Literally !

This week we have taken in 2 new cases of TvT, one from a family in Mae Jo who adore their doggy called ‘Shorty’ and apparently only speaks English! and the other case was taken in from a street not far from Nong Hoi where she had been roaming the streets for years with a terrible tumor on her vulva.

Last Friday we returned 2 pups to where they had come from and in return, we collected Shorty. The family were distraught when we mentioned money and despite being quite poor, they agreed to pay for the treatment we could give Shorty over the next couple of months.

Later that day, Kh Thanida accompanied me on her first rescue as we ventured to a market near Katchou, Mae Rim to pick up a dog who had previously been successfully treated for TvT earlier this year, as she had started to show signs of pain when touched by people who feed & care for her at the market.

Before we reached the market, we saw a couple of poodle / terrier mixes hanging out under a plastic sheet, conveniently strapped between trees providing them some shelter. The local Somtum lady said she had erected the makeshift shelter a couple of days ago after the 2 dogs had been dumped there & seemed to be just waiting, waiting for whoever dumped them to return.

Their coats were matted and they were extremely weary of humans and acting very nervous. These dogs had not been family dogs, they had been kept in cages or confined, now out loose, had no idea of what to do. No sense of adventure, no interest in leaving their small patch of earth and … just waiting.

It was quite easy to catch one of them but the second dog needed a blow dart and sadly eventually ended up falling into the small canal before being captured.

Aeb, that’s the lovely girl from the market, was later diagnosed as suffering with Hepatazoon, a blood parasite that makes the dog sensitive to touch besides disabling the dog in the longer term. We are now treating her at the shelter.

Then yesterday, Thanida & Tdom, responded to a call to help a dog that was apparently thrown from a moving car and was now suffering in a bad way, not able to move his back legs and in pain. They rushed him to the vet and after a thorough examination and a serious discussion, he was peacefully released from his misery.

But whilst attending to the rescue, they were shown another dog in the same area who was living rough on the streets and carried a massive open flesh tumor on her vulva which as we know is the terrible affliction of TvT.

Unable to catch her yesterday, today we returned with a blow dart and successfully captured her …

That is after a lot of walking around trying to get her in the right spot & without losing sight of her.

She is now at the shelter with another 10 cases of TvT that we have currently in treatment and she will start her chemotherapy tomorrow and hopefully in a couple of months when the Vincristine has killed the tumor, she will return to her street life, the place she calls home.

Care for Dogs has been treating TvT cases for over 3 years. On average we have 10 cases living in our TvT enclosure for their course of treatment, weekly injections with Vincristine administered by a trained veterinarian.

The cost of this treatment is very expensive and although we manage to reduce costs by purchasing bulk supplies of this powerful medicine, the overall cost of treating so many dogs with this condition greatly impacts on our budget but the value is justified, these dogs would otherwise continue to spread their contaminated blood and eventually die through loss of blood, infection and being consumed by an extremely invasive tissue destroying tumor.

Many of our TvT patients are from streets, temples & car parks, homeless. They don’t have a family to care for them and we are their only hope of rescue.

If you know of any dog suffering with this condition, contact your local vet, do something to curb the spread of TvT and help us to help the dogs. If you would like to help us directly with treatment of a dog, please get in touch by phone or email.

Have you thought of sponsoring dogs through our on-line store ?