We have to be very careful when treating wounds on unknown dogs

When I say "unknown dogs" I mean dogs that we do not know and more importantly, they do not know us. The dogs we pick up with wounds that need treatment do not understand why we are taking them somewhere and are probably very confused and afraid as to why we are doing so. At first they normally enjoy the attention and they especially enjoy the free food and treats, but the rest of the experience is probably one they would rather not be a part of. There have been several times where dogs that we are trying to help have growled, warned, and made attempts at biting us when all we were doing was trying help them. These dogs have succeeded in biting some of our staff in some situations and this is always a bad thing because now we have to have them tested for rabies.

Sometimes we have to muzzle the dogs and in the worst case situations, such as the one where a dog had a massive wound on its neck, we had to have them sedated before we could even begin work on them. Recently, we brought in a dog with what appeared to be a bite wound on the front of its body, and we had to work very carefully.

If you look closely, you can see the wound on the front of the dog's body there and while it was easy to get them into the cage with food, getting them out and having them allow us to treat them is a different story altogether. Thankfully, this pupper was a little more amicable than others we had in the past but it is still a pretty frightening situation because that part of the dog's body is obviously very sensitive and they don't really want you messing with it even though we are only trying to help them.

Thankfully, these kind of wounds are rather uncommon since most dogs that get into an argument will normally just warn one another and very rarely do the dogs actually come to blows. However, we have noticed lately that there is an increased amount of actual fights taking place in the stray dog community and this is because a large part of their food supply has been cut off due to the fact that markets and outdoor dining places are currently closed by government order. Markets will normally discard all their uneaten food for the street dogs to eat but without this source of food competition in the stray community for what little remains becomes more and more violent. A hungry dog will do whatever it takes to eat, and they aren't really the sharing type.

Thankfully, this particular dog was very agreeable once we were able to teach it that if it behaves and allows us to handle it, that it is going to get more and more treats, but that doesn't mean that we weren't a bit afraid because the wound was located in a prime "biting" area right in range of the dog's mouth. There was some growling, and the cleaning of the wound made all those involved sweat a bit more than usual, but in the end we were able to get this guy treated without incident.

We have not been so fortunate in the past. After cleaning the wound we wrapped it and this dog will be staying with us for just a few days in order for the wound to heal. We have to do it this way because the dog can reach that part of its body with its hind legs and therefore will probably try to stop the healing from happening because it is itchy. After a few days the wound will be healed enough that we will release the dog back to where we found it. Unfortunately, since this animal is a bit older it is very unlikely, even during the best of times, that it would be adopted.

We do the best we can but for this particular dog, it seems very likely that it will spend the rest of its life on the streets but at least now it can do so without a festering wound on the front.

Once again I want to encourage everyone to adopt dogs and not buy them and to also see if you can find time to donate your time or money to a local animal-shelter or animal-rescue operation in your area. I can assure you, it is always appreciated!

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If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

_{Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.}

เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

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