Thurs 23rd Aug: Always some emergency

Chow Mein is a 3 year-old small-sized girl

I mentioned the chow chow girl we were getting in yesterday's post, and our driver Ming went to pick her up from the pet shop where she was staying after having been abandoned there by her family. The photo we had been sent showed a typical chow chow face, even if the eyes looked a bit small due to entropian, the painful condition of turned-in eyelids. Ming dropped the dog off at Acorn to be checked over and have a heartworm test, and I subsequently got a message to let me know that one eye was full of maggots and had already been eaten away to the extent that removal (enucleation) was the only option.  Surgery to take the damaged eye out and fix the other eyelid will be carried out once the wound (thankfully now clear of maggots) has healed, and now-called Chow Mein came back to our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre wearing the inevitable big cone of her head.  It's hard to imagine anything worse than having your eye literally being eaten away, and we're just hoping that this poor dog's pain will soon be over.

The poor girl's eye after cleaning

Another new surrender, the Yorkiepoo (now Dido) with a broken leg, will be having surgery on Saturday, and you can see why our vet bills are so high.  There are always emergency cases needing surgery, another one being the pom puppy who had to have his leg removed, and other day-to-day situations that crop up as an inevitable result of having over six hundred dogs under our care.

Dido's surgery will be on Saturday

For example one of my Lamma dogs, Griffin, had a small wound on his hip which I assumed would eaily heal, but because of the location and the fact that the other dogs keep licking the site, I am now having to take Griffin to have stitches.  I still don't know how I'm going to be able to keep the wound covered, and a buster collar is useless against the tongues of others, so I'll have to see what Dr Tony can come up with.

You can watch the video on our HKDR Facebook page

We're always grateful for the donations we receive,  many of which are in kind such as bedding, toys, chews, fridges and pretty much anything really.  Today we got some children's playground equipment which was immediately put in with the puppies at Tai Po, and they loved them.  These types of things are always gratefully accepted, as we can make use of many throwaway items that would otherwise be sent to the dump.