We had a couple of rescue cases flowing in these few days, of which two are female strays who unfortunately contracted Transmissible Venereal Tumour (TVT in short – http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/112500.htm)
and Kenny who has a broken left front paw.
Generally, our cases at the vet clinic go by numbers for each animal we send in. We are fully aware it hurts not to even have an identity, but we have to practically trap, neuter and return. Ask around and you will realize that if not all, most of the local shelters are already brimming full. And in other countries, the situation is just the same. A rescuer can always choose to board the first couple of cases that comes along, but how about the rest that follows? This serves as a stark reminder and is one of the core pushing factors for Project Industrial Dogs (PID) which has been on-going over the years – to prevent unnecessary reproduction and to curb the stray population humanely.
Tri-coloured girl: We only have a faraway shot of her as she was supposed to be released after recuperating from her sterilization operation. She would never let anyone go near her and it was only after much difficulty that we finally managed to trap her. She was on heat at that point of time thus we assumed it was normal for her vulva to be reddish and swollen. However, the vet advised she was in the early stages of TVT, and we were only too glad we caught her early to render treatment to her. She is estimated to need about 3-4 vincristine jabs each a week apart for treatment. TVT is most commonly passed through mating but can also be spread through other contact like sniffing. This is only one of the many conditions that unspayed females may suffer from, and there is unfortunately no way to stop the males who do get infected too.
Ah Girl: Her feeder B (who also feeds the tri-coloured girl
above) is an elderly uncle who goes on his feeding rounds on a motorbike. B had
a leg surgery recently and when we met up with him, he was still limping
slightly but being worried about the dogs, B still went on his rounds as usual.
B is a compassionate feeder who is willing to unconditionally use his earnings
to treat the street dogs. We are trying to lighten B’s burden for the two girls
so that he can continue to help other street dogs as well.
Ah Girl has a more severe case of TVT as you can see from
the picture below. On top of that, she also has demodex mange. Her sparse fur
and crusty skin makes her look much older than her age and even scary to some
people. However, this is all superficial. Ah Girl is actually very friendly and
we know she is a beautiful girl who we will try to nurse back to health the
best we can. Ah Girl is estimated to require about 6-8 vincristine jabs also
each a week apart, and we will update on her recovery progress from time to
time.
Kenny: A name we just gave to this black and tan boy, who unfortunately has lost the use of his left front paw. We spotted Kenny late one night near our usual feeding route and he was hobbling about on three legs. We asked around the factories over the weekend and located where he stayed. The factory employees told us Kenny was sleeping under a forklift when the forklift driver unfortunately did not see him and went over his left front paw. When I mentioned this to the vet staff, they said it was in line with his injury as his nails were already forcefully embedded in his paw. The factory employees did try to self-treat him by using a splint to immobilize the injured leg and the leg did heal a little but with his running about plus the filthy environment, the wound opened up again and got infected.
Over at the vet clinic, the vet advised that Kenny did not seem to feel anything on his left front paw any longer. Thus, we made the decision to fix a date for the amputation instead of him dragging his paw around which potentially will lead to an infected wound again. Kenny’s blood test turned out fine though his white blood count was a bit on the high side probably due to the infection. They had to wash his infected paw more than thrice before attempting to clean up the wound. When we visited him, his paw was all bandaged up nicely and of course we were not going to undress his wound just for the sake of taking pictures! The vet staff will kindly give him a bath before his surgery day, and we are sure everything will go well for Kenny.
We kindly seek your help in helping us fund their medical bills, but for sure the three of them are already undergoing treatment regardless of what might follow. To contribute in any way you can, please email to noahsarkcares@gmail.com. Any amount will be appreciated and if you can help foster, we will be most grateful. Thank you!
