Dogstar Volunteers

Latest news from Sri Lanka!

2011-05-10T15:10:00.000+05:30

I’ve only been back in Sri Lanka 2 weeks and it’s been a very busy time! Internet facilities in Randeniya have been suffering and we lost our connection for over 5 days (back on line within the last hour) which was very frustrating as there’s lots of news to share with you!

Facebook users will be aware that on my return I was met with 4 new house guests! A pregnant stray cat had managed to squeeze through a gap in the window in my spare bedroom (which wouldn’t shut properly) and had given birth to 3 kittens….. By the time I came back their eyes were open and it’s probable that they arrived not long after I left Sri Lanka for the UK! They’re growing well and now eating solids as well as still feeding from mum. I thought they may be 2 girls and 1 boy and a check from the vet last Friday proved just that (more luck than judgement on my part I can assure you!). Once they are fully weaned, Dogstar will ensure they are vaccinated against rabies and mum will also be vaccinated and sterilised as soon as we have a surgical session at Dogstar House. I’ve named mum Pheobe and the kittens (thanks to Australian Dogstar supporter Kim Costa) are now Billy, Addy (for Adelaide) and Victoria. I expect that Pheobe will be a regular visitor to my house as she knows she’s certain of a meal there.

Here's mum Pheobe taking a welcome rest from feeding her young ones

And here's her naughty little ones (left to right) - Victoria, Addy and Billy!

Early on my return I did a tour of the various Temples that Dogstar support to check on the dogs there. Luckily, at all of them the residents were in good shape apart from a few skin problems. Food supplies were given to several of our ‘core’ Temples to supplement the standard rice and curry diet usually on offer.

The monk at Hiriwadunna - I think the dogs know there's food around!

Vanilla - at Randeniya Temple. Doesn't she look good?

Regular readers will know of our lovely foster mum, Mrs J, who lives in nearby Hiriwadunna. In addition to her own 2 dogs, street dogs Pippa and Sheba who were Dogstar patients have now taken up residence with her. Last weekend I had a call from her daughter to say that she had brought back from Colombo a litter of 7(!) pups whose mum was not able to care for them properly. Sadly, she was unaware of the excellent service provided in Colombo by Embark, with whom Dogstar has worked previously, so again Mrs J provided foster care! This amazing lady has now found homes for 5 of the 7 pups and we’re sure the remaining 2 will find suitable new places soon.

It was Mrs. J to the rescue again last Wednesday when 3 of our MEF volunteers arrived back from Kegalle with a lovely black pup they had found wandering along the main road. Although Dogstar does not operate as a sanctuary there was little I could do but thank them for their concern! A call to Dr. Prashashini to ask if she knew of anyone looking for a pup at first bore no fruit, but just as I was about to put the phone down she suddenly remembered Mrs J had said a friend of hers wanted a black puppy. A quick call to Mrs J confirmed this so Sampath and I drove out to pick her up and then onto the next village to meet her carpenter friend. One look at Ebony (as we called her) and the man was hooked! A further visit the next day with a food parcel for Ebony allayed any fears about settling down – she was loving her new surroundings!

I think she looks just like a Teddy Bear!

Supporters of Dogstar will know of our relationship with the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the University of Peradeniya, with whom we have run several sterilisation/vaccination clinics. One of their excellent graduates, Dr Saman, agreed to come and work with us at Dogstar House last Friday so I had a full days work scheduled. Over the course of the day, we managed to see, assess and treat around 25 dogs and cats. My own kittens were the first to be checked over, then we went to closeby Gracelyn and saw mainly skin cases. However, one interesting case – a 3rd eyelid prolapse – presented and we were able to pick up required drugs from a Pharmacy to return and treat the dog successfully.

The dogs at Randeniya and Hiriwadunna Temples required skin treatment and also rabies vaccination boosters so Dr. Saman treated their skin and will vaccinate on Friday next when he visits again. The dogs at Randeniya especially are now used to our visits and are always very friendly with Sampath our driver and any of the vets who are with us!

Our last call was to Kollongalla where MEF chef Manju lives to vaccinate his cat and treat his dog for skin problems. His dog – Puppy- was unwilling to be caught for skin treatment, but we managed to provide rabies protection for his cat. Sadly, that evening we had a call to say that several animals in the village had been poisoned (deliberately) – luckily Manjua was able to get Puppy to the vet for emergency treatment (Saman having left for home) and she has survived, but 5 other dogs and Manju’s cat – which we had treated only that afternoon – lost their lives in this senseless act. We believe it was a farmer who had lost chickens to a dog…..

All in all though, it’s great to be back and to see all our regular stars in great shape and I’ll be updating the news from here regularly.

Mo x

It's been a busy time......!

2011-03-04T16:15:00.000+05:30

As you'll have gathered from the long silence, things have been pretty busy in Sri Lanka over the past couple of months! Luckily, we had volunteer Paula with the team from November through to mid February which was a real bonus. But the patients kept coming......

Here are a couple of our key cases from January and February:

Towards the end of January, an elderly gentleman who lives several kilometres from Dogstar house asked for help with a litter of 3 pups whose mum had sadly died. We took them in at 15 days old and the whole team then set to work - with the help of other MEF volunteers - feeding the pups 4 hourly. Sam was here at that time and she and Paula did a sterling job with the 2am and 6am feeds!! Christened 'The 3 Stooges' (Curly, Larry and Moe) by US volunteer Matt, the pups have thrived on masses of hard work from everyone (I did the early morning shift latterly and that meant a lot of cleaning up!). From around 400g on arrival, all 3 boys grew rapidly reaching up to 1.9kg (Moe) had their first ARV injections. Here are a couple of photos of the boys (Larry - black and white, Curly - dark brown, Moe - light brown) who we think are gorgeous! I'm very happy to report that all 3 of the boys have been taken to lovely new homes over the past few days so we'll be keeping a check on their progress and will post new photos when available.

Moe - 7 February 2011

Curly, Larry and Moe - 7 February 2011

Brotherly love - 28 February 2011

Curly and Larry - 28 February 2011


Curly with his new family - 28 February 2011

This has been a lovely story for Dogstar - I don't think any of us really expected all 3 pups to survive as they had been without their mum for a couple of days when they came to us, but with a lot of hard work and a lot of affection from the Dogstar team and MEF volunteers they have thrived and given us so much fun and love in return!

Also with us while we had the boys were 2 female pups - the first called Lucy who was found wandering at MEF. She stayed with us for around 10 days for some good feeding, routine worming and vaccinations before going off to a new home. Here she is with MEF volunteer Marie:

The second was Poppet who was found dehydrated and infested with ticks at our local temple in Randeniya. Aravinda spotted her while we were doing a routine check of the other dogs there and she was coweing under a pile of coconuts. She was taken to DS house and put on a drip and the team led by Sam spent around 2 hours removing the ticks from her ears. Here she is below a couple of days after her initial treatment:

Poppet proved to be made of strong stuff and quickly recovered, becoming one of the most energetic pups we've had the pleasure to care for (i.e. very hard work!). From under 1kg on arrival, after a month with us her weight went up to around 3.8kg! This is also a story with a great ending as our own driver Sampath and his lovely family decided to give Poppet a new home. Here she is having her bath before being taken to them:

And here she is below with Sampath and his family (wife Nishani and son Samidu who is now great friends with Poppet - sharing his dinner and his bed with her!).

Another patient who has been taking up a lot of our time is Kalugalla Temple dog Harvey. He's around 5 years old and until last autumn was extremely fit, healthy and very handsome. However, he started losing his fur and his weight dropped alarmingly towards the end of 2010. Even with advice from vets from both Sri Lanka and the UK, we've not been able to make too much progress - but despite his appearance, Harvey is still eating well and is very lively and alert. Last week Dr Manjula from TAPA reviewed him again and now suspects he has some form of pancreatic enzyme deficiency.

Harvey- March 2010


Harvey - December 2010

Harvey's now on treatment and we're hoping to see an improvement in his condition. Mo and Aravinda will continue to visit Harvey twice daily to feed and give meds and we hope to be able to show some photos of him looking better soon.

The final case for this blog is Tiger - a lovely male pup of around 4 months old who decided to take on a monkey - and lost! Tiger's ear was almost ripped off (the photo is quite graphic so be warned.....) but quick action by his owners and an expert stitching job by local vet Dr. Prashashini has left him looking almost as good as new......

Tiger pre-surgery


Tiger 3 days (yes, THREE DAYS!) post-surgery

I hope that gives you a flavour of the work that's been going on since we last met and we'll catch up again soon!

Thank you all for your messages of support for Dogstar - they really mean a lot to the team here!

Mo x x

A busy time as 2010 draws to a close.....

2010-12-23T15:36:00.000+05:30

It's been a busy week for the team here in Sri Lanka. Sadly I have to start with the sad news (some of you may have seen this on our Facebook page) that on 15 December we lost Fudge, the little pup who was staying at Dogstar House, to parvo disease despite early intervention and excellent care from the local vets. There is an outbreak near Randeniya and there have been several cases close to us, but lots of the young dogs locally have now been vaccinated by Dogstar over the past few months so hopefully this will help the situation and stop the disease spreading.

Fudge as we'll always remember her

Losing Fudge was obviously a very low point for the team, but the rest of the week has been very rewarding as we had Dr. Manjula and assistant Bandara from TAPA working with us again. Dr. Manjula arrived on the 16th and we had busy clinics scheduled from 17th to 21st. As Fudge had been at Dogstar house (which was disinfected throughout following her death), we were unable to use that for our clinics, so we moved a little further up the hill and used the village hall.

Over the course of the clinics and her time with us Dr. Manjula sterilised 16 dogs and cats and an amazing total of 70 animals was seen for sterilisation, vaccination and treatment of skin conditions and wounds! During the mornings we set up the sterilisation/vaccination clinic at the village hall and then during the afternoons visited the various Temples that Dogstar supports locally. Here are just a number of our cases from the 4 days; you'll see that Dogstar works with more than just dogs and cats - a pet giant squirrel was brought along for anti-rabies vaccine, and whilst out vaccinating puppies Dr. Manjula was asked to check on a 2 day old calf!

Bandara and Dr. Manjula vaccinating rehomed Dogstar pup Ruby

4 month old Sheba recovering from surgery

Dr. Manjula checks the new calf

Chooti the pet giant squirrel!

Bindu waiting for her vaccination

Bindu's sister Jenny who was brought for treatment of a tail wound

Chalky waiting for his operation with his young owner

On the final day we had Dr. Manjula with us we visited the nearby village of Diyagama to continue the vaccination schedule for Toffee, another pup who was recently rehomed by Dogstar. Within minutes the bush telegraph was working overtime and we ended up with a queue of people and some 15 or so dogs were vaccinated or received treatment for skin problems and wounds!

Rehomed pup Toffee gets a fuss from Dr. Manjula

Rexy came for his first vaccination (is it a pup or a Teddy bear?)

Dogstar never needs to employ Rent-A-Crowd!!

This little chap has been prescribed supplements to help strengthen his bones

Always time for some quiet contemplation.....

Sadly we didn't have time for a swim!

That's another round up and as always hope you've enjoyed catching up with the news and seeing some of the patients who rely very much on Dogstar to keep them in good health. Watch out for more news from Sri Lanka.

Mo x

Dogstar in action.....

2010-12-14T08:49:00.000+05:30

Since the last update, it's been a very busy time for the team in Sri Lanka.....nothing new there then!

On 2 December we visited Beragala Temple just outside Kegalle where we regularly supply food and keep a check on all the local dogs. Beragala is the home of lovely Peggy, originally a street dog, who had a large leg tumour and mammary tumour removed earlier this year. She was then adopted by a lovely local and remains fit and well - she certainly isn't thin any more!

This is the inside of the lovely Temple at Beragala....so always a pleasure visiting.

While Mo was away in Galle over the first weekend in December, the rest of the team dealt with more than 20 patients - including a bird who had been attacked by a cat. We think that prompt veterinary attention means he/she has lived to twitter again....

Our local Temple in Randeniya is now being visited every day - to give extra food to new mum Cleo, and medication to Bumpy (see later). Here's Cleo looking very well. She's still quite timid but allows both Mo and Paula to touch her which is certainly progress.

Sadly Cleo lost one of her two pups but the other (a boy) seems to be making progress. Dr. Manjula will be visiting us again later this week and we'll make sure she checks him over.

Much of our time seems to be spent visting Temples at the moment! On a recent visit to Kalugalla, we noticed that lovely Harvey was looking far from well - apart from his obvious skin condition, he had lost a lot of weight. It seems that the more dominant dogs at the Temple are getting the lion's share of the food so the team are walking up twice a day to give Harvey additional food and supplements. He's also on antibiotics and antihistamines and after 4 or 5 days of intensive treatment seems to be coming on well. Again, Dr. Manjula will have a look at him later this week and decide if he needs any further tests.

When well, Harvey is really a handsome boy with his lovely golden eyes - we can't wait until he's back to his usual photogenic self!

Back in Randeniya, blind Temple dog Bumpy had to have another visit to the vet on 8 December for treatment of an abcess on his face. Dr. Abeyrathna lanced this (ouch!) and Bumpy was cleaned up and given antibiotics. He now looks forward to the team visit every day for his cheese and medication.

Here he is earlier this week looking much better, relaxing in the sunshine.

Finally, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster with pup Fudge who is currently a patient at Dogstar HQ. Initially dumped with litter mates at MEF, Fudge was then moved by agreement to a local Temple. However, by some miracle 3 of the pups then found their way back to Dogstar's garden..... Fudge's 2 sisters were sterilised and vaccinated during our November clinic and quickly rehomed, but as Fudge was far weaker and suffering with a persistent tapeworm infection she was put on the December op list.... Sad to say, last week she ate something which really upset her system so it was a couple of vet visits then and over the past couple of days she has been far from well and we are almost certain she has contracted parvo.....

Here she is earlier this week in better health having found a comfy spot on Mo's washing bag.....

We're doing all we can to continue supportive therapy for Fudge and praying and keeping our fingers crossed that she comes through this dreadful period ....will update soon.

That's the current round up from here - we'll keep you in touch with all the news!

Mo x

Latest news from the Dogstar team in Sri Lanka!

2010-11-30T12:36:00.000+05:30

Since the last update it's been a pretty busy time for me, Aravinda and Paula working here in Randeniya.

On Friday, we were called to Udakarandapona Temple to see lovely Mungo who's been in the wars rather a lot this year! When we arrived we found that he had quite severe mange with a nasty skin wound from continual scratching. We treated this on site and Mungo was taken to see Dr. Prashashini on Sunday for further treatment with ivermectin and antibiotics. The monk at UKP Temple has also been given oral treatment and we know from our past dealings with him that he will ensure Mungo receives all his pills. Here's poor Mungo before treatment:

Last Saturday, the veterinary team from Peradeniya University had asked for Dogstar's help at a sterilisation/vaccination clinic organised by the International School in Colombo. After an early get up (the ungodly hour of 4a.m......) we loaded up the equipment that Dogstar was providing for the day and set off on the journey to a suburb of Colombo. The clinic had been widely publicised in the local press and via posters, so when things opened at around 9a.m. there was an influx of dogs, cats and people. The Dogstar team weighed all patients so that drug dosages could be calculated accurately - here's one of the patients on the Dogstar scales.....

Whilst we were all kept busy during the first couple of hours in the weighing area, as the day progressed we were involved in cleaning and autoclaving surgical kits and then helping out in the recovery area keeping a check on all the animals. Here are Mo and Paula busy in recovery...

