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!