We don't know exactly how old Mango was when she was dumped at a jungle area but that is what her life has been like for most of it. A kind group of locals have been feeding her for years and she just hangs around and plays security barking at anyone that gets near certain properties. She has always been an outdoors dog and gets the occasional bath from one of the locals and things were going just fine, until some tumors started to appear on her fur.
Mango's situation is a learning opportunity for anyone that sees this though. While it is actually quite common for dogs to get some sort of raised bumps on their skin and sometimes hidden in their fur, ones that are very raised, red, and look like this need a vet’s attention immediately. This is a relatively common sort of cancer called TVT (transmissible venereal tumour) and it is quite treatable although doing so can be quite costly depending on where you live in the world.
The process of healing is chemotherapy very similar to what a human would receive but since dogs are so much more resilient than humans are, the dogs hardly even notice it is happening whereas with humans the side-effects of chemotherapy can be quite extreme.
While Mango does have a pleasant demeanor and can be seen frequently wagging her tail when people get near her, some precautions are still necessary for our vet techs because Mango doesn’t know us and we don’t know how she is going to react to us putting an IV into her. As it turns out she didn’t really resist and hardly even noticed when the needle went into her skin.
The total cost of all of her treatments is probably going to be around $100, which to most foreigners seems like a very small amount of money but for a poor farmer - which is what the people that have been looking after Mango are - this is an astronomical amount of money. I don't know how they knew to reach out to us, but somehow they did and we are happy to help. We did have some conditions that went along with providing this service for free and that was that we also must sterilize her. At the moment this village that we picked her up in, and returned her to, doesn't have a large stray dog population and we would like to keep it that way. Mango's minders had no issue with us demanding this be something that we also do.
They were very caring people, they are just very poor. It kind of makes me a bit sad and also happy at the same time that it is often the people with the least amount of resources that are the most willing to help out creatures in need. Now if we could just get some of the folks that are living in massive beachside villas to pitch in a bit as well... wouldn't that be nice?
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.
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