35 animals were sterilised during the clinic and it was great to see that people had brought street dogs along for both operations and anti-rabies vaccination. The pupils at the International School had raised funds for the clinic and many of them attended on the day to help with animal registration, cleaning up and helping the Dogstar team in recovery when things got busy. Here's Paula with a couple of the pupils during a very busy time!

By the time the clinic was over, we were all pretty tired and hungry so decided to unwind at a chinese seafood restaurant on the beach in nearby Mount Lavinia. A nice end to a busy morning....

Mo took a rest in Colombo on Sunday while Aravinda and Paula continued to beaver away with cases in Kegalle, and the regular feeding of Harvey at Kalugalla Temple (who was featured in my last blog) and Cleo at Randeniya Temple continues. This is paying dividends as Harvey now has boundless energy and his coat is starting to look good. Sadly, Cleo lost one of her two pups over the weekend but the remaining one seems very healthy and Cleo is now responding to regular feeding and a regular fuss!

On Monday we decided to pay a visit and take some food to probably the best looking dogs around us - Lizzie and Tarzan. They have a wonderful life with owner Mr. Somarathne and his family - here's Dogstar's Aravinda having a cuddle with Lizzie:

It's great to think that just 18 months ago Lizzie was a very underweight and unhappy girl - look at her now with Dogstar support and a loving owner!

Mr. Somarathne's initial contact with us concerned Tarzan who was found to have both liver and heart problems and it was the diagnostic skills of the veterinary team at Peradeniya that saved him - Tarzan has fully recovered and has regular check-ups to ensure he remains in good health. He certainly looks good....

It's always lovely to visit the Somarathne's - not only to see Lizzie and Tarzan, but also because they live in a beautiful rural setting where life passes by very slowly. Here's a typical house:

Well that's another round up of the news from Sri Lanka over the past week. Aravinda is taking a well earned break for a couple of days to visit his family in Matale, close to Kandy while Paula continues with the daily feeding programme. We're just waiting for the internet to be connected in the Dogstar House/Clinic so that Aravinda and Paula can join me in bringing news from here.

Hope you enjoy the news!

Mo x

The Dogstar team has been very busy.....!

2010-11-23T17:39:00.000+05:30

The regular Dogstar team of Aravinda and me have been joined by volunteer Paula - and boy are we glad to have her working with us! Paula (who was a volunteer at MEF earlier this year) will be with us for 3 months working from the Dogstar house/clinic. From 19-22 November we were also joined by vet Dr. Manjula and assistant Bandara who work for TAPA (Tsunami Animal People Alliance), so were were able to run sterilisation clinics from the house during that time - 16 sterilisations were carried out, and luckily Dr. Manjula is very experienced at operating on young dogs (around 3 months of age). Here are some of the patients the team worked with over the 5 days:

Above are pups Luna and Penny, and Luna pre-op with Dogstar volunteer Paula

Despite all our efforts in providing free sterilisation, we are still finding (or having left for us....) litters of unwanted pups. 4 young pups were left at Hiriwadunna in pouring rain about a month ago, but luckily our local foster mum 'Mrs J' took them in. Luna and Penny are shown above and their sisters Millie and Ruby below. All 4 pups have now found homes - it seems that offering sterilised/vaccinated pups is successful as we have rehomed 6 over the past weekend! (see more pics of Luna's rehoming later....)

Not all the surgical cases were for sterilisation - one man brought along his lovely dog for removal of a large lipoma (the growth on her side) which had been steadily growing over the past couple of years! Dr. Manjula was able to remove this and the dog is recovering well. Here she is pre- and during surgery..

Resident Dogstar cat and house manager Dennis is never very far from the action... Here he is playing with a litter of pups left at the house 10 days ago. 2 of the pups were sterilised by Dr. Manjula - a couple of days later they were taken to lovely new homes. Below are Toffee (brown) and Honey (cream) with their new owners.... The Dogstar team will visit every couple of weeks to check on their progress. Dennis is also the proud owner of some new toys (hope that keeps him out of mischief - but I doubt it...) courtesy of recent Dogstar volunteer vet Dr. Kate (thanks Dr. Kate!) - see photo below.

You'll know that Dogstar try to regularly visit a number of local temples; but with the emphasis during Sam's last visit to Sri Lanka with volunteer vets being on surgery, we'd been unable to visit quite as often as we would have liked. On our visit to Kalugalla this weekend we found that one of the dogs there - Harvey- was in pretty poor condition. Dr. Manjula decided he was not well enough for an injection of ivermectin for his bad skin so we treated orally and Paula, Aravinda and I had a lovely walk to the temple on Sunday to give Harvey extra food. That will now be done every couple of days until Harvey is back to his correct weight (hopefully I'll also be back to my correct weight after the exercise!) and so we can keep a check on his skin.

The temple is in a beautiful location - photo below is of the graves of some of the previous monks from the temple.

One of the best jobs we had over the weekend was the rehoming of lovely Luna who left Mrs. J's foster care (see final pic of them together - below). Paula and I took her to her new owner in a beautiful location just outside Kegalle. We had a very steep climb up to the house...... here's Paula getting a helping hand from Dogstar driver Sampath, a photo of Luna with her new owner who clearly adores her already, and the view back to the house. Of course Sampath (who is almost as naughty as Dennis....) couldn't resist trying out the stream for good measure.....

As usual, it wasn't all dogs for Dogstar! Luna's new owner asked if Dr Manjula could sterilise her two female cats so they were overnight guests at the Dogstar house. Both recovered very well and are now back at home.

Today we were delighted to have a visit from Dogstar supporter Julie Soldatic from Australia who came to

Sri Lanka

a week or so ago for her wedding! Julie came to visit the elephants at MEF, then took a parcel of goodies up to the Dogstar house to see our HQ. Current resident pup at the house - Fudge (who is adorable) was pleased with her new toy - which will keep her amused following the rehoming of her 2 sisters over the weekend. Fudge will stay with us at least until her sterilisation sheduled for next month.... Julie also visited Randeniya temple to see her sponsor dog Fugee and the two soon became good friends!

Finally (yes I promise this is the last paragraph!), Cleo at Randeniya temple (a dog we've tried to catch on numerous occasions and failed!) gave birth to 2 beautiful pups 3 days ago. We will now visit with extra food every couple of days for Cleo and to ensure that the pups are used to being handled and can then be scheduled in for sterilisation in a few months. Luckily, we found out that young monk Wimala at the temple is now able to handle Cleo so this will definitely be her last litter....

That's the round up for now - hope you've enjoyed reading about and seeing photos of our recent activity here. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Mo x

The one that bit back!

2010-10-12T11:18:00.000+05:30

You'll know from Sam's posts just how busy things have been for the Dogstar team over the past month or so, with volunteer vets from the UK and Denmark but here's a little catch up on news away from the operating table!

A very quick-thinking owner came to see us last week as his dog had been bitten by a cobra. A call to the University confirmed that the dog - Sheba - should be sent there as quickly as possible, so our driver Sampath in Dogstar 1 raced along the Kandy road to deliver Sheba in double quick time. Appropriate action was taken, and luckily Sheba not only survived but was well enough to return home the following day. It was only when he came back that Sampath told me that Sheba had already killed 3 cobras - unluckily for him his most recent victim turned and bit back!! Here's Sheba looking none the worse for his ordeal:

Sheba's namesake (female!) has now said goodbye to her 6 pups, all of whom have been rehomed to very caring owners. Here's foster mum Mrs J with 4 of the pups just before they left Sheba.

...... and here's mum Sheba spending a last few moments with her brood:

One of our tour guides, Jazz, at MEF had sadly lost his dog recently and had seen photos of Sheba and her pups and had asked about rehoming one of the male pups. Bobby - below - had been chosen but on the day of rehoming, Jazz decided that it would be better for Bobby to have another of his litter mates for company. Also below is a photo of Jazz and both his new charges - Bobby and Brownie.

Bobby and Brownie are now both settling down well in their new home and are regularly found in the kitchen with Jazz's wife!

On the day that the last of Sheba's pups left foster carer Mrs J, another litter of 4 female pups was 'left' at Hirriwadunna Temple in torrential rain. When I saw them they were huddled together for warmth but still shivering both with cold and fear. Mrs J to the rescue again - she refused to let them stay outside, gathered the 4 pups and dried them and they are how happily staying with her, Sheba and Mrs J's original 2 dogs! Named Millie, Ruby, Luna and Penny the 4 are doing well and we hope to find new homes soon.

As the pups are very healthy and also very pretty, we're sure that willing owners will soon come forward!

Sadly, this is not the only litter of new pups Dogstar have had to deal with, despite our ongoing sterilisation programme. Another litter of 4 pups was left at MEF recently but then moved to the Dogstar house for a day because of fears for their safety around the elephants..... The pups are all doing well and have been kindly taken in by one of the local temples. Here they are sharing a meal - with Dogstar's house cat Dennis waiting for any scraps (some chance......!).

Finally for this update, at a recent Dogstar community clinic an owner had brought his dog Tommy along and it was found that Tommy was suffering from TVT (transmissible venereal tumour) which needed urgent treatment - see photo. Last week, Dr Prashashini and I went back to Beragala where Tommy was treated with vincristine. Dr. P had taken an exam earlier in the day so attended the consultation in her sari! Tommy is now doing well and hopefully will need no further treatment.

So that's the news round-up from Sri Lanka from me. I'll be back again soon.

Mo x

High Drama in Hiriwadunna, Sheba/Hope update and a new man in my life!

2010-09-09T09:50:00.000+05:30

In my last blog I wrote about our lovely local street dog Jason who had an emergency castration when a wound was infected. Within days of his initial operation, Jason had managed to remove his 'collar' (aka waste bin) and then of course his sutures. So, we were left with another open wound which quickly attracted flies. Dr Prashashini decided that she would need to re-suture but it was clear that Jason was far from happy in the Dogstar crate where he had been so we could keep an eye on him and give required treatments. Again our lovely foster mum from Hiriwadunna, Mrs J, came to the rescue and kindly agreed that Jason could be homed with her until his sutures were removed and he could go back to Randeniya.

Despite loving the luxury of sleeping inside at Mrs J's (where of course we have Sheba and 6 pups......) Jason seemed to be missing his constant companion, Rosie, who also hangs around outside our restaurant and his discontent and constant nightly howling was becoming a problem for both Mrs J and her neighbours! However, things came to a head when a tenant who lives at Mrs J's left open the garden gate (I was not best pleased.........) and Jason decided to hot-foot it away, complete with his wastebin. I had a frantic call from Dr P, so Sampath and I then raced to Hiriwadunna to see if we could locate Jason. My main concern was that - with a bin on his head - his vision would be impaired on a busy road which he did not know. The only upside to the situation was that a very large dog wearing a dustbin was hard to miss! Sampath and I picked up Mrs J and Dr P en route and then - driving at breakneck speed - careered around the roads from Hiriwadunna towards Polgahawella. In spite of a couple of sightings that come to nothing, we eventually saw Jason along the main road about 2km from Mrs J's house. Jason quickly came to me when I called him, but it took 4 of us to rugby-tackle him in the middle of the road to get a leash on.

Once our blood pressure had returned to normal, we talked about the best way to handle Jason and Dr P agreed that he could come back to Randeniya (minus his helmet) as long as daily oral meds were given. Our lovely restaurant staff - who look after Jason very well - quickly agreed and Mrs J and I escorted him back. His delight on being back home was apparent to all - including girlfriend Rosie - and Jason's wound is now well healed and he's coming to the end of his antibiotic course. Here he is below with Rosie:

Sheba and her pups are very well and the pups are growing at a fast rate! All 6 have now been promised homes and Sheba will stay with Mrs J when her pups have all gone. One of our very happy stories. The pups are starting to open their eyes now and I'm sure will soon be a real handful. Here they are yesterday:

Mum and babies.......

Sleepy babies

This week I finally managed to get to see Hope (originally 'left' at Randeniya Temple and subsequently rehomed), whose sister Faith sadly died after an accident in June. She has turned into the most beautiful dog - her new owner looks after both Hope and her other dog Lassy very well. Both will be sterilised over the next month or so.

Lovely Hope (black and white) and camera-shy Lassy

The new man in my life is Dennis, a lovely young male cat who appeared outside my room a week or so back. He's in lovely condition so must have an owner somewhere, but no-one here seems to know where. Needless to say, after a cuddle and food from me he's decided I'm his new mum and is constantly around when I return to my room - he's a very gentle and affectionate little man and unless a real owner comes forward, he'll be on the list for our UK vets to sterilise when they come out later this month!

It's a hard life.....

I wish I was this supple!

Dennis taking it easy

That's the round up from Sri Lanka for now - will update shortly!

With best wishes to all

Mo x

Latest round up from Sri Lanka

2010-09-01T18:04:00.000+05:30

As our local vet, Dr. Prashashini, is doing her internship at Pinnawala Elephant Orphange she is holding evening and weekend surgeries during which she sees Dogstar patients. This means that I've not seen her quite as much over the past few weeks but this doesn't mean that our work here has stopped - far from it!

Apart from the day to day cases normally seen (booster vaccinations, treatment for mange etc), a lot of our time has been taken up with 2 particular patients - Sheba and Jason.

Sheba (named by us) was found wandering outside MEF on 13th August - very friendly and also very pregnant! No-one locally seemed to have seen her before, so we can only assume she was either 'left' here for Dogstar to look after or that she had travelled some distance before arriving here. The resident dogs here certainly weren't keen to have an interloper but Sheba managed to find her way up to the volunteer bungalow and slept outside that night. It was clear that Sheba couldn't stay here and luckily our previous foster mum, Mrs Jayarathne, kindly agreed that Sheba could stay with her. Sheba quickly settled there (with Mrs J's 2 other dogs!) and on Thursday 26th August she gave birth to 6 lovely pups - 3 boys and 3 girls. Here are photos of Sheba pre-birth and with her little brood.

3 days before the pups arrived

6 pups at 1 day old

Proud mum

Sheba is proving to be a great mum and the pups are coming on well. I'll be adding more photos as they grow. The best news though is that Mrs J has asked if Sheba can stay with her once the pups have been found homes!

Apart from finding somewhere for her to stay when heavily pregnant, Sheba really wasn't a great worry - unlike Jason a street dog who tends to spend a lot of time outside the restaurant at MEF. Worried staff had alerted me to the fact that Jason had a wound in the gents department so Dr P came to assess him and prescribed treatment. However, Jason was extremely difficult to handle and was sometimes not around to take oral medication. Over the course of a week or so, his wound became very infected and infested with maggots.

On 25 August, Dr P came to MEF armed with a dart pipe so we could try and dart Jason - here she is with the equipment:

As it happened, one of our chefs was able to hold Jason long enough for him to be injected without using the dart pipe, but he then proceeded to stagger up the main road with a team in pursuit with me trying to slow down traffic coming from both directions! He was quickly sedated and taken to surgery where an emergency castration was done. Here (shut your eyes if squeamish) are Jason's wound pre- and post-surgery.

Jason was put in our dog crate here at MEF but somehow managed to remove his fancy headgear and also some of his stitches so Dr P had to re-suture the wound. We were very worried that he seemed very agitated whilst in the crate; Mrs J came to the rescue again and kindly agreed that Jason could stay at her house until his stitches were removed. Jason is still there - living quite happily in her house - but we think he will be glad to get back to his familiar surroundings in 4-5 days once his stitches are out.

Here he is with his 'bin':

That brings the news from here up to date - Sam will be here in 10 days or so and am sure she will keep you all updated with our news!

