The ‘building site’ pups Chooti and Mickey had a good breakfast today (mum was not around but was fed later).

Chooti and Mickey

To view the rest of the photographs, please visit Dogstars Facebook page at………..

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Mickey (pictured) and Chooti were treated for fleas today and will be wormed tomorrow morning when Mo visits them.

To see the rest of the photographs of a days work, please visit…….

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I was teaching English to children at a local Temple when I became aware of the puppies in the temple grounds, far too small to separated from there mother, full of worms and covered in fleas. Seeing me with the puppies the Temple Monk Wangeesa Terro spoke to me and said there was another dog that needed medicine .He lead me behind the temple  and pointed at a medium size dog laying in the shade of the building and said:

You can make her better , no ?

I looked down at the animal in front of me , emaciated , almost bald from mange with a thick leathery skin in place of fur , huge open sores on her legs one of which was held up and bent at a odd angle. I with no veterinary training certainly could not make her better, I was not even sure if a vet could do anything to save her but then 2 things happened:

The dog turned to look at me, her amber eyes looked into mine and as she held my gaze all the suffering of her life was visible and the Monk spoke again,

You can make her better , no ? ,

He did not say it like a question he said it like a statement , like he already knew the answer and was reminding me of something I already knew.

I knew MEF funded a Veterinary team from the University providing care for Elephants so I rang the lead Vet and asked him to send the team (actually I spent 10 minutes sobbing on the phone first) , he said the team were about an hour away with an elephant on a drip and they would come to me as soon as they were finished. Although they generally did not attend to calls for small temple dogs so needed to stop on route to purchase the correct gauge needles.

It took the Vet 15 minutes just to clean her wounds and she screamed louder than I have ever heard , I was in tears and turned away to find the van driver and monk also crying, the vets were fantastic with her and so gentle even through it was agony for her. They then gave her injections for mange and some antibiotics and left with instructions on her care and a promise to return and check up on her.

Over the next few weeks visited I the Temple with food for her and continued her treatments. The vet visited and continued to treat her wounds (now healing nicely) when I left at the end of October another MEF volunteer promised to look after her for me .

In January 2007  Mo was at MEF as a volunteer and she met Mango whose mange had improved  but she still needed more treatment which Mo continued . By April 2007 under Mo’s care her mange had almost cleared, she was a good weight and the only evidence of her previous leg injury’s was a tendency to limp when she first woke up. Mango was now healthy enough to be spayed , unfortunately Mango had other ideas and when the vets arrived for a Dogstar funded clinic they discovered she was pregnant  In June 2007 Mango had 3 puppies , 2 girls and a boy.

The Temple caretaker had made her a whelping box by the side door of the temple and she was a natural mother from the start.  The pregnancy and milk production did have a impact on her health , her mange returned and she lost weight and her general condition deteriorated. Because she was nursing her pups the vet could not treat her mange and all we could do was increase her food supply and use some suitable conditioning tablets and also give her powdered puppy milk (we were also bottle feeding some other puppies at the time).  Mango gave us another scare in late June when she was hit by a bus outside the Temple , her weak leg was damaged and she had various cuts and bruises. Even so she never lost her naturally sunny outlook, and continued to look after her puppies even though she was still sore. One of Mangos puppies was homed locally (the male not surprisingly) and sadly both of her daughters passed away shortly afterwards.

Mango  became a surrogate mum to an influx of unwanted puppies that seemed to flood into the Temple. For the puppies the supply of milk was a good thing, this continued milk production however was not good for Mango (and was stopping the vets being able to spay her). So we had to separate her from the pups (who were receiving food and milk from the monks & Dogstar separately), finally in November 2007 over a year after we first met, Mango was well enough to be spayed. She recovered very well and her mange improved again and she  finally  gained weight .

Mango continued to live at the Temple with Wangeesa Terro the Monk until mid August 2008 when her health took a sudden turn for the worse , Mo took to her the University  hospital where she was admitted and Mo regularly made the 70 km round trip to visit her.

On August 20th just after 6 am I received a text from Mo asking me to call her urgently , I was on a train heading into work and texted back saying I could not call for another 40 minutes and asked if it was bad news to which she replied:

Sorry Sam yes its bad news, they did all they could but we lost her at 1am. Jo and I collected her this morning and have buried her under a Mango tree at MEF. Knew you and I both loved her – told her that yesterday. At least she won’t suffer any more and maybe her next life will be better.

Its very hard to explain just how special Mango was , she had a dignity and serenity that defies words and inspired me. I hope Mango would approve that because I met her Dogstar has sterilised over 2000 animals and vaccinated over 3000 against Rabies.

Not a bad legacy for a little Orange dog

May 2012

There is no such thing as an average day at Dogstar but our work includes

Fixed Clinics-   Offering first opinion consults ,  post op check ups , vaccinations.

Mobile Outreach Clinics - Dogstars version of a “house call” Dogstars team takes the road or dirt track as the case maybe to visit animals direct in the villages around our base in Randeniya. Not only is this far less stressful to the animals it will give you a unique insight into the rural community we are part of.  Mobile work caseloads vary from routine vaccinations & treatment of debilitating skin conditions to Canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) to maggot infested wounds. We often see 30 plus cases a day and it’s a very rewarding way of using your skills. You will experience first hand the gratitude of owners who will often welcome you into their homes for refreshments after your consult.

Routine Health Checks - Dogstar support a number of local Temples in caring for dogs within their grounds, as well as a number of local street dogs these are all sterilised and vaccinated by us and are given regular check ups by our Veterinary team. These dogs are the ambassadors for sterilisation & vaccinations and as a result hundreds and hundreds of owners have registered their animals for Dogstar services.

Tsunami Animal People Alliance - Volunteers often have the opportunity to visit our fellow WSPA member society TAPA to see their Capture / Neuter / Vaccinate / Release ( CNVR ) program that has sterilised over 32000 animals in Sri Lanka since 2005.

Emergency Cases  - From Road Traffic accidents to snake bites and even puppy that came off worse in a fight with Monkey , the treatment you provide is vital.

We can also put you in touch with previous Veterinary volunteers who would be happy to answer your questions.

We really look forward to hearing from you.

If you already shop online with retailers such as Amazon, Next, Argos, John Lewis, Comet, iTunes, eBay or HMV, then we need you to sign up for free to raise money while you shop.

So how does it work?

Sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/dogstarfoundation for free and use the links on the easyfundraising site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself. So if you spend £100 with M&S online, we get £5 cashback from your purchase; £100 spent with Amazon raises £2.50 for us, £100 with WH Smith puts £2.00 in our pocket, and so on. easyfundraising have over 2,000 retailers on their site, and some of the donations can be as much as 15% of your purchase.

This service is FREE to use, and what’s more, joining easyfundraising will give you access to hundreds of exclusive discounts and voucher codes, so not only will you be helping us, you’ll be saving money yourself.

Did you know you can raise money for Dogstar Foundation while you search?

Click on the logo above or here to sign up http://dogstarfoundation.easysearch.org.uk combines the results of several search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing and Ask to ensure you can always find what you’re looking for. But the fantastic thing is that EVERY TIME you search, half a penny is raised for Dogstar Foundation.

So how does it work?

By simply switching from Google to easysearch, you can raise half a penny for us with every search you make. An average easysearcher raises around £25 each year which would pay for the sterilisation and rabies vaccinations of 2 animals in Sri Lanka