First of all a slight apology to readers about this weekly synopsis of my Monday vet run, my ‘Hands-on’ contribution to Care for Dogs, because it might be getting slightly boring, with the same names, same faces and same stories appearing each Monday.

Some of the other volunteers do write and are capably telling their stories but the reality is that so much work is performed by the silent majority and what you read on this site is just the tip of the ice berg.

I try to encourage other volunteers to write about their experiences with Care for Dogs for this website and I acknowledge they are all very busy and therefore some find it hard to contribute. I would ask you the reader to appreciate that too.

There is so much work going on every day, to list a few examples:

• Vet runs for medical assessment
• Sterilisation runs
• Wound dressing at the shelter
• Feeding
• TvT runs
• Catching dogs that are needing to be sterilised or treated for their particular condition, Pyometra, TvT, Mange or other disease or condition
• Transportation from homes and temples to the shelter & then off to the vet and then back again
• Bathing & Grooming (Including Ears!)
• Cuddling
• Talking or just sitting with the dogs and puppies at the shelter

That said, I think I have covered some of the activities but again, just the tip of that iceberg.

So now I have brightened up this otherwise brief and rather sad update, today’s trip to the vet was not really different from last week!

Max was along for his ears, slightly improved but not likely to ever be totally clear of fungal infection. The vet said today that his chronic ear condition would be with him for life. Tara (Tear’a or Terra as she is also known for good reason) had her eyes checked and it seems the current treatment regime is working wonders, the corneal ulcers are dissipating and what was last week all red & inflamed, is this week looking pink and healthier.

But today’s 3rd doggy is Ringo, pictured above being carried after a recent vet trip is the dog found wandering near Chiang Mai University, amazingly putting one foot in front of the other, despite having no energy or apparent zest for living and looking like he wanted to just give up and die. Ringo was spotted by Fred, one of the Care for Dogs volunteers and received immediate treatment. Ringo was diagnosed with poor blood health and possible renal complications and Fred is personally sponsoring the ongoing treatment.

Ringo is confined to a spacious cage in a quiet area of the shelter and is on a drip of saline 24 x 7. He visits the vet every other day, to receive a course of intravenous injections and tablets. Today, after the vet successfully administered the medicines, Ringo got back in his cage he was today sharing with Max and promptly sprayed a 360 arc around him with black and extremely smelly diarrhea, about which Max was not too pleased. (Gave him something to moan about I guess). Poor Ringo.

Ringo’s future is not looking bright. He has been on this treatment for 3 weeks already and this week we will need to seriously assess what needs to be done next for his own quality of life.