Mo x

More of Mo's Dogstar tales from Sri Lanka

2010-08-11T10:43:00.000+05:30

Those of you who follow Dogstar on Facebook will be up to date with the news from Sri Lanka, but for everyone else, here's a round-up of what's been happening in Sri Lanka since my last post (which was some time ago!).

In late June we had a litter of 3 beautiful black and white pups (all female) left at Randeniya Temple. Sadly, they were not accepted by the other dogs there and took to living under a Buddha statue close to the main road. Sampath and I fed them daily and they quickly grew and developed very individual personalities.

We were offered homes for 2 of the pups, but very sadly Faith - pictured centre - was hit by a motorbike and sustained a skull fracture on the day she was due to go to her new home. Dr. Prashashini and a lovely foster carer looked after her for 2 days but we sadly lost her. Here she is being comforted by her little sister, Hope.

After we lost Faith, Hope spent a night cuddled up with Mo before going off to her new home!

Hope is now living with a lovely family who already had a pup, Lassy, and the two girls get along very well. Both will be sterilised at our September clinic. The remaining pup - Puppy - has also found a very good new home. Here are Hope and Lassy sharing a meal:

Dogstar have been working as you know with a number of local Temples, the lastest of which has been Beragala which is situated in a lovely location in the hills above Kegalle. The Thero there is a very caring man who is concerned for all the dogs locally and who now contacts Dogstar if there is a problem. Dogstar has recently helped with 3 cases - Peggy, Chooti and Midge.

We were called to see Peggy - a street dog - by Thero in late June, as he was very concerned about a massive leg wound. The Dogstar team went up to the Temple and eventually managed to locate and catch Peggy. When we found her, in addition to her leg wound (a nasty tumour) we also found she had a large mammary tumour so she was taken immediately to Dr. Prashashini's for surgery. Here are her wounds pre-surgery:

Post-surgery Peggy was moved to a foster carer and spent the next couple of weeks recovering from her surgery, during which time her general condition improved enormously and she turned into a very loving little dog. On 18 July, Peggy was well enough to go back to Beragala and happily, a local family have taken her in and she remains well and content. Here are some photos of Peggy recovering and back at Beragala:

Our second case from Beragala is Midge, a beautiful old lady with a big personality. We first saw Midge on a routine visit to the Temple to assess/treat all the resident dogs and were struck by how thin she was. Over the next few weeks, Midge received a lot of veterinary attention and we gave regular food/supplements in an attempt to put some weight on her. Here's Midge below:

Although Midge's skin condition improved a little and she put on some weight, she certainly wasn't improving as well as we would have liked so when Sam was here last, bloods were done and we found Midge had kidney impairment. We decided to put her into foster care (in fact she was 'swapped' with Peggy on 18 July) but despite all our best efforts we lost Midge early on 26 July. She was happy and pain free and we were glad to be able to offer her some comfort in her final days.

Hopefully Midge is watching us at Beragala from wherever she is; here's a general view from Beragala - what a beautiful place. No wonder Thero is so happy and serene!

Our final case from Beragala is another street dog, Chooti. Again Thero contacted Dogstar because Chooti was suffering from possibly the nastiest TVT we've seen. Here she was on first examination:

Chooti has now had several injections of vincristine, together with antibiotics to control infection. She's doing well and her TVT has now shrunk considerably. Here she is at the last check (a week ago) - Mo, Dr P and Sampath are going to see her today to give the next dose of vincristine.

Dogstar and Temples seem to go hand in hand these days!! In late June one of the Theros from Kolongalla Temple walked the couple of kilometres to Sampath's house to say they were worried about a little dog who hadn't been walking properly for a couple of days. When we arrived, we found a delightful male pup who we called Barney. We took him to Dr. Abeyrathne in Kegalle who diagnosed a fracture and we then took him to Peradeniya as it was considered surgery may be necessary.

It turned out that Barney's fracture had begun to heal and it was decided not to insert a pin. Barney's now back at Kolongalla Temple and his leg has healed very well so he's running around with all his friends there but still wees with excitement when we visit!

It's not all Temple cases though..... Over the past month or so we've dealt with the usual victims of road accidents, skin conditions and aural haematomas. One of our cases was pup Blacky whose owner contacted us to help with her skin condition. Here's Blaacky after her Taktic bath - her skin is now looking a lot better.

Dogstar has been very lucky having volunteer vet student Charly Oakley here for the past 6 weeks and she's been able to help not only with clinical cases but dosage charts, dog handling instructions etc. for our clinics. In addition, she and mum Clare (who gave the most wonderful donation of gloves, surgical sundries etc) have worked their socks off moving the Dogstar cupboards into the new Dogstar house! Here are photos from yesterday of the boys moving our office cupboard and Charly and Clare sorting them out the other end!

We also had a very curious visitor in the kitchen, determined to get in on the act!

Apologies that this had been rather long (but there was a lot to tell......) - hopefully things will be a little less frenetic over the next few weeks and updates more timely.

Mo x

I AM still here!!

2010-06-16T18:08:00.000+05:30

Sorry for the very long delay in sending a blog from Sri Lanka - somehow the days are just going by in a blur, so I am really looking forward to Sam and Mark coming at the end of next week!

Looking back there are 3-4 weeks-worth of stories to catch up on, so for now I'll just summarise the main events.

Firstly, despite all our efforts and brilliant sterilisation programme we have had a spate of puppies arrive. Our lovely Randeniya Temple dog Cleo - the only dog we have been unable to catch there because she is just too timid - gave birth to a litter of 3 pups around 5 weeks ago. Sadly, she lost one but the other 2 are doing well and Sampath and I are trying to visit at least every other day to give them extra food. Cleo is also responding well to regular feeding and now comes over and lets us stroke her head - a step in the right direction! With luck, we will gain her trust and be able to get her to the clinic before the next litter..

Here are Cleo and her 2 pups, (from left to right) Juliet and Romeo!

Cleo's pups are in a property just adjoining the Temple, and well away from the main road. Sadly, another litter of 3 female pups was left at the Temple a couple of weeks ago - they have not been accepted well by the resident dogs and have been sheltering under the Buddha statue which is rather closer to the road than I would like. When Sam comes next week, we'll go through some options for relocating. The 3 girls are absolutely adorable but as yet have no names - so suggestions please!! Here we are having our twice daily cuddle - all 3 girls are similar markings, but one has one spot, one has two and the other has a large black patch (maybe they should be Solo, Duo and Patch!)

Regular readers will know about our Mungo, Mary and Midge from Udakarandapone Temple. Sampath and I were there around 10 days ago to see Mungo who had a leg wound and the monk there suddenly announced that their mum had given birth again! She produced 5 pups (unusually 4 males and 1 female) but 2 have since died. The remaining 3 are in good health and we already have a home for one of the males. Here they are - again suggestions for names to Sam would be great!

On 22 May (during Sam's last visit) we held a very successful clinic at Hiriwadunna Temple where our lovely dog Pippa now lives. 16 dogs were sterilised and another 42 vaccinated and it was a very nice location for the day - as you can see below!

A litter of 3 young pups - left at Hiriwadunna Temple - were among the cases on the day and they recovered very quickly and next day were up and bouncing as always. The photo below shows them still in recovery and a little more sleepy!

Dogstar continues to provide supplementary food and medical care to a number of Temples locally and newest on our list is Beragala. The monk from that Temple was at Hiriwadunna on the day of our clinic and asked us to go and see the 6 resident dogs there. Whilst several are in reasonable conditions - apart from the bane of our life here, mange - one dog in particular has really needed our help. She's another Midge (somehow the name just seemed to suit). She's now had worm and mange treatment, vitamin supplements and gets extra food when we visit. Thanks to donations from our supporters, we have been able to provide a reasonable stock of food for Beragala - but more is always needed! Here's the last photo of Midge taken earlier this week when I went to give her a medicated bath. She certainly enjoyed her treat of mackerel afterwards! Hard to believe but she's actually starting to improve......

On June 5, Dr Prashashini helped by conducting a mobile clinic at Hiriwadunna Temple - mainly to provide follow up vaccinations for dogs who attended our main clinic in May. However, another case was Tommy who had a large tumour removed from his hind leg and which had become infected and needed dressing. Here's his rather horrid wound -

....and here he is after treatment and dressing.

At the same clinic, a couple arrived with their lovely dog Kella who had a very nasty aural haematomy. She was promply booked in for surgery the following morning - Dr. P did the necessary and Kella is now almost fully recovered.

Pre-op.....

Intra-op:

Post-op:

That brings us almost up to date but I can't close without the big story of last week.....on Friday, Sampath was asked to take a cat to the vet with a leg wound which the owner said the puss had for a few days (one of the other banes of our life - no sense of urgency on occasions). I didn't see the cat and Sampath trotted off with the cat in a carrier and owner in tow, to Dr. Abeyrathne our other local vet. Sadly, Sampath was bitten by the cat - who actually required an amputation - and he and I spent all afternoon at the local hospital in Kegalle for Sampath's post exposure rabies jabs - all 8 of them!! Don't think he's looking forward very much to the next 8 this coming Friday.....

Tomorrow I'm expecting some lovely people to visit who saw Dogstar listed on the Stuff Your Rucksack website and they will be bringing some much needed supplies.

I hope you've enjoyed the latest catch-up from Sri Lanka and I will try (promise) to send an update a bit sooner next time!

Mo x

More on the Temple pups....

2010-05-13T08:40:00.000+05:30

It's been a busy time since Sam came out last week. She has spent the past few days down in Moratuwa at our joint project with TAPA/Embark. The project has gone really well and was a great opportunity for Dogstar to forge stronger links with our colleagues from these organisations. Am sure Sam will update you all!

As always, there's been plenty of work here around Randeniya and this update is primarily about our collaboration with the Temple at Kalugalla. This Temple is in a lovely position on a hill and is about 30 minutes walk from here - much of it uphill, so very good exercise!

You'll already know that we recently moved little Boola and Lily from Randeniya Temple to Kalugalla and also that our volunteers have been caring for another 2 small pups - Lucky and Lady - since they were left at Randeniya. Sam and I moved the 2 small ones to Kalugalla last Friday and the move went very well. Although we'd thought Boola and Lily small, it was only when we saw Lucky and Lady next to them that we realised how small the latter were. Luckily for us, the wonderful monk at Kalugalla (known to us as Donny Osmond monk because of his beaming smile) is very keen on pups and was very willing to take a further 2. This now brings the population there to 2 adult males and 4 females, all under around 3.5 months and we'll do our best to keep it stable at that.

Here are a selection (quite a few!) of Boola (white/tan), Lily (brown), Lucky (smaller of the 2 white pups with an all white face) and Lady (the other white pup, with grey face patch) - they are just adorable.

When we went to check on the pups a few days after their relocation we were amazed (but pleased) to find that the Government vet team had been to the Temple and sterilised/vaccinated Boola and Lily. Looking at them rifling through my bag (above) it's clear that they recovered well for their surgery!! We're now planning to operate on Lucky and Lady once they reach around three and a half months.

Above is one of the gentle resident males - Harvey (who will be even nicer natured once castrated!) - playing with Boola.

Other news from the past week. Sadly, I have to report that the little street dog we called Peggy (the one with 2 toes missing on her front paw) sadly passed away. When we first saw her Peggy she was very old, sick and not easily handled. We can rest easy knowing we did all we could to fill her belly and ease her itchy skin in the week or so before she left us. RIP Little Dog.

BUT of course onto the scene comes another street dog - June. I'd noticed a very forelorn dog (well fed, but with very bad skin) outside a cafe on the way to Kegalle several months ago and had given some Frontline which helped for a while. On my return from the UK a few weeks back June looked in pretty poor condition so Dr. Prashashini assessed the dog and told us to give Prazimec D which would treat worms, fleas, mange etc. - very broad spectrum! Sam had suggested calling the dog June in memory of a recently departed friend of her mum - so we were a little surprised when June stood up and turned out to be a boy! Anyway, June is now our main street dog 'project' and our aim is to stop as often as we can to gain his trust.

This is June - a lovable old man who we hope will look rather more handsome in the weeks to come!

Our sterilisation programme via the lovely Dr. P continues and this week she castrated our lovely Oscar who you will know well from previous blogs. It was certainly time for his op to be done. Here he is in surgery on 10 May.....

and here's Dr P's lovely wound......

During surgery, Oscar's lovely owner Mr. Ranasinghe was like an expectant father with much wringing of hands and concerned looks - here he is comforting Oscar during recovery.

I saw Oscar the morning following surgery and he was bouncing around all over the place.

The following morning Dr. P did a similar operation on an 11 month old male called Burney - how great that people are now coming to us with males for operation!

Our house calls have continued and Dogstar 1 is finding its way into some lovely countryside - one of the perks of the job!

We took 3 lovely fluffy dogs and their owner to see Dr P for treatment for a minor skin condition - the dogs turned out to be mum (Teena), dad (Seeba) and son (Taffy). Here they all are:

Here's mum - Teena.

and here are dad Seeba (right) and the gorgeous son Taffy (left).

Apart from that, Pippa and crew at Hiriwadunna Temple are all in good form. Pippa and Mr. Ripley will be sterilised at our clinic on 22 May - but that's a story for another day!

Mo x

The Dogstar/TAPA/Embark project in Moratuwa

2010-05-03T18:39:00.000+05:30

The Dogstar team was delighted to be invited by Embark - a very large charity here in Sri Lanka - to work with them and TAPA (Tsunami Animal-People Alliance) in a large sterilisation/vaccination project based in Moratuwa, south of Colombo, where it is expected that around 500 dogs will be sterilised over the 20 day programme which started last week. Sam and I had already visited a previous TAPA clinic in January so were aware of their very high standards. Dogstar were asked to handle special cases - i.e. those other than routine sterilisation/vaccination - and Dr. Madira headed the team. I joined them to assist and take photos last Friday afternoon and worked with them until Sunday lunchtime.

Moratuwa is an area that was badly hit by the Tsunami in 2004 and damage is still evident in many parts - as you can see below.

The Embark team had special T-shirts made for this Moratuwa project, listing the various bodies involved.

Every day the TAPA van works in 2 ways; around 7.30a.m. the team of catchers goes out to net street dogs or collect owned dogs for sterilisation. The dogs are then brought back to the main base for operation - around 12 dogs per catch. Whilst the first batch of operations is conducted, Dr. Madira's team goes out with the van and 2 catchers to treat dogs out on the street. Here's the van ready to go out to do the treatment run. Once the van comes back, the first batch of sterilised dogs are taken from recovery back onto the streets and a 2nd batch netted and brought in. During their operations/recovery, the van goes out again to do treatments 'on the move'.

And here's the TAPA logo - well known by local people now!

The process for treating street dogs is straightforward - the dogs are caught in nets, necessary treatment given - mainly for skin conditions and parasites. The dog below is receiving ivermectin treatment for mange.

So the team knows which dogs have been treated, they are sprayed with dye before release.

Here's one case being released - no worse for his ordeal.

Here's another one of the street dogs who was treated for his skin condition.

This poor dog below had the biggest tick infestation I think I have ever seen - her ears, neck and back were crusted in them. I'm sure she will be feeling a lot better for her treatment!

Here are her ears......not a pretty sight!

On Friday, one of the dogs who was brought in for spaying was referred to the Dogstar team as a special case - you can see below the very large wound to one of her teats.

The doctors decided the best course of action was amputation...... Following this and her spay, the dog recovered well and was released back to the streets where she was found later in the day.

Also on Friday, a local owner brought in his lovely dog with a salivary mucucoele which was again referred to the Dogstar special case team. This was drained by the doctors and over a litre of saliva removed! Following this, he was sutured and left to recover.

