17 AUG 2014 - On my Saturday morning rounds to the temples I had an interesting encounter with one of the local villagers. A ceremony was taking place today at Wat Pa Tiew and the women as usual were busy preparing food for the event. While I was checking on the dogs and cats a woman approached me and asked if I could please come to her home and look at her dog. The funny thing was she called my by my name Joy. Now how did she know that??? This is a common occurrence for me when I do my temple rounds. Villagers assume I am a doctor of sorts and a free one at that! I do the best I can to help these folks on a limited basis explaining that I have limited funds needed specifically for temple dogs, zippo extra time and I AM NOT a vet:-) They just smile and say Mai pen rai (No problem for them) - can I still come! LOL. I often hesitate to go to a villagers home blindly as I have had some horrendous cases face me once I reach their home from a dog in seizures from distemper, to 8 tiny sick puppies infested with fleas, to a mama dog that had no milk for her new born pups, to a poodle in bad need of grooming as you couldnt even recognise it was a poodle. The cases go on and on. I tried to worm my way out of this one as I had very limited time on my hands today with 6 more temples needing to be visited. I was slowly surrounded by other intrigued villagers all pleading with me to help her and it was just 5 minutes away, as they slowly brought her motorcycle around - What more can I say - I hopped on and off we went! And this is what greeted me....wee little Nuan. The owner said she was afraid to go to the vet as she started to shake and also did not have a lot of money. From my small inspection I saw that Nuan was suffering from an ulcer on her eye in which I took photos to show Dr. Pat, she was very thin, so gave her 3 weeks of doxicycline and a de-worm pill, and she had sores on her back which I bathed and cleaned with antibiotic spray. This was either mange or an allergic reaction to ticks and fleas, so I injected her with Ivomec - an anti-parasite. Later that day I brought my photos and conferred with Dr. Pat and she said yes, that was the best I could prescribe if the owner did not want to bring the dog in for an exam. She gave me some Tobrimycine eye drops for her eye ulcer as well. I will pop in on little Nuan every week for a couple of weeks to see if she improves. If not I will take her myself to see Dr. Pat. The owners really, really love their pets and I see this so many time in Thailand that the cost of a vet is just out of their reach. They are truly grateful for any little thing I can do for them. Fingers crossed I got it right with little Nuan.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:42:37 +0000
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