NR's Temple Dogs - Wat Khao Din, Hua Hin

[November Rain]

Well, I thought it was about time I got off my backside and did another photo thread for TD. Problem is, I don't have much of a social life (hence all the time spent on here!) What to do?

Well for just over 2 months I've been visiting Wat Khao Din (on the road between Hua Hin & Pranburi) at least once a week to tend to their dogs. A Thai lady, Aor, got in touch with me, as she was so distressed at the state of the dogs in her local temple (which turned out to be Wat Khao Din). She, her husband & I talked with the Loong Por & asked for permission to treat & neuter the dogs. He was apprehensive at first - it turns out we weren't the first to offer help, but it had never actually come to anything before. We offered to start with 5 dogs &, if he was happy with the results, to carry on & do the rest.

This is Wat Khao Din, with Aor walking ahead of me. All pics (unless otherwise stated were taken today)



It's a lovely peaceful place. The dogs are pretty much universally friendly - a sign they are well taken care of. Many of them were afflicted with skin problems, though. Most of the treatment I've done has been for skin problems. I've also neutered 6 of the females & will do the others & I've vaccinated them all against doggy diseases & rabies.

[November Rain]

Oo-an is one of our original 5 dogs. He's such a friendly old boy. Really nice. The first photos are of him on our first day, 2 months ago.





This is Oo-an, as he is today. Sadly, I don't think he (or a female called Brillo) will ever 100% recover. Their mange has killed off some of their hair follicles. It happens, sometimes. Never mind, he's still looking & feeling a lot better these days.

[Norton]

Really nasty looking in the first two pics and a big improvement in the last. Looks like his appetite greatly improved as well.

[November Rain]

This is Edgar. Edgar is one of a litter of 3. He & his siblings have had their combined vaccines & have been having Ivomec vaccines for their skin. 2 weeks ago, we injected his siblings, but couldn't find him. We happened to find him, by pure chance, in a ditch, cold, covered with water & paralysed. I've seen similar cases & thought it might be due to blood parasites, so took him to the vets. He was very sick, as he got a secondary respiratory infection due to lying in the water (we think for at least 24 hours). He spent 1 week in the vets & then started to raise himself up.
After a further week at my house & lots of attention from my little boy, who was great with him, I took him back to the temple yesterday - fully recovered.



Would you believe this pup was paralysed in all 4 limbs, just 2 weeks ago?

[November Rain]

Another view of the temple, itself



Stumpy

Stumpy is a cantankerous old bugger. We've only started taking care of him in the last 3 weeks. It turned out there were a group of dogs we'd missed (we were given permission, nay asked, to do the rest of the dogs well before our experimental period was finished!), so we started with them 3 weeks ago (today was their 3rd time). Stumpy growls at me & bares his teeth every time I get a syringe out. Then I have to give him a couple of packs of treats & he lets me do whatever I want.



Stumpy still doesn't look so good, but he's better than he was. He had far more exposed skin & it was all bright red.

The saddest thing about Stumpy is that he sits automatically when waiting for a treat. Which suggests he has been owned & trained (he understands 'sit' in English) & dumped.

[November Rain]

Just a couple more pics before I take a break & do the paraplegic dogs' beds & littl'un's dinner.

This is Ling. I called him that, because he sits up on the stone benches, with his belly hanging out & looks just like a monkey.



These are some of the other dogs having a drink. The one on the left had a huge haematoma in her ear, which I had to drain on 3 separate occasions. Not pleasant for her. That occurred simply through scratching herself. She's now far better & is getting her Ivomec for her skin - she was nearly bald a month ago.



OK, that's it for now. Will finish later.

[nedwalk]

thanks NR my heart is a little tender at the moment, i walked in and spotted my old girls dog blanky and tucker dish, i best put them away now, it was nice to see someone careing for our four legged mates, keep up your great work!!

[November Rain]

This is my 'toolbox'. The medicine you can see is Fenomax - an ivermectin solution. I use either that one or Dectomax. Also in there are 3 ml syringes, 2 sizes of needles, alcohol wipes, Betadine & scissors. The Wat also has a first aid kit I supplied them with.



Today there were no rabies or combined vaccines due. When there are, I also carry a small coolbox filled with ice & the vaccines, as they have to be kept cool. The other necessity is plenty of dog treats - again, not pictured!



This little lady is one of the few dogs I can't get hold of on my own. She's really timid. Like Stumpy, I've only been dealing with her for 3 weeks. Soo, the lady holding her, is a construction worker at the temple. She is amazing with the dogs - they all love her. She's a very quick learner, too. I've shown her how to do wound dressings on wounds that had the potential to become nasty & come back the next week to find them perfectly healed. She's also learnt how to take stitches out & done it herself. She's fantastic.



These are two of the four pups belonging to the timid female. Like her, they had severe skin problems & are very timid (I risk getting bitten every time I catch them - puppy teeth are very sharp!), but these two are getting better, now.
Their sister is home with me tonight, having an inflamed ulcer on her eyeball. She'll go back next week & Soo can treat her, then.

[Smeg]

It's an interesting topic NR, but unless you are like AO and need to hide away from thailand in a gated mooban, these sights are seen by everyone every day. I don't see the purpose of being shown more.

I was sickened and angry the first few times I saw dogs in this state, but to get over this, over the years one has to harden up and find "excuses" for the thais to allow this to continue. Now i try to think that these dogs are luckier than the many millions of wild animals that starve to death or are eaten alive every day. It helps, but not much.

[November Rain]

Kao is another of our original 5 dogs. Again the first two pics are her just over 2 months ago. The 3rd is today.