The owners told the doctors that the wounds along this same dog's back appeared following previous treatment for his condition; however, the vet team were not sure of that.....

One of the things I noticed working with the team was how many young dogs had been brought in from the street for sterilisation. This little chap quickly recovered and was bouncing around again by the time he was taken for release!

Here's a young female.....the operation in the young pups was very quick (I timed 7 minutes in one male!) and straightforward, with a very small incision, minimal blood loss and recovery was very quick in all cases.

Here's the little one above, recovery from anaesthesia.

Here's another pair in recovery.........

and yet more tiny ones - a litter of 3 pups (2 male, 1 female) came in together.....here they are being prepared for surgery and the 2 boys in recovery.

Here's one of the small male pups following surgery - hard to see a wound at all!

One of the other problems commonly seen in street dogs is TVT and several cases were treated. The little dog below had been netted and treated for mange and was just about to be released when we noticed she too had TVT, so she was taken back to the main base, treated with vincristine and spayed at the same time.

The team are not only treating street dogs - many owners are actively seeking out the team whilst on their rounds. Here are some of the dogs treated on Saturday - all were dewormed and treated for skin conditions and parasites.

And the clinic is not limited to dogs! Several cat owners brought their animals for anti-rabies vaccination, these 2 girls included:

One of the most difficult surgeries I saw whilst in Moratuwa was a case of pyometra - the whole tract was very fragile but Dr. Manjula, a very experienced vet working with the TAPA team, managed to get it out and the dog recovered well.

2 further cases referred to the Dogstar special case team on Sunday morning were a dog with very pale gums who was given additional vitamins, and another parasite infection in the ear - you can see what came out of just one ear below!!

The final case I saw on Sunday was by far - for me - the most distressing. On our rounds in the morning an owner had asked us to see his dog who had a leg wound. When we saw the dog, it was tethered by a tight cord around the leg which had obviously caused the wound. We were then told the dog was not eating - when the vets lifted up poor Kadu's chin, he had a large maggot infested wound. It was agreed we would collect the dog on our way back to base - the owner came along too. Once sedated, Kadu's wounds were cleaned but it was clear the dog had been far from well cared for - apart from the wound under his chin, he also had 2 other maggot infested holes in his flanks. The owner has been given instructions on how to care for the dog, and will be followed up by the team in 2-3 days. Somehow, given the level of care he has received to date I left with the feeling that this poor dog may not survive.....but I so hope he does.

I feel very lucky to have been able to spend so much time working with this lovely team from TAPA and felt so proud of being involved with Dogstar's largest project so far. To know that so many animals have been sterilised and treated - which will improve their lives enormously - is very satisfying. I know that Sam intends to spend time on site when she arrives and am sure she will have plenty of other interesting cases and photos to show you in the coming week or two!

I think being asked to participate in this venture is an indication of the high regard in which Dogstar is held out here - so please continue your support of our valuable work!

Mo's latest update from Sri Lanka

2010-05-03T17:30:00.000+05:30

From Sunday 11 to Saturday 24 April I was lucky enough to have Liz Askell join me as a Dogstar volunteer. Lizzie had been at MEF as a volunteer last October and at that time became involved in our Dogstar work here. Lizzie's help was invaluable - any time I was unavailable Liz was able to take dogs to the vet for vaccination and/or surgery and to go out and do post-op checks. I've missed her since she's been back in the UK but somehow I think it's only a matter of time before she finds her way back here!

Here's Lizzie below with Mr. Ripley at Hiriwadunna Temple.

One of the ways Dogstar tries to maintain the health of local dogs is by keeping a careful check on vaccination schedules. Here's little Delifer below just off to have the next vaccination she was due.

This little ball of fluff (below) is Whiter, whose owners asked us to help with his vaccination schedule and costs.

You'll know from previous blogs that finding female pups left at our local temple is an all-too common occurrence and we had 2 small pups left a few weeks back. Luckily, the lovely monk at Kalugalla Temple had been asking me for more dogs so we managed to rehome our new Dogstar charges there. Here's tuktuk driver Kishantha with Boola (below).

And this is her litter-mate Lily. We asked the local children to name the pups hoping to get them more involved with the dogs from an early age.

Until recently, there was only one resident male dog at Kalugalla Temple but for the past few weeks this lovely chap who we called Harvey has joined the family. He's very protective of Boola and Lily!

The little kitten originally called Lily-Albert and now known as plain Albert(!) has now been rehomed and I am sure he will be well looked after. His new owner is someone who regularly brings volunteers to MEF so I know we can keep a check on Albert's progress. He stayed with me overnight recently and was a good little chap - although I panicked when I awoke next morning and couldn't find him initially. After some frantic searching I found him under the bed tucked in my suitcase!!

Those of you who have followed the blog for some time will know all about Pippa. She's now well and truly settled into the Temple at nearby Hiriwadunna and has come on well. She's a little bit bossy tho'..... Pippa is scheduled for sterilisation at our planned clinic in Hiriwadunna on 22 May while Sam is out here. She looks a totally different dog now to when we first found her earlier this year.

This poor chap Tarzan (below) was brought to Dr. Prashashini's clinic by his owner just over a week ago. He'd been fighting and had sustained a nasty head wound which had become full of maggots.

Tarzan was extremely good and allowed Dr P to clean out the wound. Because it was several days old, suturing was not an option and the owner was sent home with instructions on how to treat the wound....

Here's Tarzan cleaned up and read to go.....last we heard, the wound was healing very well.

Last week in the middle of a terrible storm some of our MEF volunteers came back from teaching at Randeniya Temple and came up to my room with 2 small pups, with a third at the volunteer bungalow. Guess what - all females!! 2 of the pups had lots of maggots so we took them directly to our second vet in Kegalle, Dr. Abeyrathne who cleaned them up for us and who gave the smallest (Lucky) antibiotics. She warned us that they were very small so we knew that we would be lucky to keep them all alive.... the volunteers wanted to keep them on site and we housed them in the dog crate we keep for emergencies.

Above is the largest of the litter - Lady. She's a feisty little pup who has settled well and is very bright and alert. Below is Scooby, who I thought may survive but sadly on her second day with us we lost her. The volunteers were devastated but I had to tell them that we lose a proportion of pups who are this tiny - they really are just too small to be away from mum.

And below is the smallest of the lot - Lucky - who I really feared we would lose as she had the worst maggot infestation. Dr. Abeyrathne,cleaned her up and the volunteers have done a wonderful job with her. She's still smaller than Lady but I think is over the worst. They're now both eating solids (and lots!!) and have been dewormed. Hopefully they will thrive and we'll probably place them at Kalugalla Temple where the dog population is small and where we can keep track of their vaccination schedule and arrange sterilisation at the appropriate time.

That's about the round up from here for now - I've just come back from 4 days down in Moratuwa working with TAPA and Embark which is really Dogstar's biggest project yet and which went very well. I'm posting a separate blog about it all so please check it out!

All the best from Sri Lanka!

Mo x

Dr Kate, Medicine Woman (Part Two)

2010-05-01T21:52:00.014+05:30

10/2/2010

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry for the delayed contacted I have been kept busy with vet stuff and internet has been down on the rare occasions I have had a chance. I'll be coming back to the uk for a rest!

So what have I been up to... probably more accurate what haven't I been!! We have been cracking on with the neutering ops, lots of bitch spays which touch wood have all gone relatively well though they have stupid silly intravenous catheters here that seem to be determined not to stay in the vein which is becoming irritating. I am also struggling with Sri lankan vets standards particularly of hygiene are SO much lower than ours at home, its not neglect on their part just a complete lack of knowledge, but its frustrating because it is something that could so easily be rectified it doesn't require expensive equipment etc to scrub in properly for surgery - though Sam has me on the case teaching the local vet scrubbing etc.

We went to 2 ancient sites the weekend before last - Sygyria or 'Lion Rock' as its known which is north of here was an ancient fortress thousands on years ago when Sri lanka had kings etc - literally a stroll compared to Adams peak - some of the spiral staircases were slightly hair raising in my case. The fortress is now in ruins though must have been a spectacular site as the rock itself is a feat of nature and its almost perfectly flat on the top. There is also a speactacular lion staircase with its paws flanking either side of the steps and its head/mouth open as you reach the summit. Unfortunately on the paws remain but they are still spectacular. Sadly it was a slightly cloudy day when we walked up but the views were still pretty good. After that we went to Dambulla which are caves that were converted into five shrines or temples - Buddhist after they provided shelter for an exiled king. All five are in varying sizes but have the most spectacular statues of Buddha and utterly breathtaking paintings on the walls. I could have quite happily wandered around all day. There is also the Golden temple at the same site with a golden Buddha hence the name - apparently the tallest Buddha in the world - a bit gaudy for me I prefer the serene all white ones.

Last week as I said we cracked on with the bitch spays - one in the garden of a sri lankan man with the wood pile shed in the background!! He provided us with a lovely lunch though as a thankyou. The bananas and pineapple as so beautifully tasty and sweet over here I'm not sure I will be able to eat them again at home!!

On Thursday am, Sam, Mark and I headed down the coast to join an organization called TAPA - Tsunami Animal people alliance. As the name suggests they were set up after the tsunami but now operate a mobile clinic along the coast neutering owned and stray dogs free of charge. Sam had seen them before and was keen for me to see how they operated and I was also keen to see the coast.

It took 4 hours to get down and we spent the rest on Thursday on the beach as it was Independence day in sri lanka so a national holiday and TAPA had the day off. The sand is beautifully soft and the Indian ocean is lovely and warm. We also went to a turtle hatchery. They pay the local fisherman for the eggs - above normal prices so they don't sell them to tourists and then bury them in a secluded site, wait for them to hatch then place them in salt water pools. The males are released at 3 days old but the females are kept till 7 years till sexual maturity. A lot more males than females are born so it is important they protect the females till they reach adulthood. They also have a hospital wing where the congenitally blind or those with deformed shells live out their days as they wouldn't survive in the wild. Some of the eggs hatched when we were there so we saw them dig out of the sand and then we carried them across to the baby pool! I was reminded of the turtles in Finding Nemo!!!

Working with TAPA was amazing, restored my faith as they are as near to western standard as is possible, they have had 3 months additional training before being a fully fledged TAPA vet. Though their bitch spay holes are so small!!! And they do them so quickly!!

Saturday morning we headed further down the coast to go whale watching!! Its been recognized in the last few years as one of the top places in the world as its a major migratory route. We went out about 30 nautical miles, taking about 4 hours in total, and we saw some bottlenose dolphins and blue wales. They are such beautiful creatures!! Though I might have been slightly sea sick on the boat : (

Monday was another 3 spays at one of the local temples - operating in front of the clergy - monks!! Then yesterday we went back to the vet school and did the touristy bits in Kandy the second largest city second to Colombo the capital. We went to the Temple of the Tooth - where buddha's tooth is claimed to be held hence the name and the Buddhist equivalent of Buddha, a very serene place with absolutely stunning wood and stone carvings. We also went to a smaller temple - Buddha on the hill which intentionally overlooks the temple of the tooth which has spectacular views across Kandy.

Today we have 2 more bitch spays lined up - my last ops here as Sam heads home tomorrow. We are TB testing elephant style tomorrow and I am having my elephant ride with Rani in the afternoon. I then plan to head to the tea country for Friday and Saturday then home Monday : (

Dr Kate, Medicine Woman (Part One)

2010-04-26T18:35:00.022+05:30

(Part One)

20/1/2010

Arrived safely in Sri Lanka and already feel at home, feels like i have been here ages. First 2 days have been non stop already!! To avoid jetlag i stayed up as long a possible yesterday so i went and met all the elphants then went on in a tuk tuk on house calls!! Nothing too taxing on my first day, just some post op checks etc. All very surreal driving around the countryside with palm trees and paddy fields, but very cool.

Today we went to the vet school to register me on the Sri Lankan Veterinary board so you may now call me Dr Kate!!! And i have another certificate to frame!

Sri Lankan vet school was a major culture shock, they have no nurses and just a big triage bit where the owners restrain the animals, badly!! loads of dithery vet students in the heat with dogs and cats with all manor of ailments!

On the way there we picked up an rta dog on the side of the road, not how we expected the day to pan out. She had the lower half of her leg amputated by presumably tuck tuck rta several days ago and was in terrible shock. So we stuck her on our laps in the back of the tuk tuk and carried on heading for the university. She kindly pooed on my lap on the way there! She picked up quickly on a drip and we have left her there to have her leg sorted. We named her Perry, so i have decided my guest vet naming theme for strays/nameless dogs whilst i'm here is to be beverages preferably of the alcholic variety!

Tomorrow we are off into Colombo, the capital, as a couple of the volunteers need their visas extending so i'm going along for the ride. Experiencing a bus journey Sri Lankan style!

25/1/2010

Still loving it out here, feel like i have been here much longer than a week and feel very at home. I have been a bit slack on the vet stuff so far but Sam is letting me alimatise to the heat and the culture!! I have been out on some house calls in a tuktuk! just skin stuff, stitches out, anti parasite baths etc. We plan to start operating tomorrow, a long list of neuterings has been stockpiled to keep me entertained! Will be a culture shock seeing as i am using a drug i normally sedate cows with as my pre medication and a drug considered to be archaic back home as my injectable anaesthetic!!

We went into Colombo, the capital, on Thursday. Very different from the rural Sri lanka i had become accustomed to. It has tried to become very westernised and ended up with a strange mix which seems a shame. It also turns out Sri lankan buses and i do not particularly agree, i was rather pleased to get off at either end!!!

I named my second dog according to my guest vet naming scheme, beverages (maybe particularly of the alcoholic variety) The first being Perry, who is doing well by the way and now Bailey a sweet little puppy that has been dumped at the local buddhist temple, though is in surprisingly good condition apart from a few fleas.

At the weekend we climbed Adams Peak, 2000 odd feet, 5000 steps!! We climed it sat pm/sun am reaching the summit for sunday morning sunrise. It a buddhist pilgrimage site with supposedly an imprint of buddhas foot at the summit. It took us just over 4 hours and god was i shattered but worth every step. The sunrise was absolutely spectacular with the monks chanting and banging drums in the background. Then the sun creates a perfectly triangular shadow of the summit despite the peak not being a perfect triangle, a natural phenomenon. Google it and be impressed!!

Its the election here tomorrow so we are staying local with visits etc.

28/1/2010

Been relatively quiet the last few days. We had the presidential election Tuesday and then results Wednesday so a public holiday and life is only just returning to normal. The whole of Sri Lanka seems to have stopped, the baker stopped baking, the restaurants and bars all stopped serving alcohol as the worry was alcohol would fuel problems. The locals around here are disappointed with the result, the current president remains in power, as it was pro the opposition around here.

Otherwise I did my first cat spay on Tuesday, slightly different from at home! But all went well in the end and 'Kitty' is recovering nicely, you will see from the photos that it is rather basic operating procedures here, aseptic as opposed to sterile.

We had then planned to do another cat spay and dog castrate yesterday but the cat escaped out the window into the nearby paddy field and we couldn't get near the dog as it was suddenly terrified!! I am know so grateful for owners just bringing their animals into the surgery. We went and collected 'Kitty' in a tuktuk!

Another quiet day today as we had planned to travel across to the university and pick up Perry. But she hasn't been operated on yet due to the world stopping with public holidays etc! Tomorrow is a 'Poya' day - full moon - another public holiday, I'm surprised anybody has attempted to have a normal week this week!!

