Anyone who has been near an Alsatian dog will know what I am talking about when I say “Big Dog” and indeed, if you have sat next to an Alsatian whist driving a car, you will know exactly what I am saying.

Having a big dog like Freedom around needs a sense of humor and bigger transportation cages than we can afford and a bigger cargo area on the truck if we had those bigger cages, for all the others to fit.

The vet trip this week saw 7 dogs travel to the city in the truck, so Freedom came in the passenger area with me & Noi Na, a sweet little creature with a profusion of warts developing in her mouth right now, who chose to hide from Freedom, by laying across my back with her head tucked into my shoulder bag near the door.

Yes I was driving like this and on top of a big dog foot on my leg, a head and occasionally a bum & a tail in my face, the most troubling thing was the increasing amount of moisture I could feel dripping down my back and also out of my bag.

I would like to tell you now, Noi Na wasn’t sick but the moisture was the hyper salivation from the stress of the journey, made worse by the presence of the big dog on the seat beside us.

At the vet it was a great relief all round to get out of the cab and find some individual space in the clinic.

Noi Na was first to be seen, regarding her warts. Previously, we have treated dogs suffering with the papilloma virus that causes warts using a medicine that seemed to make no difference to Noi Na’s growths.

Dr Beer today suggested that there are many types of wart and these are possibly different to the other types we have successfully seen treated.

She therefore suggested surgery to remove them, about 10 – 12 from the lining of Noi Na’s mouth.

So tomorrow she will undergo minor surgery.

The big fella Freedom was next to be seen. I say ‘seen’ but how could you miss him? He is huge in a room with a vet, 2 assistants, the table, 2 chairs and my camera. Anyway, he is getting his skin problem back again, that makes him itch like crazy. His skin feels a bit waxy and the smell is quite distinct but because we don’t have a fluorescent ‘disco’ blue light at the shelter, we depend on Dr Beer to have a look at his coat with the lights out.

Indeed the self diagnosis we could make at the shelter was confirmed, he needs medicine to treat his fungus and this will need daily treatment for at least 6 weeks & more likely longer. But his itching will stop fairly soon when he starts on antihistamine.

Dusty the scruffy little girl with a wound to her head & ear a few weeks ago, is today looking a little better and now we can see that besides her left ear being a little painful as it is still in recovery, she has inrolling eyelids, otherwise known as “Entropion”, which will need a minor operation to make them curl out and stop her from constantly having watery eyes.

Tduk Tdik came along again today, a local village dog, who has a mammary tumor.

She came a few weeks ago and the vet said that it could be operated but only if it gets bigger.

Well through the snarls and growls & grumpiness, we finally managed to get her on her back and to look seriously at the growth.

In the photo it is the lump that resembles a males genitals, the lumpy knurled bit of raised flesh. Yes it was bigger and Dr Beer recommended an operation the following day.

Noi is a new casualty on the trip today, she needed a skin scrap to ascertain the definite condition and indeed she has Dermodec Mange which we will treat over the next couple of months with Ivomec, along with antihistamine, antibioitics and have her wear a collar to stop her scratching herself as in addition to the skin condition, she is giving herself an eye condition too !

From the constant scratching, she has irritated her eyes and now she has Corneal Ulcers which will need drops every day for at least a few weeks to reduce the irritation and allow them to heal.

She is also a local village dog and as we cannot guarantee that the treatment plan will be adhered to, she will stay at the shelter initially to ensure she gets the vital meds she needs.

Last week, Magnum came to the clinic to have an assessment on his foot. He had come to the shelter in January 2009 with a toe missing and a pad injury. Since then he has been wearing a collar, having his wounds dressed and as & when, he would receive antibiotics.

A few weeks ago, his wound got better, the vet said leave off the bandage. The wound deteriorated. With bandage back on, the wound got better again. Last week, the vet suggested that oxygen would help it and with the bandage off again, the wound opened up!

Dr Beer said Magnum had an abnormal healing quality and this was stopping the healing process.

So to take a different approach, Dr Beer suggested a glucose (diabetes) test and we will bring him back tomorrow after ‘fasting’ him with nil by mouth over night to see if a blood test for sugar level reveals any anomaly.

Before redressing the wound, Dr Beer sprayed on a solution she recommended for use with this type of wound. It’s called “Nano Wound – First Aid Wound Care” and should ideally be sprayed 2 -3 times daily on an open wound. She added that a wound that typically might take 1 – 2 months to heal would heal within 2 – 3 weeks with application of this spray. Mmmm… Hello ‘vet Planet’ can we have some free samples please

Last up this week was Perry, the severely paralysed from the waste down little dog who had 2 broken & healed in the wrong position, back legs who gets around by dragging his body on his  immobile limbs causing flesh wounds.

Fred, one of our volunteers and translator for the Dutch website, fostered Perry this week and is concerned about the dogs poo & pee, in terms of it being constantly runny and without any control.

The vet did a stool test and that seemed to contain nothing unexpected but when ever we touched perry, like a plastic bag of water with a puncture hole, he leaked. With his penis constantly extended and the flesh in his groin area rubbed raw and probably inflamed by the urine, he is in a bit of a mess.

Equally Fred is concerned about the constant wounding occurring on Perry’s rear limbs from the dragging on hard surfaces and suggested we try to make Perry a ski , shoe or pad to allow him to move about on.

Well the veterinarian team demonstrated their artistic prowess and came up with something constructed from a plastic saline bottle and some bandaging all wrapped around some very special heat molded splint material but as perry moved about later, it was clear it hasn’t quite met his needs. But it’s nearly there.

After a break for lunch near the shelter, kh Nod returned from a blow dart outing in preparation for tomorrows Sterilisation run,  sucessfully catching 2 dogs at a temple for their operation tomorrow.

Also on the truck was Spot, the doggy with the tumor on the vet run last week having just come back from another trip to the vet. She is having trouble with her wound failing to knit back together and she is losing a lot of blood.

We are keeping her sedentary in a cage, in the dry and yet she is not healing. We are very concerned about her inability to recover.