The purpose of this article is to raise readers awareness of some of the work that Care for Dogs is involved in, apart from Sterilisation, Adoption and caring for sick or wounded dogs at the shelter in Hang Dong, Chiang Mai Thailand.

Care for Dogs has for a long time been routinely treating both male and female dogs in Chiang Mai for a very serious and highly contagious condition known as Transmissible Venereal Tumor.

This disease appears to know no bounds and will invade the entire body of the dog and take over (as is the want of cancerous cells) the entire bodies cell regeneration.

TvT as we refer to it, is probably more common than you may realise. Currently we are treating 12 dogs on a weekly basis and for over a year now, the weekly treatment patient list has been between 5 and 8.

The treatment is fairly simple. Vinchristine is a chemotherapy medication that is sold over the counter to Care for Dogs. The overall cost of treatment is not cheap but it works out cheaper if we buy direct and pay a vet to inject the liquid intravenously.

In terms of numbers of injections, this could range from between 4 for a small or early stage case to 8 – 10 for an advanced condition and sadly we have also needed to treat some dogs with even more injections than 12.

The duration of this course of treatment depends upon the severity of the condition at first treatment (some dogs have suffered this condition for more than a year without treatment) and the dogs ability to deal with the healing process.

To conclude the course, we ensure the dog has no TvT cells present in a smear test which the vet performs when no cancerous nodules are seen / pupated.

The effect on the kidney & liver functions is a critical issue and we commence treatment only if the tests of the patients blood show they are able to cope with the chemotherapy. If we register any deterioration during treatment, then we will pause the treatment and attend to the symptoms as best we can.

Dogs that suffer with this awful condition pass it on to one another very easily. Either via intercourse or contact with the blood, a dog can easily contract it and pass it on to all those that are in their vicinity. Our experience is that when you see one dog with a TvT tumor, you will no doubt see more in that same area and to believe this condition is only seen in homeless dogs would be naive, as many of our cases come from family dogs.

And how do we pay for this treatment? Through donations made by individuals who are confident that sponsoring of our activities will directly improve the health conditions of dogs (and Cats) in Thailand.

You can read about some of the TvT cases we deal here …

**WARNING** However, if you are seriously interested in this subject and have a strong stomach and are not easily offended by the sight of raw flesh, you can see some examples of this horrific condition here …

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