We are off to Sigiriya and Dambulla, ancient sites north of here at the weekend and the plan is a another cat spay and dog castrate tomorrow - lets hope its not another repeat of Tuesday!! : )

(Part two to follow)

All your favourites and more!

2010-04-10T16:01:00.000+05:30

Things have been very busy here since I returned just over a week ago so thought it was time to update you on some of our old friends and some new ones. When I was in nearby Hiriwadunna - where Pippa lives - I came across another poor little dog now called Peggy. Here she is below:

Peggy is another little dog who lives on the streets and gets by on what scraps she can find, so Dogstar have now started trying to feed her every couple of days to make sure she gets some good nutrition. Peggy has two toes missing.......and at the moment has very little hair! She's still very timid but now knows that when we arrive she will get a meal. Over the coming weeks I hope we can improve her skin condition and maybe get to the stage where she can be vaccinated.

One of our previous cases - Mia - has done very well during my UK visit, as our MEF volunteers have visited her regularly. She's started her course of vaccinations and will receive more at our clinic tomorrow where we plan to vaccinate around 20 dogs.

Earlier this week I went out with our vet, Dr. Prashashini,to check on Sudu who had been castrated recently. He's doing very well - was extremely boisterous and managed to rip my trousers! - and he received more vaccinations during our visit.

Pippa has been one of our ongoing cases and I was very worried earlier this week not to see her for around 5 days. She had been living close to 2 other dogs, one of whom was becoming very jealous of her. Yesterday morning, a local man said he thought she may be at Hiriwadunna Temple and on arrival Pippa came running straight out to greet us! She's looking much better now and is a lovely little dog. The monk at the temple seems happy for her to stay and she will have her first injections tomorrow. We'll then talk to the monk about having her spayed. What a difference to the Pippa of 2 months ago!

Also at Hiriwadunna Temple we found the little male pup below - who has now been christened Mr. Ripley!! He's a sweet little fellow and he's now had a Taktic bath to help his bad skin. We've left food at the temple for the monk to add to the dogs' usual diet of rice and curry so hope Mr. Ripley will soon be looking a bit better.

The little kitten who is being cared for in the volunteer bungalow since its mum was killed in an accident is also coming along well. As it's hard to tell the sex, the kitten is now called Lily Albert to cover both eventualities!! She's still very tiny but very inquisitive and spends all evening playing with the volunteers and then falling asleep on them.

Little Sukumali - the only one of the litter of 3 pups rehomed at Kalugalla Temple to survive - was very sick just after I left for the UK and was taken to the University of Peradeniya for treatment. She survived and was found a home locally. She seems very happy with her new owner......and is growing up very fast.

Yesterday I took a lovely dog for spaying at Dr. Prashashini's and when we arrived this poor chap below was having his badly cut foot bandaged. His owner was able to pay for this treatment but Dogstar would certainly have done so were this not the case.

And now we get to the nasty photos........ The female for the spay is Kidi and she is a very lovely dog. She seemed very fit and well before surgery but it soon became clear during the procedure that things were amiss. It turned out to be a case of pyometra and the surgery was fairly long and difficult for Dr. P but she did a wonderful job (I did lend a hand where I could....). It seems the dog had had depo-provera and this is not an unknown side effect of treatment/ The most difficult thing was to ensure that the uterine tract was removed intact but Dr. P managed to do that. We can only think what may have happened to poor Kidi if she had not been put forward by her caring owner for sterilisation. Kidi was taken home but had to go back to Dr. P last evening as there was some further bleeding but this was dealt with and this morning Kidi is well and was very hungry! We'll keep a check on her over the coming days.

The photo below shows Kidi during surgery. I'd never seen a case like this before and was astounded.

And here's the tract after removal.....not a nice sight but we are very grateful to Dr. P for completing this difficult surgery and probably saving Kidi's life. I'll update the story in my next blog.

That's the round up for now. I'm looking forward to tomorrow as a previous MEF volunteer, Lizzie, is coming back to work with Dogstar for a couple of weeks and I know I can do with her help!

Bye for now from Sri Lanka!

Mo x

Word Cloud

2010-03-25T13:51:00.000+05:30

I thought I would create a wordcloud to show just want Dogstars Volunteers have been talking about for the last few years

Click on the picture to see it full size

Mo and the volunteer team will be back online next week with all the latest Dogstar news and updates and maybe a few new ways of keeping in touch

Final update - for now!

2010-03-08T19:36:00.000+05:30

I know a lot of people are following the story of Pippa with great interest - she's our lovely little dog in nearby Hiriwadunna who is taking up a lot of our time! Her skin continues to be a real problem - the photo below was taken a couple of weeks ago but I'm pleased to say she's improved since. She will need more care before we're really satisfied that she's comfortable...

Here's Pippa a few days later looking a little less sore

We've had a few very poorly dogs recently, and rather more traffic accidents than we'd like - over the past 2 weeks we had one road death, 2 dogs hit by cars and another hit by a motorbike. The stray below - who we called Spencer - had been seen around MEF for a few days with a distended stomach but we had been unable to catch him to take him for treatment. Sadly, on Sunday 28 Feb Spencer had managed to fall asleep under a car parked outside MEF which drove off and managed to catch his legs. Although he could still walk he was obviously in pain and walking very slowly and we were able to catch him. The photo below shows him being assessed by our local vet, Dr. Prashashini. However, as he needed X-rays we took him to Peradeniya where he was admitted. Spencer had an underlying liver problem which sadly affected his breathing and he died of respiratory failure a few days later.

We've seen a sudden - and worrying - increase in the number of distemper cases locally and are now planning a vaccination clinic on my return. Here are 2 of the cases presenting the other day - we're certain that the dog on the left survived as its caring owner brought it for treatment on the 2nd day it was sick. The other case was brought to us after over a week's sickness so we think that may be another story...

However, it's not all doom and gloom and the usual house calls and requests for help from Dogstar have continued. Here's one of my nicer visits - checking on the progress of a mum and pup who will both be scheduled for operations at an appropriate time!

On 26 February we had another 3 female pups left at Randeniya Temple which already - if you follow this blog you'll know! - has an excess of dogs to sustain. I spoke to the monk of another nearby Temple at Kalugalla and he kindly agreed to give them a home - and is already asking for operations for them! There is only one young resident male dog at the Temple and he showed absolutely no interest in the pups who have now settled down well and are being fed by me and our lovely volunteers below on a daily rota just until they get a little stronger - one was certainly from a different litter if size is anything to go by! They've been named Mocha, Latte and Sukumali from left to right below....

Here are tiny Latte and Mocha getting to know their surroundings..

.....which as you can see are beautiful and tranquil

Here are the pups waving goodbye at the end of our visit!

Talking of pups, we have some rather lovely little patients at present with caring owners asking for routine vaccination. The first is Rupert, who was rehomed from Udakarandapone Temple with a MEF office worker and beautiful Bailey who was rehomed from Randeniya Temple.

The final 3 pups are shown below. On the left is little Mia who is very tiny for her age and needs some skin treatment - she's been dewormed this week and is being fed by us and has a Taktic bath scheduled for tomorrow. The other 2 pups belong to a family en route to Kalugalla Temple who stopped our Dogstar tuktuk asking for their pups to be vaccinated and their courses have now started.

Well, that's the round up for now. We have a lovely group of volunteers currently at MEF who help as much as they can and I know all the dogs above will be in good hands while I'm back in the UK. I'm looking forward to getting back here to Sri Lanka on April 1st to catch up with them all again so will update you shortly after I come back.

Happy reading!

Mo x

Dr Pete gets published

2010-03-05T15:12:00.001+05:30

Peter Hiscox BSc, BVSc, MRCVS ( or Dr Pete as we called him ) volunteered with Dogstar last summer for a month. Pete wrote a article about his time with us that has been published in the UK Veterinary Times
Click on the page to read it full size

If want more info about volunteering with us please email volunteer@dogstarfoundation.com or visit our website www.dogstarfoundation.com

Dogstar donor Geoff on just where his money goes

2010-02-23T15:03:00.000+05:30

Dogstar has a small number of regular donors whose support makes an incredible difference to our work. Geoff is one of these "dog stars" and in 2010 he decided to come and volunteer at MEF/Dogstar for a month to see where his money goes....

Pippa had been making good progress with her fur growing & more signs of energy but as we passed late on Sunday evening at dusk I caught sight of her & thought I could see a wound on her shoulder. We fed her yesterday & whilst the wound had dried it was still bare of any fur. It’s possible she has been hit by a vehicle but we think more likely she is driven to scratch furiously by the myriad of fleas, ticks & old skin wounds – as her claws are quite long this can be damaging.

It is a difficult balance between subjecting her to the stress that treatment involves & not rushing things too quickly but Mo, with her experience of similar cases, thought now was the time to catch her & take her to the vet. This was achieved easily with a little food & she was wrapped in a towel by Mo who cuddled her during the Tuc-Tuc ride to the vets – both were remarkably calm. Pippa considering it was probably her first Tuc-Tuc ride & Mo because Pippa was riddled with fleas, many of which Mo was calmly picking off as we rode to the vet!

Treatment was 3 jabs (anti-parasitic, anti-biotic & steroid) which was stressful for Pippa & us (she did squeal as we held her for the vet) but “you have to be cruel to be kind”. We called in at Mo’s on the way back to return her to her stray territory & gave her a feed which she gobbled up so had clearly overcome the stress. She did whimper a little as we left her where we had found her but she will now be fed twice a day for a short while so treatment can be continued orally. As she recovers & looks cared for Mo is confident that, with sponsorship, a good home will be found for her – she is a delightful little dog.

To finish on a happier note, Rupert was taken home by his new owner yesterday.

you can read the rest of Geoffs travel blog "Pensioners Elephant & Dog Experances" HERE

Sorry it's been a while...

2010-02-18T09:57:00.000+05:30

It seems hard to believe that I'm already planning my next trip back to the UK and I haven't sent a blog from Sri Lanka! Sorry about that, but you know what they say about time flying when you're having fun... You'll know from Sam's blogs how busy things were here whilst she, and Kate, the volunteer Dogstar vet, paid a visit. Now Sam and Kate have departed, I'm lucky to have some keen MEF volunteers here who are always willing to help out with our work.

I'll start with the cats. Several of our local/restaurant cats were spayed by Kate and Domino - the noisy one - was one of them. She made a swift recovery and is now very friendly with another little kitten who has been named Schapps by our volunteers! Here they are below sharing some milk. Watching their antics in the morning gives us all a great deal of amusement, but we're having to stop Domino from pulling off the tablecloths! Not popular with the restaurant manager.....

The New Year didn't get off to a great start.....we were asked to care for a little pup who had been left at the local Randeniya Temple. She was tiny and not in great condition, but we did all we could for her by taking her to the local vet for some supportive therapy. The little one - Maisey - stayed with me in my room overnight on 1st January but very sadly died at 5a.m. on the morning of 2nd January. At least she was comfortable in her little bed and had some company....but still very sad.

Further sad news later in the month when lovely Tara, another Randeniya Temple resident, was killed on the road. She was one of the litter of pups who we hand-reared last Spring. She was a beautiful girl and I will miss her terribly - as a reminder to our readers, here she is below.

Well, that's the end of the bad news!! What great news for Dogstar to be granted WSPA member society status earlier this month! Here below is a photo of our local vet, Dr. Prashashini, helping out at the mini clinic held for our WSPA assessment on 3 January.

Following on from the WSPA visit, you'll know we were offered the chance to go and see TAPA (Tsunami Animal People Alliance) at work down in Unawatuna. We had a great day there, in lovely beach surroundings, and certainly learned a great day from the wonderful team down there. Sam, Mark and Kate have already paid a repeat visit and it's hoped we can work with them further as time goes on. Here are some of the team in action................. (nice shirts guys!).

We have on ongoing link with another temple at Udakarandapone, where the 3 young dogs - Mungo, Mary and Midge - were sterilised by Kate during her stay with us. Below is another of the temple dogs and her pups, born on 5 January. 2 lovely bouncing boys!

The pups have done very well and both have been found new homes with two of our restaurant staff - they'll be going to their new owners at the end of this week. Here below is fluffy Rupert....

and here's brother Jimmy learning about the world around him.

Visiting the Temple always gives me a welcome excuse to visit my lovely boy Oscar, who you'll recall was rehomed with Mr. Ranasinghe last year. Oscar is happy and well-cared for and has grown into a rather handsome young man.....

We have a couple of nice 'before and after' stories this time. Firstly, is Pippa who I saw at the next village - Hiriwadunna - in the middle of January. As you can see (left) she was in a pretty bad state with extremely sore skin and she certainly needed a good feed. With some treatment and regular feeding - the volunteers here all love her - she's now doing well and although she still has some way to go, there's a great improvement in her condition with her fur growing well and she's put on a lot of weight. Watch out for more news of Pippa over the coming weeks....

One of the happiest stories we have is that of Tarzan and Lizzie. Tarzan was brought to us last Autumn by his lovely owner, Mr. Somarathne, with a massively distended stomach and very poor coat condition as you can see below.

With help from the vet team at the University and regular medication, Tarzan quickly morphed into the lovely dog below.....and he has such a wonderful temperament.

When Lizzie came into our world towards the end of last year she was a great worry to us, not seeming to fit in with the dogs at Randeniya Temple where she had been dumped, or with the other females around our restaurant. It suddenly occurred to me that Tarzan's owner, Mr. Somarathne, could solve our problem and luckily he agreed to give Lizzie a home. Here she is when living on the streets, looking thin and unhappy...

and here she is now.....rehomed with Mr. Somarathne and Tarzan on 12 January. Tarzan immediately fell in love with her, so it was off to the vets the day for him the following day to dampen his ardour!

Lizzie is so lucky to have found this wonderful pair of Mr. S and Tarzan - she and Tarzan are now inseparable and spend hours playing together.

I'll be making regular visits to Mr. Somarathne to check on their progress and also to see how the poor old chap below is doing - he's a little dog who wanders around close by and whose eye needed some treatment. Hopefully, he'll improve over the coming weeks too.

One of the other Temples nearby (Halupitiya) asked us to assess their dogs recently. They have a core group of 4 females - all very well cared for as you can see - and we'll arrange a mini clinic as soon as possible for sterilisation/vaccination.

The mum at Udakarandapone wasn't the only one giving birth recently - close to Halupitiya Temple I was asked to check on another mum and pups a couple of weeks ago. She's a lovely looking mum and the pups are all doing well - Sod's Law that they're nearly all female! Mum will be sterilised in the next couple of months and we hope to find homes for the pups.

Another successful rehoming - to add to that of Lizzie, Rupert and Jimmy - was Bailey. She was another pup left at Randeniya Temple but with her good condition and pretty face we thought it wouldn't be long before someone gave her a home. The responsible new owner very quickly arranged for her anti-rabies vaccination and we'll keep a close eye on her too. Isn't she adorable?

Last but not least in my collection of stories from Sri Lanka is a 4 month pup called Roy. He was brought to us yesterday by his owner as he had suffered from diarrhoea for a couple of days and wasn't eating. We took her to our local vet who put him on a drip for a while and gave him antibiotics. I saw Roy yesterday afternoon and he was certainly looking better than he does below .......

Roy is being followd up by the vet today and hopefully within a few days he will be back to his normal bouncy self.

That's the round up from here - will try and do another update soon!