And today:

[Smeg]

^ Nicer

[momo8]

Beautiful thread Rain,and great pics.

Here in HK it is so sad to see so many dogs being dumped by their owners,usually expats moving back to their home country.

I am a volunteer at the HKDR (HK Dog Rescue) I am not a vet so can't help with dog medical issues,but once a week I go there and take some dogs for a walk in the forest park around Pokfulam.I want to adopt every one of them but where we live I can't have a dog so my babies look forward to my visit every week.

This is a pic of the great people who work and help there



Some dogs who come in have been abused and starved and it's a criminal offence in HK to abuse animals carries a goal term and fine.One man was sentenced to six months goal for selling dogs as fighting dogs for gambling,can't find that link but it was big news here about a year ago.

Keep up your good work Rain!

[November Rain]

Originally Posted by Smeg

It's an interesting topic NR, but unless you are like AO and need to hide away from thailand in a gated mooban, these sights are seen by everyone every day. I don't see the purpose of being shown more.

I was sickened and angry the first few times I saw dogs in this state, but to get over this, over the years one has to harden up and find "excuses" for the thais to allow this to continue. Now i try to think that these dogs are luckier than the many millions of wild animals that starve to death or are eaten alive every day. It helps, but not much.

AO?

OK, this was something I was going to address at the end of the pics, but as you've brought it up, I'll bring it forward.

Why do this?

A temple is an ideal place to do something like this, as it has a 'stable' community of animals. With relatively little effort, you can make a lot of difference. There are over 40 dogs in that temple. They are now all vaccinated. They are nearly all healthy. 6 females are neutered & the rest will be. We have influenced their care & also what they eat. The monks & Soo are the ones who have done most of the caring. I have pretty much only been there once a week for 2 months. That's really negligible for the amount of good that's been done for those dogs.

Yes, there's a lot of suffering in Thailand. Human & animal. You can only do what's within your power about it. You can never help everyone/thing that needs help.

A venerable old monk & a novice were walking along the beach one morning on their way to collect alms. There had been a storm the night before & thousands of starfish were washed up on the sand. The venerable old monk steadily picked up some of these starfish as he walked & put them gently back into the sea. After a while the novice became exasperated & asked the monk why he was doing this. "There are thousands!" he blurted out. "You can never help them all. Leave them. What does it matter?"
The old monk replied, "It matters to the ones I put back."

That's what I think of, Smeg. There is far too much for me, or every org in Thailand to deal with, but it matters to those we do help.

And in the case of Wat Khao Din, the monks & Soo are responsible for much of the care & will be responsible for all of it, soon.

[Smeg]

Originally Posted by November Rain

Why do this?

A temple is an ideal place to do something like this, as it has a 'stable' community of animals. With relatively little effort, you can make a lot of difference. There are over 40 dogs in that temple. They are now all vaccinated. They are nearly all healthy. 6 females are neutered & the rest will be. We have influenced their care & also what they eat. The monks & Soo are the ones who have done most of the caring

NR, I commend you, and I used to do similar myself. However, the temple I occasionally helped at (back in 2002) gained a reputation locally as effectively looking after the dogs that were dumped there. As a result, whereas other temples in the area had 5-10 dogs, this temple ended up with over 50.

It was nice (in a gross way) that the thais were communicating and dumping their unwanted creatures in the most comfortable dumpster, but the site of it killed my motivation because i ended up thinking that if all temples did a bad job of such care, maybe the thais might feel a little more guilt about their callous infantile actions.

[November Rain]

OK, last couple of pics of Wat Khao Din & feeding time.



The monks feed the dogs their leftovers every day. We've convinced them that rice alone isn't a good diet for dogs, so they now also give dry food later in the day (hence the weight gain seen in Oo-an & Kao!)

The two tan dogs in the background were also in our original 5. They've both been neutered now (as has Kao) & only the larger one still needs Ivomec for her skin. The smaller (called Brandy) is fit again.



The main parking area/courtyard of Wat Khao Din.


Just FYI, the Loong Por of Wat Khao Din is so concerned about the dogs' health that the temple have paid for all the vaccines, medication, needles, syringes & treatments that we have used/done. That is very unusual. Apart from my time, neither I nor HRD are out of pocket at all for what has been done with these dogs. I foresee a day (in the not too distant future) where Soo & the monks can maintain the standards by themselves & I only need to visit once a month to check up. That would be the best result.

[November Rain]

Originally Posted by Smeg

NR, I commend you, and I used to do similar myself. However, the temple I occasionally helped at (back in 2002) gained a reputation locally as effectively looking after the dogs that were dumped there. As a result, whereas other temples in the area had 5-10 dogs, this temple ended up with over 50.

It was nice (in a gross way) that the thais were communicating and dumping their unwanted creatures in the most comfortable dumpster, but the site of it killed my motivation because i ended up thinking that if all temples did a bad job of such care, maybe the thais might feel a little more guilt about their callous infantile actions.

The dumping is a byproduct I'm expecting, sadly. I haven't seen it yet, but it's virtually inevitable. I have warned the Loong Por about it & hope he will refuse new dogs. I've also asked him to push neutering & vaccines (rather than dumping) to the community (I'd rather do that than see more dogs dumped). Time will tell on that one.

[November Rain]

Well, that's it for the mo, from Wat Khao Din. I'll update the thread with new pics & stories as & when things happen - hopefully nice things!

[Smeg]

^ Do thais ask for permission to dump their creatures at a temple? Not often, in my limited experience. I have seen them do the deed and quickly flee the scene.