating, was a little lethargic and coughing.

The vet listened to her lungs and they rattled from the moisture there. A blood test revealed she is anemic as well, so we will need to see if the meds she is currently on make a difference to her pneumonia and pep her up with FBC.

Star, the victim of a crazed dog murderer at Wat Nong Pla Mun, who after killer her mother, beat her so hard 6 weeks ago, (read more here …) is still getting over her fractured Scapular.

In addition to now having a defined calcified ridge along the length of the repair, the loss of muscle and fat around the leg and shoulder are quite apparent.

She has started to use her front left, putting some weight on the leg but the vet recommended Star be massaged, exercised and encouraged to use the leg in order to build strength and overcome the wastage and atrophy.

Spot was next to be seen and the vet took a biopsy of the tumor sticking out the left side of her body. It turns out to be a Mass tumor cell, not Lymphoma or TvT and she can have it removed tomorrow.

Last but not least today was Magnum. The last time I brought him to the vet he ended up biting one of the staff. Today that girl wasn’t at work and when I asked why, Dr Beer told me something quite strange. Yesterday the girl was badly bitten by another dog and has been admitted to hospital for 3 days. Do do do do !

Anyway, Magnum was on his best behavior today and looking at his wounded foot was not a problem.

This guy lost 2 toes and part of one of his pads back in early January this year.

He has been cared for at the shelter for the last 7 months, wearing a ‘no-lick’ collar and having meds & wound dressing daily.

At last today, his wound has nicely healed and his foot need not be bandaged anymore but will wear his collar a little while longer, just in case.

For information, there is a bit of an update regarding a case last week, Sheena. After the Ultrasound showed an abnormality in the bladder last Monday, Sheena underwent minor surgery on the Tuesday to investigate what was going on. Was she unsterilised? Did she have a Cyst, Why the abnormal view of her bladder.

Well the great news is, that Sheena was indeed fully sterilised (3 years ago, we paid the vet !) but the abnormality lies within the bladder itself. It would seem from investigation, the wall of the bladder is thickening and also inflamed, therefore bleeding.

So the reason she is passing a little blood when peeing is from this. We have her on approriate medication and in 2 more weeks will know if we are making a difference.

In the cab of the truck today was a lovely little creature, Heidi who was apparently occasionally limping on a back leg. During the ride into town, she alternated her position between standing on my knee with her nose out of the window, to standing on the passenger seat staring at the road ahead. Why is this dog with us, why is she not in someone home? What a lovely dog.

At the vet clinic, Heidi was first to be seen and despite Dr Beer’s best attempts to find a dislocation, a luxation or any other type of bone, muscle or ligament issue, Heidi appeared in perfect health and showed no signs of having any reason to limp. I call this the ‘washing machine repair man syndrome’,it always works fine when they come to fix it!

Next up was Angie, who has started to show a constant tear stain on her left eye & cheek. The vet performed a tear test & both eyes are producing adequate tears, not excessive either and checked the eyes with ultra violet light.

This process requires the use of a fluorescent liquid which temporarily stains the cornea and allows ultra violet light to highlight any abnormalities on the eyes surface and also aid the view into the eye.

With the lights out and Dr Beer’s magical ultra violet pen torch, the cornea’s of both eyes looked fine but the end of her nose was very revealing. The right nostril had fluorescent fluid dripping from it and the left one was dry as a bone !

A blockage !

Dr Beer said this may be caused by the presence of something in the tear duct or that it has collapsed either from damage or from a defect. She went on to say that surgery was not recommended as the procedure was rarely successful.

Boon Long was next to be examined and much to everyone’s surprise, her Dermoid Cyst she had on her back a couple of months ago had disappeared completely.

Apparently they can come & go on their own without surgery, so a great saving there in terms of money and also in terms of appearance for this nice short coated doggie.

But the reason for her coming today, after her human companion called us, is to examine Boon Long’s right eye which has suddenly turned white and is looking quite different to the left one.

The vet made a thorough examination of the right eye and diagnosed that this eye was shrinking and in effect, dying. Dr Beer suggested that as a direct result of the eye previously being ulcerated, despite the application of drops regularly (thanks Soraya), the eye has essentially stopped functioning and given up performing.

Boon Long would now be blind in her right eye and what we see of her eye today, will shrink even further until only red coloured flesh is seen in the eye socket.

Good job she has a good left one !

So that was a leg and a pair of eyes and nose, the next case was another nose.

3 months ago, we treated Lucky for suspected E-Canis after we had successfully made a big impact on his Mange.

He is now living at his shop forecourt near Ban Wang Tarn where previously he had been scaring other dogs and shoppers away from the shop, as he look and looked so menacing with bloody wounds and a neglected appearance and a demanding attitude trying to get some attention. Food mainly.

But since returning to his home the last time, he has been seen more favourably by customers and the shopkeeper alike, as he is now more sociable after a stay at the Care for Dogs shelter and less demanding. Maybe he feels accepted into the family there as they showed him they cared.

Anyway, today Dr Beer made a swab test of the blood coming from Lucky’s nostril, his right one. We could clearly hear his laboured breathing, more like a gurgling snuffle than a breath. Dr Beer then pointed out another interesting observation. She said that if blood came down 2 nostrils, it was more likely to be E-Canis or a blood parasite, weakening the blood and causing for it to seep out of the tiny blood vessels in the nose.

But if the blood merely came from one nostril, then it was highly likely to be a sign of TvT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor).

The last time Lucky needed medicine, the family in the shop where he stays kindly made sure he got the vital tablets inside him daily so to give him oral meds at home would be no problem but for TvT, the treatment is weekly intravenous injections for a course of 4 – 8 weeks, until no TvT cells are seen in microscope tests.

So Lucky will re-visit his old pals at the shelter and take a short break from laying in the road outside the shop he calls home.

On the last couple of vet trips, we had ascertained that Sheena was constipated and needed to clear her bowel in order to ease her ability to pee and hopefully without blood in her urine.

Today with the aid of Ultrasound, a further anomaly inside was revealed.

3 years ago, Sheena was sterilised. Typically female dogs are sterilised by removing the ovaries, the horns and the uterine body (it’s wonderful to be able to read !) .

I found these couple of links interesting to read, try expanding the colour photo of the feline uterus in the wiki link on the right hand side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutering
http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/spaying-procedure.html

Anyway, Sheena it would seem has a slightly abnormal appearance to her bladder, when seen on the Ultrasound screen and Dr Beer & her boss, Dr Manachart believe this could be an anomaly at the base of the Uterine body, that they suspect was not fully removed during an operation 3 years ago. They didn’t do the original op, so they are obviously unguarded about this.

The official diagnosis of the condition they believe she has is Pyometra.

This is a real worry for a girl who has been through what she has, Mange, Sterilisation, Lymphoma we do hope she doesn’t have Pyometra.

And to close this week’s vet trip, here is a photo that will warm the hearts of any volunteer that has enjoyed lunch at the local petrol pump. A view across the burbling brook and the turn to the Care for Dogs shelter .