Regards Mo x

Adams Peak - Hayley Hornibrook

2010-02-15T11:18:00.002+05:30

MEF volunteer Hayley is one of the 5 people who with Sam climbed Adams Peak last month in Dogstar Teeshirts to raise funds and awareness , if you want to make a donation please visit www.dogstarfoundation.com for more information. Thank You

I'll give you the low down first. Adam's Peak is mountain, with a 7km literally vertical climb consisting of well over 5000 steps. It has been the focus for pilgrimage for over 1000 years, and Buddhists should climb the mountain once a year. It is in the top 3 things to do in Sri Lanka, but not many tourists do (as they are SENSIBLE!) We were 5 reasonably fit women on a mission. It would be easy...!

OK, so Saturday at dinner was a stock up on carbs, i had two plates of pasta and some chips for good measure! We were all buzzing, and i was very hyped up which is stupid because i should have been conserving energy! For a start, Kate was sick just before we left but was desperate not to miss out and so climbed on an empty stomach! Here are my supplies:

Walking boots
Warm clothes
Torch
Camera
Water
Purse
iPod
Phones
My legs (BIG MISTAKE! Should have taken someone else's!)

We left at 8 o'clock via minibus, and i got the back to myself, so made a pillow with my jumper, laid back, stuck my iPod in my ears and gazed up at the stars, amazed by what i was hoping to achieve that night! We drove upwards, round hills, more upwards, until i was sure we must be on the moon.

When we got the base of Adam's Peak, there were market stalls everywhere selling hats, jumpers, tea and food. We walked around for a while as we'd left in plenty of time, i bought a very woolly pink hat that makes me look like a marshmallow, and we used the most wonderful toilets, consisting of a hole in the ground that was so covered in poo and wee I'd rather have made my own. It didn't help that i had to use my torch to see anything and was like a balancing act desperate not to fall against whatever it was splattered up the walls! I know... what an exotic life it is out here!

The path up Adam's Peak was lit up and looked magical, like steps to heaven and it looked as if we'd be walking into thin air considering it was pitch black.
We started the climb at 12:55am, leaving plenty of time to get there for sunrise at 6:20am. At this point i was full of adrenaline, as i hadn't slept since 8am the morning before. At first we were OK, and played word games to pass the time and take our minds off the fact our legs were like jelly. January and February are the busiest times, so we were surrounded by people on their pilgrimages, and the atmosphere was brilliant. They were singing and chanting in Singalese, one of the chants almost sounded like their version of "Oggy oggy oggy oi oi oi". Moral was high.

After about half an hour, the 'Are-we-there-yet's?!' started, as my legs began to hurt and all we could think about was putting one foot infront of the other for 10 steps before we needed another rest! It wasn't as if we could get into a rhythm, as the steps were uneven and different distances apart..
We were feeling particularly pathetic when we realised that most native people were climbing bare foot or if not flip flops, while i was plodding along in my secure walking boots! To make me feel even worse, there were loads of men carrying up their children and two men we met were carrying up their Grandmother!! Now that is unconditional love! There were people who had fallen and fainted and were surrounded by others helping them.

Now being 5 Western women on a mission with our woolly hats, we were bound to attract some attention. You'd have thought, though, that devout Buddhists would have been intent on their pilgrimage. However, we proved a major distraction. A group of lads about 19-25 really took a liking to us. They would wait for us, corner us, watch us, try and talk to us. One asked me to marry him. I told him i was already married and to get lost. We were getting really annoyed, as normally i can deal with the attention out here, but when you are clinging onto the side of a mountain, trying to keep your legs moving, your eyes open and trying to breath as much oxygen as possible with the altitude, the last thing you want being a sweaty mess is some pervy Sri Lankans in your face. At one point we were very close to declaring World War 3 on the side of a sacred mountain, but i didn't have the energy. After a while we managed to lose them!

We had been told by a guide book that once you reach a railing, there are only 1,500 steps to go. We misjudged where this railing started about three times, and were clinging on to any hope as we prayed we could reach the top. After a while, we all started going at our own pace, and ended up a 3 and a 2. Sam and Alex paced themselves behind, and were finding it a little more difficult, and Kate, Paula and myself had to keep going or i would never start again! It was more climbing steps and when we got to the last hurdle, i decided i needed to go now or not at all, and Kate and Paula waited a little longer as i began the last ascent. As i was walking up, i turned round to see Sam and Alex had been taken in my a wonderful family that had held their hands and told them they were reaching the top.

I practically crawled up the last few steps. I was met by a huge temple crammed full of people in sleeping bags, jackets and hats standing and sitting, but just all packed in like Sardines. There were thousands of people, but not ONE white person (except me!) so i stuck out like a sore thumb and got all kinds of stares. I squeezed my way through the throng and sat on a step so i was in view when the others came up. That was a scary moment, and people would try and get as close to me as possible, so i firmly gripped my rucksack as close to me as possible. I was so relieved to see them, but by now i was beyond tired and exhausted and we were dragged up by the family. We removed our shoes, made about 4 donations to Buddha, and some monk grabbed my head and blessed me by whacking my head 3 times on a shrine. Just what you need after climbing a mountain when you're deprived of sleep- a headache!
It was so cold and i was in so much pain and was so uncomfortable, we all fell into a corner and i was in shock. That's all i can tell you. It took us a total of 3 hours and 55 minutes to climb, and yes i was happy i got up, but how on earth was i going to get down with legs on me like i had?!
At 6 o'clock we found a wonderful viewing spot for the sunrise on the steps outside the temple, and i sat there and watched the most amazing sight of my life. This view is world famous, and i can see why. The sun comes up from behind a mountain, and you can start to see rivers, mountains, and what's known as the 'hill country'. The sun came up a beautiful colour; it filled the sky with reds, oranges and yellows. I took pictures of the sun coming up, and there were drums played by monks over a tanoy to 'welcome' it.

We had to rush inside the temple and out onto the other side to try and see Buddha's foot, which is a perfect triangle shadow cast by the sunrise over a hill, which is Buddha's step into paradise. We should have then made a quick exit, and you are advised to in the guide books before the morning prayer starts, but we were suddenly ordered to the ground, and monks came round banging drums and people were blessing sacred things and then some man started singing prayers through a tanoy RIGHT above my head. This is the point where i silently burst into tears from being so over-whelmed and in utter disbelief as to where i was. That took about half an hour, and then we began our descent. This was as bad, if not worse than the climb up, as my legs were no use, and i was terrified they were going to collapse everytime i took a step down and in a second i'd go tumbling down the side of the mountain. I felt like this approximately 5,200 times.

The views were amazing, but by now i wasn't interested. I was just intent on getting back to the minibus and resting. The way down took about 2 and a half hours, and i could not believe i'd literally just walked up the same steps and made it. I was beginning to feel so proud of myself, and Paula and i were ahead by the time we got to the bottom and saw huge fields where tea was growing, and some ladies picking it, as you see in the movies, with their baskets on their head. They were very happy to pose for a couple of pictures before demanding money!

When we finally got back to the minibus, i removed my walking boots to reveal swollen feet and ankles! I did my best to sleep on the uncomfortable, bumpy 3 hour journey back, but didn't manage to sleep properly until we got back to MEF at 1:30pm and i collapsed on my bed for 2 hours. That night i slept another 11 hours!

I may have been exhausted and beyond anything i've ever felt before (physically and mentally!), but my primary feeling was pride, and a sense of achievement. I couldn't help but beam everytime i remembered what i'd managed to achieve and i'm sat here beaming now!

I dare you to try and beat that for a Sunday morning!
Chow!
Hayley

Experances at MEF/Dogstar - Deeba Hudda

2010-02-14T12:47:00.000+05:30

After a somewhat trying experience on my first project in Sri Lanka, I was somewhat apprehensive to discover what awaited me at the Millennium Elephant Foundation (MEF). In truth however, all my fears dissolved as soon as I met my two lovely fellow volunteers, Monica and Hayley and was warmly welcomed by Mo and Sam

Mo and Sam, in my opinion, deserve a paragraph to themselves. Both these women, although they will deny it themselves, are remarkable and inspirational. Not only have they given up their lives in England and go without seeing friends and family for stretches at a time, but while they are in Sri Lanka they work tirelessly and passionately to help both the animals and local community voluntarily. Added to this they both welcome volunteers with such generosity that you immediately feel at home.

Mo is the volunteer coordinator for MEF and is a cross between superwoman and Audrey Hepburn. She is super organised, always willing to help and amazingly ALWAYS glamorous. Sam and I have spent many an evening pondering how it is possible to turn up for temple painting (and infact leave the event) as the epitome of elegance when I for one looked like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards and then put a wet finger in a socket.

Sam is the founder of a separate project called Dogstar which she initiated during her time as a volunteer at MEF. Both projects, although separate charities, are located in the same vicinity giving volunteers the unique opportunity to get involved in both if they so wish. Dogstar helps stray, abandoned and sick dogs. It funds medical treatment for owners who cannot afford it and educates locals on important matters such as sterilisation and rabies. Sam is just incredible. She has devoted herself to the project wholeheartedly and is so passionate and enthusiastic that it is infectious. My many conversations about a broad range of subjects is one of my most memorable and enjoyable memories.

OK so in terms of the actual project, your day usually starts early. You get to work with one elephant and its mahout (keeper) during your time at MEF. This is really incredible as you get to build a bond with both. Although biased, I think I lucked out with my pair and I absolutely adore both Madhu my adolescent elephant and the cheeky mahout Sanjeeva (although I will deny all knowledge to his face!!). You start off by cleaning the elephant's bed - yes this does mean picking up elephant poo I'm afraid. It is not as bad as you think and it is almost like an exercise routine as you energetically hurl these ginormous elephant turds as if they were shot puts.

Next is washing the elephant in the river using coconut husks. There is a science to this as some of the mahouts tried to explain to me, although I'm not sure I quite grasped it. After a vigorous scrubbing you've now achieved the toning part of your workout - goodbye bingo wings!!

The final part of the morning is preparing the elephant's vitamins and hiding them in a doughy treat. You then get to feed it to your elephant and brush their feet.

There are very few people in this world who can claim such a wonderful start to their day.

Afternoons are much less structured which allows volunteers to participate in a range of tasks and even get involved in areas that particularly interest them. During my time I helped paint a temple, look for stray dogs and teach local children. The only activity that was timetabled in the afternoon was gardening. This was hard work in the midday sun but I have fond memories of Bandera (the assistant gardener) who seemed to relish handing me (and noone else) a massive shovel every day and smiled cheekily at me as I tried in my girl-like fashion to hack and plough the soil.

All in all my experience at MEF was phenomenal because I got hands on experience in a number of areas but even more so because of the warmth, generosity and humour of ALL the people I met there from Mo and Sam, to the mahouts, to my fellow volunteers and the wonderful staff at the restaurant. No day passed without laughter and I shall treasure my memories at MEF forever. Here are a few of my highlights (in no particular order)

- Getting stuck ankle deep in elephant poo and Hayley having to pull me out. The mahout only realising about 20 mins later, looking at my poo ridden feet and yelling 'OH MY LOOK AT YOUR FEET'
- Elephant ride on Madhu on my last day and Sanjeeva ordering Madhu to keep spraying me incessantly for 10 mins until I was soaked to the bone
-The elephant race and how fiercely I believed Madhu would win. I still say it was fixed! :P
-Sanjeeva singing every morning especially to his crush as she walked across the bridge
- Chandana and his cheeky pranks
- The bond between the mahouts and their elephants
-Hayley and Monica - two incredible girls and friends
- Sam and my chats about anything and everything
-Club concept, the pancakes and the great staff ( one of them told me I looked like a movie star! Not sure what movies he's watching?!)
-Mo's warmth and glamour
-Sampath's curry packets and the Dogstar tuk tuk
-The smiles of the local children when teaching them
-The excitement of a washing machine in the bungalow and philadelphia in the supermarket
-Outdoor showers (don't knock em until you try em)

Deeba Hudda

Sorry for the lack of updates

2010-02-13T23:56:00.000+05:30

The internet at MEF is currently defective and other than Mark on his phone none of the volunteers have been able to get online to blog

Mo and Kate our Volunteer Vet have been saving up all thier news and hope to get online to update you all shortly

Sam

Finally!!!

2010-02-08T18:50:00.003+05:30

On Sunday the 7th of February 2010 after over 1000 Dogstar operations, I watched one!!! And did not fall over.

Whilst we spent time with Tapa I decided I had to watch and see so that I could help out. The look of shock on samantha, kates and dr madulas faces would have been worth a picture. However I was far to interested to see the Tapa vets in action :-)

Mark

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Howards Way

2010-02-01T15:29:00.002+05:30

Howard is one of the Mef strays! He has been here a while and up to today had avoided the "operation". Sam, Kate the vet and Mark decided enough was enough and today was the day.

So tablets to make him drowsy hidden in tasty fish, then a quick muzzle and slip lead and away we go. Or so we thought ....

He took quite a while to become drowsy, and even then he really did not fancy the lead and muzzle. So to cut a long story short, Samantha and Kate are pleased to announce that Howard has now had the operation :-) Mark is less pleased to announce that he is off to the hospital tomorrow. A quick course of post rabies exposure jabs, as Howards teeth (well one of them) went right through the thick rabies gloves straight into his arm.

Howard is now sleeping and recovering.

Just a little update...

2010-01-31T17:52:00.002+05:30

I have been in Sri Lanka a little under 24 hours. Not done a great deal so far, I have just watched Sam do all the work....

Sam took me to see little Pippa today, we gave her some food and some more medication.

Despite her condition, she wandered over wagging her little tail and was so pleased to see Sam and Sampath. As we fed her and Sam treated a wound on her ear, some random old fella wandered over to say thank you for treating her and saying she was looking better?

(all the volunteers here have been travelling down and feeding Pippa over the last week plus)

More updates to follow :-)

Mark

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hello from Dogstars newest Volunteer Liz

2009-12-19T22:06:00.002+05:30

Hi everyone!

My name is Liz Askell, I'm 24, needed a change so managed to wangle a month off work, this led me to Sri Lanka!

I wasn't aware at all of Dogstar until I arrived at MEF, I met Mo and joined her on some adventures, we went to the university hospital to pick up Ginger (broken femur) and Tarzan.

Seeing some of the dogs at the university was difficult but also amazing, the conditions, and what the vets do are fantastic there.
It takes a while to get used to how cheap treatment for the dogs and cats are out there, that's why donating even a small amount can treat numerous dogs.

I ended up more Mo's little tag along frequently after that and we visited various other temples meeting and feeding, Oscar (as you know Mo's special man) and he now is a massive success story of being re-homed into a fantastic family.

I think stories like this proves the work that dogstar do is invaluable.
I need to talk about my special dog Lizzy. Lizzy, was dumped with two puppies at the local temple and was extremley skinny, she couldn't feed her puppies because of this too.
She was always outside the restaurant but with such a beautiful face, couldn't really resist giving her most of my meat every dinner time. By the time I left she was looking a lot more filled out and with the promise from Lucky (waiter) to keep feeding her I felt relieved.

Throughout my time we treated various other dogs, and sterilised two cats (mother and daughter) ironically all cats out there are called Kitty which I still find hilarious. Dr P my new vet buddy did this and it went very well with both cats making a brilliant recovery

Mo went away for a couple of days and I thought I'd better get stuck into the elephant activities before I knew it there was a young guy, and a alsation turned up,

as I'm fluent in Sinhala (NOT) it was fun trying to work out what was wrong, but the owner, showed me his neck, turns out Max got into a fight 2 weeks ago.

Max had a huge chunk out of his neck missing and a punctured toe. I summoned Dogstar 1 (Sampath) and we took Max to Dr P, she cleaned him up gave him ARV and some vitamins too. Owner was very grateful so fingers crossed that's cleared up!

