In the cab of the truck today was a lovely little creature, Heidi who was apparently occasionally limping on a back leg. During the ride into town, she alternated her position between standing on my knee with her nose out of the window, to standing on the passenger seat staring at the road ahead. Why is this dog with us, why is she not in someone home? What a lovely dog.

At the vet clinic, Heidi was first to be seen and despite Dr Beer’s best attempts to find a dislocation, a luxation or any other type of bone, muscle or ligament issue, Heidi appeared in perfect health and showed no signs of having any reason to limp. I call this the ‘washing machine repair man syndrome’,it always works fine when they come to fix it!

Next up was Angie, who has started to show a constant tear stain on her left eye & cheek. The vet performed a tear test & both eyes are producing adequate tears, not excessive either and checked the eyes with ultra violet light.

This process requires the use of a fluorescent liquid which temporarily stains the cornea and allows ultra violet light to highlight any abnormalities on the eyes surface and also aid the view into the eye.

With the lights out and Dr Beer’s magical ultra violet pen torch, the cornea’s of both eyes looked fine but the end of her nose was very revealing. The right nostril had fluorescent fluid dripping from it and the left one was dry as a bone !

A blockage !

Dr Beer said this may be caused by the presence of something in the tear duct or that it has collapsed either from damage or from a defect. She went on to say that surgery was not recommended as the procedure was rarely successful.

Boon Long was next to be examined and much to everyone’s surprise, her Dermoid Cyst she had on her back a couple of months ago had disappeared completely.

Apparently they can come & go on their own without surgery, so a great saving there in terms of money and also in terms of appearance for this nice short coated doggie.

But the reason for her coming today, after her human companion called us, is to examine Boon Long’s right eye which has suddenly turned white and is looking quite different to the left one.

The vet made a thorough examination of the right eye and diagnosed that this eye was shrinking and in effect, dying. Dr Beer suggested that as a direct result of the eye previously being ulcerated, despite the application of drops regularly (thanks Soraya), the eye has essentially stopped functioning and given up performing.

Boon Long would now be blind in her right eye and what we see of her eye today, will shrink even further until only red coloured flesh is seen in the eye socket.

Good job she has a good left one !

So that was a leg and a pair of eyes and nose, the next case was another nose.

3 months ago, we treated Lucky for suspected E-Canis after we had successfully made a big impact on his Mange.

He is now living at his shop forecourt near Ban Wang Tarn where previously he had been scaring other dogs and shoppers away from the shop, as he look and looked so menacing with bloody wounds and a neglected appearance and a demanding attitude trying to get some attention. Food mainly.

But since returning to his home the last time, he has been seen more favourably by customers and the shopkeeper alike, as he is now more sociable after a stay at the Care for Dogs shelter and less demanding. Maybe he feels accepted into the family there as they showed him they cared.

Anyway, today Dr Beer made a swab test of the blood coming from Lucky’s nostril, his right one. We could clearly hear his laboured breathing, more like a gurgling snuffle than a breath. Dr Beer then pointed out another interesting observation. She said that if blood came down 2 nostrils, it was more likely to be E-Canis or a blood parasite, weakening the blood and causing for it to seep out of the tiny blood vessels in the nose.

But if the blood merely came from one nostril, then it was highly likely to be a sign of TvT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor).

The last time Lucky needed medicine, the family in the shop where he stays kindly made sure he got the vital tablets inside him daily so to give him oral meds at home would be no problem but for TvT, the treatment is weekly intravenous injections for a course of 4 – 8 weeks, until no TvT cells are seen in microscope tests.

So Lucky will re-visit his old pals at the shelter and take a short break from laying in the road outside the shop he calls home.

On the last couple of vet trips, we had ascertained that Sheena was constipated and needed to clear her bowel in order to ease her ability to pee and hopefully without blood in her urine.

Today with the aid of Ultrasound, a further anomaly inside was revealed.

3 years ago, Sheena was sterilised. Typically female dogs are sterilised by removing the ovaries, the horns and the uterine body (it’s wonderful to be able to read !) .

I found these couple of links interesting to read, try expanding the colour photo of the feline uterus in the wiki link on the right hand side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutering
http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/spaying-procedure.html

Anyway, Sheena it would seem has a slightly abnormal appearance to her bladder, when seen on the Ultrasound screen and Dr Beer & her boss, Dr Manachart believe this could be an anomaly at the base of the Uterine body, that they suspect was not fully removed during an operation 3 years ago. They didn’t do the original op, so they are obviously unguarded about this.

The official diagnosis of the condition they believe she has is Pyometra.

This is a real worry for a girl who has been through what she has, Mange, Sterilisation, Lymphoma we do hope she doesn’t have Pyometra.

And to close this week’s vet trip, here is a photo that will warm the hearts of any volunteer that has enjoyed lunch at the local petrol pump. A view across the burbling brook and the turn to the Care for Dogs shelter .