Monk asks for help when his cat suffers an injured paw
One of the things that has really helped our progress in the Krabi region is the fact that we operate out of temples and the monks and nuns there are extremely willing to help us out with our cause. They have a much better idea about the comings and goings of the animals that call their temple grounds home, and since there are normally so many dogs and cats at all of these complexes and none of us live there, it would be very difficult if not impossible for us to keep track of what is going on with the animals there. We don't stop by every day, normally it is only once a week so if something goes wrong such as an injury, we wouldn't know about it until it is potentially too late.
Thankfully, our helpers have our phone number and will call us when a situation arises and this happened recently at are largest project, The Tiger Cave Temple in Krabi, Thailand.
The call we received wasn't frantic or anything. Monks tend to avoid that sort of behavior even when faced with something urgent. It was just a matter of fact situation where he noticed that a cat that he looks after had blood on its face and he later discovered that this was from continued licking of a wound that it had suffered on its paw.
A very lovely and calm creature
When we investigated we discovered a mystery wound on one paw that was pretty deep. Cats are normally pretty good at licking a wound until it stops bleeding, but in this particular case it was too deep and too far between the "toes" for the cat to fully stop the bleeding. Also, cats tend to use their paws extensively, so this wasn't going to heal properly without some help.
This wasn't an urgent situation and it probably could be handled by the monks themselves so we looked at this as a learning opportunity. We simply cleaned and treated the wound and since cats are notorious for not tolerating any sort of bandages (dogs are similar) we simply stuck around and held the cat and pet it until the bleeding stopped. We instructed the monk on how he can do this daily or twice daily if he has time, quite easily on his own using iodine and just soap and water. Of course it is very important that a cat trusts you if you are going to do this but I think we can successfully say that he and this cat have a very special bond of trust.
We left a bunch of tablets as well that will help with any sort of infection that could arise from the wound but if his experience is anything like my own with cats, he is going to have quite a bit of trouble actually getting the cat to consume them. This is normally easily accomplished by using rather expensive wet cat food and crushed up pills, but the temple doesn't have the resources for this. Since the wound wasn't really life-threatening, we left it up to him how much he wants to devote to this but to just keep a close eye on the cat and to make sure the wound is always clean. The medicine might not be necessary anyway but it is just a precaution.
This was a winning situation for us at Tiger Cave Temple because it shows that the monks actually do see us as useful helpers and that they do truly care about the animals there. Hopefully, he will take this little bit of knowledge that we gave to him and perhaps use it in the future if he should encounter other animals with similar problems. That would be wonderful if he could let the other monks and nuns know about this as well because then we could devote more of our efforts towards other things if the inhabitants are handing simple first aid on their own.
If not, we don't mind coming to their aid because they have done so much for us as far as being our "eyes and ears" at the location is concerned. Plus we enjoy seeing all our fur-covered friends anyway.
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:
All creatures big🐘 and small.🐹
that is correct!