**UPDATE – Lucky is now much improved & we are waiting for the store owner to return from a holiday after which we will return Lucky to his favoured spot! **

At the beginning of February, we were contacted by a friend of Care for Dogs, who was becoming increasingly concerned about the health & welfare of a dog that was living outside the shop she regularly visited near her home.

We met the shop owner and he told us a story about this dog, they had named Lucky, who had come along and declared their store front, his own territory.

The store owner, explained how his own dogs seemed to get on ok with Lucky most of the time but that he was becoming very aggressive to any other dogs that wanted to invade his piece of concrete and was becoming a nuisance with neighbours who also had dogs. More over, Lucky was being seen as a health risk to shoppers and family dogs alike.

Sadly we have no facial picture of Lucky when we first met him, he was camera shy but we have his rear profile !At that time, being an angry & defensive homeless guy, he was not approachable.

His skin condition was poor, the dry, hairless, bare skin bleeding in places and looking very inflamed from constant scratching. There was no hair on his face at all.

We arranged to take Lucky to the vet and get him diagnosed and indeed it was confirmed he was suffering with Dermodec Mange.

Initially we thought Lucky would go to the shelter for treatment, as neighbouring dog ‘lovers’ were threatening poisoning and the shop keeper was keen to improve his customers perception of his store. He repeatedly emphasised that business was poor already, without a bloody angry dog sitting on the shop forecourt.

But then disaster. News from the shelter was that a couple of rescued puppies had come to the shelter with Parvo-Virus and if we were to take Lucky into the shelter, without having been previously vaccinated, he too could contract Parvo and this could kill him.

So, Lucky was kindly treated on his bit of concrete and given Ivomec to kill the bacteria in tasty prepared food along with Cefalexine, an antibiotic to combat the infection and prednisilone to reduce the itching.

However, after just a week of treatment, the folks looking after him, contacted us to say that although Lucky was looking better already, he had blood coming from his nose.

Alarm bells ringing, was it poisoning, was he suffering from ill treatment, he needed to see the vet asap.

Lucky was now very approachable and would even offer his paw up to greet you. His eyes were brighter and very communicative. His skin in general looked less inflamed and the open sores were now dry.

But as he slept, blood could be seen dripping from his nose, when he was awake, it sometimes dripped where he stood.

The vet said there were 3 possible causes of this development, first that he had a tumor, secondly that he had contracted Cryptococcus (a fungal disease) or thirdly, E-Canis (Ehrlichiosis).

The vet discussed the first 2 a little and as no tumor could be seen and she couldn’t be sure about how to pin-point the presence of the fungus, she tended to think it could be E-Canis.

Now the vet said we had a choice. We could spend 800 baht and run a ‘SnapTest’ to show if this was E-Canis or not, or we could start treatment with Doxycycline right away, hoping that this was indeed E-Canis. If it wasn’t, we would have spent 800 baht (the cost of one sterilisation operation for a dog) and not knowing what it was that caused the haemorrhage, she would in any case prescribe Doxycycline.

Another demonstration of the daily dilemmas facing Care for Dogs, ‘how to spend the resources wisely’.

Lucky is now at the shelter, making new friends and hanging around with others that have had similar experiences. His coat will grow back, signs are already that his bleeding has stopped and even better, news from his patch of concrete, is that he is sorely missed and they are looking forwards to his healthy return.

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