Wednesdays are always busy at the shelter and today was no exception. We have a schedule to keep to, as this is when we have a vet on site to help us treat all our TvT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor) cases and also check out any other cases of ill health that we need assistance in diagnosing, during Dr Tarn’s visit, making the most of her time on site.

Today we had 7 dogs in the TvT queue and then another 9 for assessment for various complaints ranging from Mange tests, wound assessments to looking at a dog who was in such a bad way that we were considering putting to sleep.

Muan was the new girl in for TvT from the Royal Flora Project, thankfully spotted by a dog caring cleaning lady at the gardens who had seen Muan’s vulva and the tumor growing on it & called us to treat the dog.

We shall be injecting Muan every week for approximately 8 weeks and the tumor will die and hopefully if she is strong enough (and there is no reason to doubt she isn’t) she will return to Royal Flora to live a long & happy life in a couple of months but will in the meantime have to be kept in the TvT enclosure away from the reaches of other dogs at the shelter, in case they contract the infected blood.

Some of the other TvT patients are nearing the end of their treatment with their tumors almost cured.

Most TvT cases come from homeless environments but some come from family homes and their stay at the shelter for this treatment can be a little depressing.

Whilst Dr Tarn was with us, a dog caring lady brought 2 dogs she looks after to the shelter for examination and thankfully the lady, Kh Noi, was able to assist us by rushing another case to a hospital for emergency treatment, as our vehicle was already out on the road busy with another dog rescue.

The dog Kh Noi transported was Hana, a small brown poodle who had come to the shelter the day before for observations after being hit by a car and the vets were concerned about her ability to urinate or not.

As it turned out, Dr Tarn’s action with Kh Noi’s assistance hopefully saved this girls life but 24 hours later, her life still hangs in the balance after one of her kidneys was removed as it had ruptured, her other kidney may well be ruptured too and she is possibly fighting for her life with toxic waste entering her abdomen but the hospital are trying their best to save her.

But sadly, during Dr Tarns visit, just as we were to assess a dog that had come to us from a road accident a few days ago & had not eaten anything or been able to move their rear legs, let alone excrete, died peacefully and with dignity curled up in one of our enclosures.

Thankfully, the people who rescued this dear girl removed her from a busy road environment and the prospect of being run over & squashed to death let alone set on by another angry or hungry animal.

RIP Muu Ton, you had suffered enough. We believed it was time for her to go but in the end, she made the decision herself.

Whilst in Muu Ton’s enclosure, we checked out a few of the other faces there. They are coping well with their predicaments, paralysed or dealing with Heartworm or Mange, they get along together and we do care for them.

Next it was off to the smaller bodied folks in another enclosure, E3. Here there are some newly rescued black pups, a girl threatened with slaughter as she chased her neighbours chickens and a girl who some dear people rescued from a roadside, getting over a terrible chain / collar wound and also very pregnant.

After the chaos of the morning had settled but too late for Dr Tarn’s assessment, a new case arrived with a large external growth under her belly and looking very dirty but quite gentle in temperament.

We will investigate her condition and do what we can to help her. We will start with a good shower and some precautionary vaccinations.

To bring real cheer to the day was a happy adoption of 2 pups we had previously taken from the car park of the Dara Dhevi Resort, sparing them from joining the ranks of homeless dogs living on scraps tossed to them by staff at the hotel.

The new family they join gave us a good feeling, especially as the pups will grow up with a home environment and accompany the guys at work in the flower market business too.

Great rewards like this thankfully bring a balance to the sadness.

So with all the ups & downs of the day, with so many phone calls, spontaneous incidents occurring between dogs & humans at the shelter, dogs showered, poo collected and medicines administered, it was time to do a spot of house keeping.

This photo of transport cages shows most of our current collection, with the exception of a couple of other plastic or wooden boxes and some that were in use at the time.

The 4 on the left have doors and can actually securely transport a dog! But as all doggy people know, dogs like to chew & often they have an aversion to being caged (and why shouldn’t they !!). So the net result is that we have cages that are damaged and unserviceable. Often the doors get ripped off and shredded. Other times its the entire side of a cage that has been squeezed by the desperate jaws of a fighting machine, hell bent on destruction & escape.

These cages cost money to buy, approximately 800 baht (the same cost of 1 dog sterilisation) and as money is hard to come by and we don’t throw money away, tomorrow we shall visit a pet care supplier and find out if we can order new doors or sides for the 7 useless cages.

But to end the day, it’s great to see a dog on top of the world !! Tim-Tim showing his prowess at climbing… anything!

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