Overall the best 3 weeks I've had, I am definitley returning and it's even made me think about my career and realise I want to go into charity work!

thanks Mo and Sam for all your support, hope to be doing another blog soon!!!

Liz xx

Farewell Sri Lanka (well, almost!)

2009-12-04T18:22:00.004+05:30

I can hardly believe it's almost time to leave Sri Lanka again.....I'll be setting off for the airport at 7.30 tomorrow morning. This has been a busy week, trying to get as many Dogstar patients seen as possible and following up on those already under our care.

Yesterday with Liz - one of our MEF volunteers - I went to take out Ginger's sutures following her operation on her fractured femur. Despite being in the cage with 4 other dogs, the wound has healed amazingly well. She's still a little thinner than her litter mates (who are all now relatively rotund!) but I dropped off some food there too and hope that she manages to get her fair share. Here's Ginger below.

Oscar is thriving with his new family and is growing at a good rate too! Here he is having a cuddle before I go off......he will of course be visited by me very soon after I come back to Sri Lanka on 23 December.

He's now looking very much better and seems happy with his new family - the children certainly love him and it's a treat to see his tail constantly wagging.

A final check on the pups at Udakarandapone Temple found them all well and as cheeky as ever! Below from the left are Midge, Mungo and Mary.

Mary was taken to the vet yesterday for her follow-up vaccination - Mungo and Midge will see Dr. Prashashini next week. She's kindly offered to visit the temple to do the vaccinations (rare here, as vets do not usually do house calls!).

The 2 remaining pups at Randeniya Temple - now called Rosi and Pip - are also doing well (but need a good home......). Here they are with Liz and Sampath - Liz has enjoyed working with the dogs so much that she's planning to come back next year as a Dogstar volunteer!

And here's mum, Lizzie, looking a little better than last week. Her fur is starting to grow back well and she's putting on weight (mainly as a result of the volunteers giving her left-overs - very much frowned upon, but very necessary!).
This week has seen more torrential rain - and more flooding. Sadly today I learned that Locu Nangi's pups became victim, with 3 of the 5 being lost earlier this week in flash flooding. So very sad as one of them (the male) had been offered a good home here.

That's pretty much a round-up of the week so for now it's goodbye to Sri Lanka. Dogstar has left a float with both Sampath and Dr. Prashashini so that they can continue our work here - several appointments for follow up vaccinations/treatment fall during my time in the UK.

Normal service will be resumed after 23 December.

We've made it! 1000 sterilisations!

2009-11-29T13:55:00.003+05:30

This morning Dogstar Foundation organised the sterilisation of our 1000th patient!! Even if I say it myself, what a fantastic achievement this is. I was approached last week by Mr. Mohan who lives in nearby Dimbulgamuwa about ARV for his pomeranian, Shaggy. This was organised with Dr. Prashashini, the new vet we are using a lot here. Mr. Mohan then asked about sterilisation and after discussion with Dr. P this was organised for today. Here's the clinic that Dr. P shares with her senior partner, Dr. Gunathilaka.

And here's another interested customer - there when we arrived this morning!

Shaggy is just 6 months old and it's nice to know that some owners are keen to get their pets sterilised at that time. Mr. Mohan is obviously very fond of Shaggy and fussed her all the way to the clinic. Here she is pre-surgery, looking very bright and bubbly.

And here are our team of Dr. Gunathilaka (on the left) and Dr. Prashashini.

Below is a photo of our 2 vets, Sampath our driver and Mr. Mohan, Shaggy's owner (yellow T-shirt).

And here's Shaggy post-op, looking well. Our vets always keep animals in the clinic until they are fully awake and deemed ready to go home. I'm sure that Shaggy will be sleeping a lot today and she's been given long-acting antibiotic and pain-killers to keep her comfortable.

No doubt we'll have a small celebration here tonight........and I hope that Sam and Mark and everyone on the Dogstar team in the UK will be doing the same. That's the least they deserve.

Will send a final update from here later this week.

It's Good News Week!!!!!!

2009-11-27T07:49:00.006+05:30

And it will be even better when we hit our 1000th sterilisation this coming Sunday!! But that's jumping the gun a bit - so here's a rundown of news from the past week.

Following last weeks storm and flooding here at MEF, things have gradually got back to normal with the office and museum fully functional again. However, the roof of our deck area which was worst hit by the flooding was finally pulled down this week. The whole area will need rebuilding - we hope this is soon as it's a lovely area for visitors (and volunteers!) to sit and watch the elephants bathing in the river.

In early October I wrote about Shaggy - see below - the little pup from Dimbulgamuwa. To be honest I really never expected her to survive but these little dogs here are extremely hardy. Shaggy has very caring owners and with Dogstar's help Shaggy pulled through.

This week I took Shaggy for her ARV at Dr. Prashashini's clinic - here she is below, a happy and healthy little dog. What a transformation from the photos above!!

Here she is having a cuddle with Sampath, our driver.

The female and her pups left at Randeniya Temple are also doing well. We called mum (Thin) Lizzie - she's a lovely dog and is responding well to extra feeding. We had her checked out by the vet and as yet, she's not well enough to have ARV but was given antibiotics and vitamins for her skin condition and an ear infection which are both now under control. Our only concern is that the other female dogs at the temple are not that keen on her...... Here's Lizzie waiting for some food near MEF.

Having been taken to the vet in Sampath's tuktuk, she's taken rather a liking to it and we often find her waiting in it whilst it's parked up!

Tarzan's owner, Mr. Somarathne, has kept in touch with me regarding Tarzan's progress and yesterday he turned up with a much improved dog. Tarzan's condition seems to be responding to treatment (which will need to be long term) - but he's now eating and drinking well and his coat looks much better within the space of a week. Tarzan is lucky to have a very caring owner in Mr. Somarathne and it's good to know his quality of life is now good.

The final great bit of news concerns my special boy Oscar (you'll remember his first photo, below). Subsequently housed at Udakarandapona Temple, we had news this week that he had been re-homed. Our first visit rather filled us with concern as his new owner seemed not to be providing the level of care we'd like. However, we went through a list of 'musts' (i.e. clean drinking water available, a clean dry bed etc) and our next visits over the following 2 days proved our concerns to be unfounded.

Oscar now has a little home in a sheltered part of his owner's garden.

Yesterday, two of the volunteers and I went to see Oscar and Mr. Ajit Ranasinghe, his owner. We were welcomed into the house and Oscar was extremely playful and clearly is very happy - his tail did not stop wagging the whole time we were there. Mr. Ranasinghe has 3 young children who also like playing with Oscar. You'll know from previous posts that Oscar is turning into a bit of a thief - while we were at his new house yesterday he ran off with the little boy's toy car and tried burying it in the garden!!

Here's Oscar and Mr. Ranasinghe. I've now left Oscar's mineral supplements with his owner but will pop and see him before I leave for the UK next weekend.

Finally, here's the Ranasinghe family with their new friend.

It's so good to end on a positive note but also so rewarding for me to see the difference that Dogstar is making to many animals - and their owners.

I'll send a final update for this trip towards the end of next week.

Boy, what a week!!

2009-11-23T11:53:00.007+05:30

Hello again from Sri Lanka! You'll know from previous blogs that we're now well into the monsoon season - well, the big news this week was a major flood here at MEF in Randeniya. Last Thursday evening - in the space of just over an hour - the river rose over 20feet flooding our museum and offices and stranding the volunteers in the restaurant across the road. Our deck roof collapsed and all the chairs and tables there were washed away. We were all standing in about 2ft of water in our museum - see the photo below of the flooded museum!

This is the clean up operation on Friday morning - all hands on deck!! To give you some idea of how deep the water was, the ground in the foreground in front of the museum building is about 12 feet above the river and the waters rose to just above the yellow paint on the walls below - well over the top of the steps you can see behind one of our volunteers.

Here's our decking area (well what's left of it....) with its collapsed roof.

Here are 2 more of our volunteers digging out the steps down to the river - needless to say, everything here was covered in a thick layer of mud once the river level dropped.

Our mahouts moved all the elephants very quickly, but of course we were all concerned about our local animal friends - luckily, everyone seems to have come through unscathed.

Since Sam left it's been back to the usual round of home, vet and temple visits. This week I managed to get to see the dogs at Anasigala Temple near Mologoda where the vets had vaccinated all the dogs on 7 November and had given them treatment for mange. All 7 dogs were pleased to have a visit, although they still obviously need further treatment - see Henry below.

The dogs at Randeniya temple are generally in good shape at present - apart from Ginger (and more about her later.......). Below are Fugee, Goldie and another of Ginger's litter mates having a girlie moment.

Sadly, we had another litter of pups dumped with their mum a couple of weeks ago. One of the pups which had been struggling died last week. I took some comfort from knowing that I had been able to feed her and give her fluids on her last day.

Here's one of the remaining pups (as yet un-named - any ideas welcome!) who seems to be thriving.

And here's the other one!

I'm now dodging between 3 temples and am visiting Udakarandapone temple every day to feed Oscar and give him supplements. I'm going back to the UK on December 5 for just over 2 weeks so want to ensure all the 'weaker' dogs are in as good shape as possible before I leave. Mungo from the same temple is now looking well and his front legs are now almost straight..... Here he is by Dogstar 1 (the new name for Sampath's tuktuk!).

Oscar has been in the wars a little - the older female dog at his temple really doesn't like him at all (I have no idea why when he's such a poppet!!) and she's bitten him twice over the past couple of weeks. Firstly, she damaged his back leg and then last Saturday bit him on the neck which needed patching up but luckily didn't need stitching. Every day I feed him on his own and he's starting to fill out and look better now. Here he is a couple of days back in his favourite position (on my lap!!).

Sampath and I had a long trip to the University of Peradeniya last week with not one but two dogs. One of the Randeniya temple dogs (Ginger) was hit by a car one evening, fracturing her femur and another dog who has been backwards and forwards to local vets - Tarzan - was also referred for further examination.

Here's Sampath (below) at the end of a four hour wait for me to emerge from the clinic!!

Poor little Ginger must have been in a lot of pain with her fracture - see below how swollen her leg was on Wednesday pre-surgery. She had an operation on Thursday to pin her leg and we collected her on Friday. Tarzan was also discharged then - he has a liver problem which is compounded by the fact that he has a congenital heart defect, but the vets think he will be OK with continued treatment.

Ginger also had a very nasty looking fluid filled sac on her abdomen, but luckily the vets advised there was no rupture or hernia to deal with. This is now gradually subsiding....

Because there are so many dogs at Randeniya temple, I decided to keep Ginger with me for a few days to allow time for her wound to start healing before taking her back. She was a model patient and quickly took to sleeping in her makeshift bed (a large washing up bowl!!) - or cuddling up on the bed in the morning!!

Here's Ginger with Liz, one of our volunteers, on her last evening with us before going back to the temple.

I'm seeing Ginger twice a day to give her antibiotics and to make sure the wound is holding and as of this morning she's making a good recovery.

Sam and I made contact with a new vet surgery locally and the young doctor there - Dr. Prashashini - is proving to be a great find. She's even happy to do mobile calls which none of the other local vets seem prepared to do. So far, she's seen several dogs for vaccination (and has been out to Udakarandapona temple to vaccinate the dogs there), has referred Tarzan to Peradeniya and has sterilised 3 cats, the latest 2 of which were seen last Sunday (22nd). Here's Dr P below with - believe it or not, Kitty - preparing for surgery.

Here are Kitty and her 8-month old daughter, Chuuti, who was also sterilised at the same time.

Here's another photo of naughty little Oscar this morning, mugging me for my handbag......

Finally, because of concerns about the sheer number of dogs at Randeniya Temple, the handyman there has built a cage to house some of the dogs. He's made a pretty good job of it and will be making a 2nd very soon. I'm making sure that all the dogs are let out regularly for exercise and there's always plenty of water available for them. Ginger is also in there with the remaining 4 of her litter mates - initially I was quite concerned about this as I'd wanted her in there alone, but she seems to be coping well and at least is out of the damp and sand which is probably better for her wound.

That's the round-up from here for now. Will be in touch again before I leave for the UK on December 5!

Best wishes

xxx

More from Mo

2009-10-26T10:09:00.005+05:30

You'll know from Sam's blog just how busy we've been since her return - and I certainly wasn't storing up work for her!! During the week before Sam arrived I took one of our local cats to Dr. Abeyratne for sterilisation. The photo below shows Chuuti ready for surgery.

When opened up, Dr. Abeyratne at first thought that Chuuti may be pregnant - however, it turned out that she had a very large fluid-filled cyst. Dr. Abeyratne removed this during surgery and her owner realised that had he not taken the cat for sterilisation, this cyst could have caused problems for his cat over time.

I couldn't wait to show Sam my new love Oscar (see blog of 17 October) so still bleary-eyed from travel, Sam came with me only hours after arriving in Colombo. We'll be seeing him later today to see how he's recovering from a nasty dog bite he received at the weekend and which was stitched by Dr. Abeyratne yesterday. I had news from the monk at Udakarandupona temple that Oscar was fine this morning, but he'll get more pain relief when we see him.

Our clinic on Saturday was, as usual, very busy but also a great success. Below are some of the owners who brought animals to us, waiting for them to recover from surgery.

And here are their pets in recovery.

Our day didn't end at the clinic tho' as we had to return the vaccine box to Kegalle. On the way, we dropped off some antibiotics to the owner of Podi Nangi - as usual you'll see from Sam's blog, lots of the village turned out! I was then asked to accompany a man down a very steep and winding track not knowing what the problem was - but it turned out to be yet another request for sterilisation! Dogstar's reputation is certainly reaching the very rural parts around here (great!).

Poor old Oscar wasn't the only casualty at Udakarandupona temple this week - Mungo, one of the 3 lovely other pups there, had an eye injury (poking around in places he shouldn't have been no doubt!) so Sam and I took him to Dr. Abeyratne for a benicillin shot on Friday.

I think we'd both rather hoped to have a quiet day yesterday, but Sam and I did the rounds again giving a Taktic bath to Shaggy in Dimbulgamuwa and treating 4 dogs with Frontline in the morning, and our afternoon was spent at the temple with Oscar.

At least the evenings are relatively work-free (although I do get the odd call during the evening) and last week 2 of the volunteers and I went to a music show that our local tuktuk drivers had organised. One of the main organisers was Sampath, who does most of our Dogstar work for us. We had a brilliant time - below (as one of the sponsors) I was asked to light one of the blessing candles prior to the show.

The group were very good and soon had us - and most of the village - on our feet dancing. Then the heavens opened and after about 30 minutes of monsoon rain the other girls and I waded barefoot back to MEF absolutely soaked to the skin.

That's about it for now but I'll keep in touch with what's going on over the coming weeks!

xxxx

Hurry back Sam - it's busy over here!!!!

2009-10-17T13:56:00.000+05:30

Hello again from Sri Lanka. The past couple of weeks have flown past in a blur - looking at the diary, since my last blog following our clinic on 27 September I've made 11 visits to our local vet in Kegalle and done 13 'house' calls!! It will be good to have Sam out here again later this week as we plan to follow up on some requests for help from local temples.

We had a very successful follow-up clinic on 10 October and almost all of the dogs we saw at the main clinic on 27 September came back for suture removal and many of them also received DHLP vaccination. Pictured below is Mr Ranga Kumara with his lovely dog Rosie, having her sutures removed by the vet team from Peradeniya.

