Thread: The pictorial treatment record of Star the Shih-tzu

November have you ever heard of a treatment for canine skin infections whereby you mix crushed tamarind juice with oil and then apply it onto the dogs skin?
My wife has been putting this concoction on our pugs skin and fur (whats left of it) as the vets could not do anything about her problem and after having her for 2 weeks in the clinic.
It seems to work also but I have never heard of this pratice before.

Originally Posted by Propagator

To me he is looking at you and saying 'You get that finger near me again, and I'll bite the bloody thing off'

Or, 'You think this looks bad? you should see the other dog!'

I'm a dog lover too, big or small it doesn't matter. We have 2 Shih Tzu and a Poodle/Shih Tzu cross, my daughter calls the cross a PooShiT!

We have 4 Shih Tzus, we also lost one to a street dog, never bawled so much in my life. If you need anything for Star let me know. So pleased you are restoring him to his expected glory

Keep the updates coming NR!!!!! Great work and a wonderful thread.

Looks like the dog is in good care. I see that it needs it's nails clipped are the quick in its nails long? From the pics they look long. Good luck. I hope this dog gets a good home.

Well done NR! We have 3 dogs, one (my step-daughter's) a 4 year old Shih-Tzu called Peenut. They are very game little dogs, he stands his ground with my two others - an older Golden Retriever and a terrier-cross puppy. We live in a quiet spot in the countryside near Chiang Rai, if Star wants a good home send him up to us!

Dont forget NR, If Lannaman or anyone else wants to use the cages we have ,it is not a problem to us to use them for transporting a dog.As i know finding a good home is number one in your book so if it helps we can do it for you OK NR.
Take Care Angel . We hope we will never use them again but you never know.Star is looking a lot better with all your care, i can understand little un loving him !! Cheers

Thank you for all your input, everyone. I really appreciate it & I'm sure Star would, too.

I just want to answer a couple:

Originally Posted by kingwilly

MrsKW jus sat down and read this thread with me.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

She hopes that Star gets better and better soon. So lucu (indonesian for narak)

All the best & love to Mrs KW from Star.

Originally Posted by Loombucket

It is important to have a Dog for the right reason, and to look after it, for the same reason.

Absolutely. Spot on, Loomy.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

November have you ever heard of a treatment for canine skin infections whereby you mix crushed tamarind juice with oil and then apply it onto the dogs skin?

No, but if you have a 'recipe' I'd love to hear it. I love to try alternatives other than chemicals. Happyman's vinegar for ticks was good, so I'd love to try this. Thanks. And thanks for the kind words.

Originally Posted by Papadave

my daughter calls the cross a PooShiT!

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Keep the updates coming NR!!!!! Great work and a wonderful thread.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by The_Dude

I see that it needs it's nails clipped are the quick in its nails long?

Yes, they are. I've cut them once, but the quicks are so long it needs to be a gradual process.

Originally Posted by lannaman

if Star wants a good home send him up to us!

That's so lovely of you. At the moment there is some definite interest from UK, but quarantine might pose a problem. If you're serious, would you mind being second on the list for him? Thanks so much for your interest.

Sunshade - thanks, as always. Love you both.

Originally Posted by Papadave

I'm a dog lover too, big or small it doesn't matter. We have 2 Shih Tzu and a Poodle/Shih Tzu cross, my daughter calls the cross a PooShiT!

and if it was a bull terrier/shit zu cross you could call it Bullshit

Originally Posted by November Rain

All the best & love to Mrs KW from Star.

She says no problem, she'd love to adopt him if he was living in Indo.

Another update:

First, I thought I had some photos from a few days ago, but can't find them on my camera, phone or computer, so I can only guess I've accidentally deleted them from somewhere.

Never mind, there are a few pics from today.

Star is doing really well. His jaw wound is completely healed and his eye one is a lot better. It looks as if it has closed completely until I clean it, but it's definitely a lot smaller; perhaps one fifth of the original size.
His paws are a lot better and he's put on weight - he's gone from just over 3kg to 5kg in just over 2 weeks.

He had to have his third mange injection today. This is what I needed:



Dectomax (Ivermectin solution), 1 sterile 3cc syringe, 2 sterile 21G needles (one for drawing up, one for injecting).



Drawing up. The dosage is 1ml per 15kg dog. Star, being 5kg, needs about 0.3ml

Injecting is subcutaneous under the loose skin of the back of the neck, or sometimes the rump. In this case, it's Star's neck.




This isn't a very good pic of his paws (all of today's pics were taken by me with one hand, while holding Star with the other), but I think it shows how much better the mange is getting. No redness now, and the hair is starting to grow. BTW, for those worried about his claws, I cut them again a few days ago.

Do you have to have some sort of special license or something to be having supplies of syringes and things around?

Have you ever had police question you about them or something?

A couple of close-ups of his face, just after wound cleaning today.






Guess who still doesn't like wound cleaning time, though it's not nearly as invasive as before? Doesn't he look morose?
He's very good, though. He hasn't once tried to bite, snap, or even growl at me - no matter what I've done to him.

will that patch grow hair again, or is it forever scarred?

Lucky dog.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Do you have to have some sort of special license or something to be having supplies of syringes and things around?

Have you ever had police question you about them or something?

Not that I'm aware of. You can buy syringes & needles in any pharmacy here. I don't carry any drugs that could be of use to people. Anti parasite vaccine, rabies vaccines & combined vaccines are all I have, usually. If I need an injectable sedative or something like that, I buy it from the vet when I actually need it. I also dispose of needles in big plastic containers that I seal & give to our vet when full so he can incinerate them.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

will that patch grow hair again, or is it forever scarred?

Should grow again. I don't think the mange is bad enough to have killed off the hair follicles

Originally Posted by November Rain

Sheesh, what a difference a couple of weeks makes hey! I know the fur being cut's the most obvious example but even then it's amazing the difference between being neglected/abandoned and some care and attention makes.

Once again I applaud your admirable efforts, NR.

Star, playing with one of the pups, once he realised the ordeal was over for the day.

Looks like the lady in UK is serious about taking Star. She is going to try & fundraise to raise the quarantine fees - about £2,700. I'll be very happy if he can go to her - it'll be a completely new life for him. He deserves it. I couldn't believe it, an agency was going to charge her a further £2,000 for admin, flight, flight cage etc. All stuff we can easily do ourselves (I've sent a dog to UK before) and will cost very little, considering his size. There's always someone wanting to cash in.
We're hoping the quarantine kennels might reduce their fees a little in view of his story. Fingers crossed.

Forgot to mention one part of Star's treatment - oral medication.

He's on antibiotics until his facial wound heals.

Here are the ingredients needed :



1 can of cheapie canned dog food (Tesco - 18bt a tin) & a jar of antibiotic capsules; in this case 250mg cephalexin capsules.

Remove 1 capsule from the jar


Usually dogs on cephalexin require it twice a day, but because Star is so small 250mg once a day is sufficient.

Remove 1 spoonful of canned food & poke the capsule into it



Give to dog (being careful to make sure you don't lose any fingers... )



For fussy dogs we use cheap meat paste or pate or cream cheese, but Star's not a fussy boy & the canned food is enough of an incentive to get him to gobble the meds.

In fact, in the center, I put the food & meds on a spoon, because they are usually so eager to get to it that fingers can get bitten.

Originally Posted by November Rain

Looks like the lady in UK is serious about taking Star.

That's good news, I hope that Star will like the weather.

He's got quite an expressive little face



Nice to see him hangin' at the bar