I first came to Sangklaburi in Thailand to work in a
refugee camp in 2003. I taught English here for ten months in various different
organizations including Baan Unrak Children’s home. I particularly loved
working there as I felt that the people there were more like me. I am a devout
vegetarian and their belief is in helping animals and people alike and bringing
the children up on a wholesome vegetarian diet. At the time, they had had a
donation from The Humane Society of
I
got to know the dogs and when the money was finished, I continued feeding them. Tigerlily, my first dog, came from a street dog I was feeding. She was found at the side of the road and
brought to Baan Unrak. She was very weak and could not walk. We nursed her back
to health with the little knowledge that we had.
As I was feeding street dogs,
I soon became known as Farang Ma (the dog foreigner) and people started
bringing sick dogs to me. I learnt more and more each time from various sources
about how to treat them and before I knew what was happening, I had an
unofficial dogs home at a Baan Unrak volunteer house and I was the local,
unqualified, ‘vet’ the nearest real vet being four hours away by car.
As my dogs
home grew, the house we were living in became impractical and the local guest
house started to complain about the dogs.
I arranged with
Now I have 15 permanent four-legged house mates and a daily trail of sick animals.
For the last 2 months, I have been very lucky to have two
wonderful vet volunteers.
Sophie and Julian are husband and wife and
have been so supportive in such adverse conditions. I planned to do a
neutering project during their stay, but could no longer find a cheap
anesthetic drug on the Thai market. Instead of neutering 200 dogs, we were only
able to do about 60, due to costs.
In spite of this, Sophie and Julian helped
in other ways. They took it upon themselves to seek out what needs doing and
put me in touch with places that may help or fund future projects. They
designed a plan for a veterinary clinic which we are building as the funds
come.
They painted a sign for the sanctuary
(pictured above) which now hangs out on the street and they organized better my
medicines and living quarters for sick dogs.
They also taught me to neuter male cats!
(well…it’s a start!)
Before the vets came, I was feeling very
low as people here are constantly poisoning the dogs that I love and there is
no law here to stop them. Only this
week, I saw a street dog named Skittles who slept outside a Baan Unrak
Volunteer house die a horrible death from poison. By the time I was alerted, it
was too late. He was violently convulsing. I ran home to get a drug to
euthanize him, but as I returned, he died. I had another dog three days ago who
was brought to me. He had eaten less poison but still destined to die. He was
crying and could not close his mouth or eat. I tried to help him by putting him
on a drip and giving him anti inflammatory to lessen the pain and vitamin K
(which rat poison removes from the body) The next day however, he ran away from
his home- still sick and did not return…
I imagine that the poison finally got the better of him. We have a lot of car accident cases each day
here. I have had a dog for over a week now who was in a coma from an accident.
I gave him steroids for five days and after one day, he woke up with brain damage.
He can walk now but with his head pointing the wrong way. He can eat and drink,
but only if I hold his head in a bowl. I am hoping that he will recover some of
his faculties. Members of staff at the hospital here in Sangklaburi have been great, allowing me to keep vaccines
in their fridge, use their autoclave and even take blood samples to them that
they have put through a complete blood count and microscopic reading. Blood
parasites are all too common here coming from ticks and mosquitoes. One of my
puppies sadly died from anemia on New Years day.
A Typical Day at the Sanctuary
New Year’s Day 2010:
I was woken up at 8.30 by a new volunteer
who had seen a friendly dog (Jack from near the bakery) hit by a motorbike.
Nothing was broken, so I gave him an anti inflammatory shot. He seems better
now A few minutes later, I was called
out to try and help the poisoned dog (mentioned above) I had a cat on a drip-
thought to have kidney problems…what to do with a renal cat in a hot country
like this…? There is no chance that the family will be willing to pay for its
special dietary needs and veterinary care. When I got back, a puppy was waiting
outside with its owner. It had not been eating and was very weak. It had a high
temperature so I gave it some anti pyretic medicine, a worm tablet and an
antibiotic shot. I told the owner to bring it back the next day but she didn’t.
I suppose that this means that it has got better…? I then had a dog brought to
me, who kept vomiting. Unfortunately, I have no supply of medicine for this
anymore…the last vial being used up last week. I gave it antibiotic shots for four
days and asked them to get medicine from the pharmacy. Apparently, now it is
better. I put Betty (puppy mentioned above) on a drip and took her blood to the
hospital along with Ben’s (another puppy with respiratory difficulties and a
fever) and Jelly’s (also mentioned above
who had the blood transfusion two weeks ago) Good news for Jelly…her blood showed
a clear improvement and no more parasites. Ben’s and Betty’s showed anemia but
no blood parasites. I gave Ben meds for his temperature and he improved. Later
that night Betty died.