Yeung lives at the Government School, right next to the 700 year stadium on the canal road in Chiang Mai.

A year ago we are told, he got into a scrap with another dog and ended up losing a claw from his front left foot and since then has become smelly, unable to be touched let alone caught. The teachers at the school contacted Care for Dogs hoping that we could help Yeung and as we realise now, help them, by taking away the smell (his coat) from their corridors where he chose to live.

At the school we were met by Kh Wikrat & Kh Sukit who were able to show us the dog and also hand us a donation towards the treatment of Yeung. After a little observation, it was clear we would need to tranquilise Yeung in order to catch him. It was Saturday so there were no school children, otherwise this operation would have been quite different, with youngsters running and screaming around this smelly dog and doggy people with a loaded blow dart pipe.

Once darted, it wasn’t long before Yeung found a quiet spot to fall peacefully asleep. We gently lifted his limp and extremely light body into the car and drove with the windows fully open to the veterinary clinic for assessment.

On arrival it became very clear as to the origin of the smell. He had indeed lost a claw but (please be warned about the next bit of text which might offend some readers), maggots were eating his infected foot and instead of having pads and flesh, he only had skin and bones. His neck was also badly infected as well as his gums. It took the veterinarian staff about an hour to shave all his hair off and clean up the wounds before being able to assess any other issues that might be lurking below the surface. Blood tests showed he was low on red and high on white blood cell counts but obviously his wounds and infections were a major threat to his life.

A heavy course of antibiotics, and painkillers was prescribed and his neck and foot bandaged. We will need to see how he gets on back at the Care for Dogs Rescue Centre in Hang Dong.

I am aware that posts from me can sometimes be depressing or just too detailed. I make no personal apology for writing about the reality of working with dogs but I do stress that the happy and bright experiences often out weigh the dark and scary ones.

View location of the School using Google Maps here …