Just after our main clinic here in Randeniya, I took Tara - one of the temple dogs - to our local vet, Dr. Abeyrathne, for sterilisation. We decided that it would be more practical to do that rather than bring her here for the busy clinic. Tara is normally very boisterous and naughty when at the temple (attention seeking!) but was very calm and just loved having a cuddle on the way to the vet in the tuk tuk.

Here she is on the operating table almost at the end of her operation....
...and here she is an hour or so later back at the temple and walking around. Tara has made a full recovery - although she did save me a job by removing her own stitches!!

Here's another of the temple pups - as you can see, they're growing well (especially the ears.......)

Here's another from the same litter. Sadly, finding homes is not proving easy despite the fact that the pups are now fully vaccinated and will be sterilised when appropriate. I live in hope.....

A problem we don't often encounter here is an over-anxious owner....but this was not the case with Mimi and her owner Violet, pictured below. Mimi attended our clinic on 27 September and Violet managed to call me out 4 times the following week to check Mimi's wound. I think over-zealous cleaning wasn't allowing the wound time to heal and then Mimi decided to remove some sutures and had to be taken for re-stitching. The collar we then gave her - and some advice to Violet on keeping the wound clean - solved the problem!

On 4 October I was in Dimbulgamuwa (a village about 3km from here) when an owner called me to look at his little pup. As you can see below, Shaggy was far from well.....

I took her to Dr. Abeyrathne the following morning who gave her owner a variety of treatments, including skin lotion. I visited later in the week only to find that her appetite hadn't improved so no oral meds had been given. Like magic, I produced a tin of fish balls and Shaggy took a liking to those so we were then able to start medication as prescribed.

The photo above is of Shaggy later in the week at least looking a little more lively - and displaying some whacky ear tufts!!! Now she's on the mend, I'll be arranging to visit to give her a Taktic bath as we find that works very well on pups with bad skin problems.

Shaggy's owner acted as interpreter for me and very kindly climbed one of his trees to get me a king coconut to drink after work with Shaggy was finished.

I have to admit it - I've fallen in love!!!! On Tuesday this week the tuk tuk drivers called me out to show me a small pup who was lying in the road by the bus stop with an audience of people just looking on. How he'd not been run over by one of the buses I don't know. As I was on my way to the vet with a dog and owner in any case, I picked him up and took him with me. As you can see from the photo of us on our way to the vet, he's pretty much exhausted, very thin and dehydrated.

I was able to arrange to keep him in my room for several days during which time he was wormed, given a Taktic bath, antibiotics and antihistamines (as advised by Dr. Abeyrathne). Several small meals a day soon perked him up and his skin problems improved.

I decided to call him Oscar, and as you can see he has the most beautiful pale eyes. One of the volunteers and I go out walking at 6.30a.m. most days and he came with us from Wednesday morning trotting along behind us. Here he is (above) with his lead waiting to go out.

Initially, his bed was the usual washing up bowl and towel but he discovered one of our Dogstar cat carriers and just loved to be in there. Here he is pictured this morning looking a lot better than when I found him!

As luck would have it, I went to a ceremony at our local Randeniya temple last Sunday where I was introduced to 2 monks from other temples who have asked Dogstar to help with the dogs there. I'd already agreed to visit both to assess things, so with the help of Mrs. Samarasinghe here at MEF managed to persuade one of them to take Oscar as we still have far too many dogs at Randeniya. So this morning, I had to say au revoir to my little friend - here we are just about to leave home for the temple (I confess to a few tears....).

And below is the lovely temple which is now Oscar's new home. There are only 5 other dogs there, 3 of them are pups of around 3-4 months so Oscar will I'm sure enjoy being there. I left the cat carrier with them so he can feel secure until he gets uses to his new surroundings and I'll be visiting him on Tuesday to see how he's settling in.

Here are a couple of the pups at the temple - as you can see, they're in pretty good condition.

Finally for today, I visited another temple close by and again was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the dogs living there. Basically, as with Oscar's temple, the monks are asking Dogstar to help with vaccination and sterilisation so Sam and I plan to organise a series of mini-clinics for these temples. It's nice to think that if we can help them we may be able to have dogs like Oscar cared for by them too. Below is one of the lovely dogs I met today at the Halpitiya temple.

And here's the lovely temple entrance.

That's about it from a very busy Sri Lanka. No complaint from me tho' - it just shows how well known Dogstar is becoming in the local (and even wider...) community.

I'm looking forward to welcoming Sam back later in the week so that we can make firm plans for our programme over the next few months. I'll update you again soon!

xxx

World Rabies Day and all that.....

2009-09-28T13:48:00.001+05:30

Hello again from Sri Lanka. Today is Dogstar's 3rd birthday so Happy Birthday Dogstar! I for one will be having a little celebratory drink this evening (not that I need an excuse...!). Today is also World Rabies Day and to mark this occasion we held a sterilisation/vaccination clinic here in Randeniya yesterday (more about that later......).

In the last blog I introduced Jacky, a little pup who recently came to live close by. Well, here's another beautiful little pup who goes by the name of Chubby! Here he is with his owner, one of our restaurant staff, Eranda. He and his wife are animal lovers and I know Chubby will be very happy with them. We took him to our local vet last week to start his course of routine vaccinations.

Here's another photo of Chubby in his new home - I'll keep you updated on his progress as he gets bigger.

Last time you read about Lotus, our restaurant cat, and the sad news that one of her two remaining kittens had died. Pictured below is Domino, her remaining kitten and as you can see he/she (we still can't get close enough to find out which!!) is doing very well. The other volunteers and I are trying to tame Domino by feeding regularly and we're now able to touch her but still can't pick her up. By the next blog, I hope that we've managed to tame him/her as one of the restaurant staff wants to give Domino a new home.

Here's a photo of Domino with Lotus - he/she's now almost as big as mum!

Here's a final photo of Domino for this blog - chilling out in one of the trees.

You'll recall from Peter's blog the tale of Michael and the monk....... Well, the volunteers and I visited Hingula temple again recently and found that Michael remains very well and his ear is giving no trouble at all. The only trouble he now has is from the little pup who also shares his temple home who really gives him little peace at all.......!

An update on Jacky...... she's doing very well and Ali (one of our volunteers) and I try to walk her a couple of mornings a week. Her owners are also very good with her and the children play with her lots. When mum and dad are at work, she's kept in the Dogstar crate to keep her safe. Isn't she adorable?

Like Chubby, Jacky has also recently started having her routine vaccinations. She also had a little bit of a problem with her skin - pictured below is Jacky following the Taktic bath we gave her. She wasn't that keen on the bath but enjoyed her cuddle afterwards!

Next on the list of animals treated recently is Tarzan, a lovely male dog who had the snip at our Dimbulgamuwa clinic in July. At that time, he was found to be suffering from TVT so I've been taking him to Dr. Abeyrathne in Kegalle weekly for his vincristine treatment. I'm pleased to say that he's doing very well indeed.

For those of a nervous disposition, scroll down now as the next photo is a close up of Tarzan's TVT!!! This was taken after 3 treatments - initially the tumour was at least twice the size it is in the photo. We also had another male dog at our clinic yesterday with TVT so he's starting treatment later today. We're now adding this condition to the list of why people should have their male dogs castrated at our clinics......

Things have been so busy lately that I've not been able to visit our local Randeniya temple as often as I would like but Dogstar is still providing bags of Pedigree chum on a regular basis. This is much needed, as 2 more pups have recently arrived there. One is pictured below. My plan is to put up a poster in the main supermarket in Kegalle asking for good homes for some of these lovely pups (we now have 7 females there).

Below is a photo of Doris, a lovely natured little bitch who recently appeared at the paper factory next to MEF. She had a litter of pups about a month ago but so far I've been unable to locate them as they're so well hidden in the factory!! I'm hoping we can get Doris tame enough to take for sterilisation and/or vaccination once she stops feeding the pups.

As I mentioned at the start of the blog, yesterday we held a clinic here to celebrate World Rabies Day which is today. I was fortunate in having lots of help from the 2 volunteers here, one of whom - Ali - is pictured below before the start of the clinic.

Here's another one of Ali, with the Dogstar banner (and random dog........)

The clinic was very well attended - the vets operated on 26 animals (24 dogs - 18 female and 6 male, and 2 cats) and a further 32 cats/dogs had anti-rabies vaccine or ivermectin for skin problems. In addition, another 10 or so dogs and owners came to the clinic for vaccination but we found their vaccination still current - but so pleasing that our pre-clinic advertising posters are attracting so many attendees.

Here's a general view of the clinic - luckily for us the rain held off!

Here's one of our younger visitors......

.......and here's one of our patients.

Some of our patients in recovery.

And more......

Finally from the clinic yesterday one of our posters including the World Rabies Day logo.

Planning for the clinic was hard work as always, but everything ran smoothly on the day. Now it's back to the 'routine' stuff of organising vet runs where necessary, checking the progress of Jacky and Chubby etc. Sadly, one of the local dogs who was being treated for distemper died yesterday and I've heard that there have been several cases recently (which I'll be checking with the vet when I see her later today). If that's the case, then Sam has suggested that we think about a separate vaccination clinic where most cases are located..... so more news on that next time.

Bye for now!!!

Mo's back!

2009-08-31T08:42:00.001+05:30

Sorry for the delay in sending news from Sri Lanka - you'll know from Sam that there were a few problems logging in, now resolved. Sam and Peter - our lovely Dogstar volunteer vet - sent news of what was happening here whilst I was back in the UK and for the past month or so, but now they've both left I'm back in my regular blog spot.

As always, there have been highs and lows but I'm glad to report that overall things have been going well.

You'll recall the tale of Bella, the poor little street pup given a home by Podi, one of our tour guides (see blog 7 May). To update you, she was taken on 14 August to our local vet, Dr. Abeyrathne, for sterilisation. Everything went well and Bella has now made a full recovery. Here's Bella (below) on collection - what a happy, healthy dog she is compared to her condition when Podi took her in!

And here's another photo of Bella 'on the table'.

Podi was also instrumental in finding a new home for Muffin, one of the dogs from Randeniya temple (Peter castrated him during his time with us). As you can see, Muffin has grown into a handsome young dog.

On 25 August Podi, one of our volunteers and I took Muffin to his new home in Mologoda. Poor Muffin was naturally quite confused and scared and refused to move - so I had to carry him from the tuktuk to his new owner's house perched at the top of the hill - which certainly made me puff a bit..... His new owner took to him immediately, and he's now very settled. You can see below what a lovely location he's living in and it's good to know he's well away from main roads.

Podi is hoping that 2 of the female pups from the Temple will also be rehomed in his village, so I'll keep you posted on that and also on how Muffin is doing.

A couple of weeks ago our barman called me to say a small kitten was in his house having escaped from a viscious tom-cat, who had sadly killed her litter mate. A couple of the volunteers and I went to see the kitten, who initially seemed very lethargic. Luckily, there were no injuries and after a feed a cuddle she certainly livened up.

Here she is having a cuddle from Dave, one of the volunteers. Luckily her mum came to find her and both are now living with the barman. We'll make sure both are sterilised at the appropriate time.

Talking of kittens, a new mum - Lotus - and kittens became resident in our restaurant recently. Sadly one of the litter of 3 kittens disappeared and of the remaining 2, one was very small and thin compared to his litter mate. Yesterday he was very poorly and wouldn't take milk from a syringe. Sadly, I've just learned that he died last night.

Here's Lotus and the 2 kittens having breakfast...

..... and here's another of Lotus and her little black kitten taken about a week ago.

Rosie, who featured in an earlier blog, was taken to Dr. Abeyrathne to be sterilised last week. She'd been taken the previous week, but having been anaesthetised Dr. A. found lump in the dog's abdomen which she felt needed further investigation. As no X-ray is available in Kegalle, I took Rosie to Peradeniya where she was given a thorough examination, including X-ray and ultrasound. Nothing untoward was found, so surgery was scheduled for 27 August. She's now recovering well (although she managed to remove all her stitches by day 3.....at least that's one less follow-up visit to arrange!).

Here's lovely Rosie having been sedated ready for surgery.

Finally in this update is an introduction to Jacky, a little male pup given a home by our chef Rajapakse after Jacky's mum was killed in an accident. He's a lovely furry little pup but did need treatment for a heavy flea infestation! He's now growing well and is a lively little pup. Rajapakse's children are very good with him and play with him lots.

So that's a round-up of the news from Sri Lanka. I'll keep you posted on all these stories and more.

Mo x

Message from Mo

2009-08-30T21:05:00.001+05:30

Mo is experiencing some log in problems at the moment and will update hopefully in the next few days

Mo has some very exciting news about Muffin the Temple dog which is she is looking forward to sharing

Travelling Teachers

2009-08-15T14:46:00.000+05:30

Sarah , Laura and Mark are teachers from Aintree Davenhill School in the UK , you can read more about thier time in Sri Lanka including how they helped Dogstar at http://srilanka.aintreedavenhill.net/

Clinics, Castrates, Astrology(?!)

2009-08-09T15:55:00.000+05:30

Today is my last day in Sri Lanka with Dogstar, before flying back to the UK tomorrow (I’m getting a lift to the airport in Sampath’s tuktuk at four o’clock in the morning)! It’s been a busy but very rewarding four weeks.

We’ve been back to check on Michael a number of times since we removed all the maggots from his ear. It has needed cleaning a few more times and we had to anaesthetize him again for another thorough clean, but his ear is now vastly improved and he is looking so much better. He has definitely been my most labour-intensive yet most satisfying patient!

Last weekend we ran the follow up clinic for the sterilization clinic that happened on my first weekend here. It was a great turn-out, with the vast majority of owners bringing their dogs and cats back for a check-up, removal of stitches and more vaccinations. It was very busy (as everyone tends to turn up at once for these things!) but Sam, Mo and I gradually worked our way through all the patients. Sam got the worst job of having to wrestle with the aggressive dogs in order for me to vaccinate them and sustained a few bruises in the process (sorry Sam!) but we were careful not to get bitten so no hospital trips for rabies boosters needed!

Inspecting a spay wound

This week we’ve been to Lucky’s village (Lucky works in the MEF restaurant) to castrate his and his neighbour’s dogs. They were both more aggressive than we would have liked and Sam added to her collection of bruises – I got the easy job of giving the injection in these situations! But the operations went well and the dogs recovered quickly. We also did a number of house calls in the area, vaccinating any dogs and cats that needed it, and giving treatment to dogs with bad skin. The village was a beautiful location for making home visits, and Lucky’s mum fed us some delicious curry when we’d finished!

Sampath posing for the camera!

A good place for house calls

Also this week we’ve been to castrate Nishanti’s dog (Nishanti works at MEF as well), and her neighbour’s dog. It was a little stressful to begin with as everyone from the village seemed to turn up as I was trying to prepare for the operations! Luckily the other dogs in the village were pretty much up to date with their vaccines so we were able to deal with them quickly. However, we were just setting up for the operations outside when it started to rain and we had to relocate to the living room! It was certainly a novel experience to operate with children running around the room (until they got bored and wandered off)! Both dogs made good recoveries and again we were well fed once we’d finished!

In one dog’s vaccine card we found an interesting section that I’ve not seen in any cards in the UK… maybe it could take off?!...

It’s not been all work though – we’ve been to the Kandy perahera (a very big Buddhist festival), and to visit some historical sights in Sigiriya and Dambulla, but I’ll blog about these and a few other things another time because I think I’ve gone on enough for the time being!

Pete

PS. With all the work Dogstar have been doing recently, the charity is very low on funds (i.e. they don’t have any) so if you’d like to donate so that even more can be done, please go to the website (www.dogstarfoundation.com) where you can sponsor a spay, sponsor a dog, pledge a pound and more!