Dogging My Footsteps

There are a lot of stray dogs on campus. Some of them are “sponsored strays”, which (I think) are looked after by a student club/society, and have collars. Others have no collars, but at least some of these seem to be part of a “pack” social structure currently headed by a couple of the sponsored strays, (“Goebbels” and “Goto”. They’re neutered dogs, geddit?) which seem to be friends.

Sometime last year these “top dogs” started following me around sometimes, and I took them for a few walks. Didn’t bother me, though I sensed it was awkward for the food places I visit since their bosses weren’t comfortable chasing “my” dogs out of their stores.

Over the winter vacation, though, the campus was pretty deserted, and I started to feel a bit like the Will Smith character in that post-apocalypse film I’ve only seen the trailers of, unfortunately minus the assault rifle and the car.

The dogs seemed to get more attached and the pack started coming along too. This was irritating, but I figured once the students were back it’d stop.

Hasn’t, plus when they’re exited/pleased to see me they go in for mock-aggression with each other, which spills over into noisy charges at cars, people on bicycles, scooters and even on foot. This could cause an accident, and Taiwanese (especially girls) are disproportionately afraid of dogs, so there could be complaints and maybe official action.

I feel a bit responsible, though I’m not really, and have had a “corrective” swipe at Goebbels with a sapling a few times, though I’ve only connected once. No behavioural improvement so far, though he’s a pretty thick dog. Goto may be getting the message.

Any suggestions?

You’ve made yourself top dog. The two collared idiots follow you everywhere and the pack follows them, which means you’re pack leader.

Congratulations!

Someone may chime in with some better advice than I can offer you, but I think ignoring them completely is the best option. No eye contact - at all. Don’t feed them. Don’t scald them. Don’t shout at them for following you. Take those Walls sausages out of your backpack.
Eventually they’re likely to go away, but it might take some time.

And your signature is mighty familiar…what is that - some kind of restaurant sign? It’s bugging me, but I don’t want to look it up. :laughing:

I don’t want to be pack leader. I’m a vegetarian. (Well, practically. Unless my arms twisted. Or seafood…)

Eye contact, yeh, I do look at things, but I suppose I should stop it. I figured I’d never get rid of them if I fed them, so I never have.

Don’t scald them? …You mean don’t carry a thermos of boiled water around and throw it at them?

Hmmm…hadn’t thought of not doing that, but its certainly an idea for something not to do that might be effective, if rather cruel.

Wouldn’t want some of the animal jihadists on here to get wind of anyone not doing something like that, though. No.

Its a “side-of-scooter model-marketting slogan” Can’t remember which model, (maybe a “Target”?) but its an oldie and there are relatively few of them around now.

Used to be loads of slightly surreal Chinglish slogans. Every model had one.

Life moves on, and Goebbels disappeared. I assumed he’d been killed while (or because of) attacking vehicles, but it seems he’s in jail, having been taken into custody by the Student Stray Society for general (mock?) aggression and idiocy. They keep him in a shipping container and occaisionally walk him on a lead.

Goh-two is still on the loose and still follows me around some, though not so much, and he’s slipped in the pecking order so no pack, which is a relief.

Always been a skinny dog with a persistent cough. Lately seems listless. On Tuesday he was sleeping in class, (though probably paying as much attention as my other students) and a student pointed out some blood on the floor. I assume this was coughed up, though I didn’t see it happen.

I’m thinking maybe lung or heartworm, though of course those are guesses.

I’m prepared to pay for some treatment but I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to get the him to a vet, since I doubt he’s ever been in a vehicle and probably won’t like it.

The Student Stray Society probably has some treatment arrangements in place, which I’ll investigate.

Failing that, would it be practical and worthwhile to give anti-parasitic medication as a precaution, without a specific diagnosis?

Get him to a vet. Sounds like the students can help with that very well, but if not, let me know.

Reported it to the departmental office.

Problem is the dogs collars only have Chinese on them, and no identifiable numbers. They said they’d get a student to contact me, though I pointed out this was very likely to be a waste of time.

Shornuff, someone phones and talks at me in Mandarin for a while. I suppose it makes them feel better, though I think my “Meoi zohngwen” has had sufficient polish by now to be intelligable.

I’ll try and get a photo of the dog for ID purposes.

Rather overdue update on this. I pestered the departmental office for a bit, emailed them a photo of the dog, and eventually was told that the dog had been checked by a vet and was OK, so I forgot about it.

In other words, I went through the official channels. Feel rather guilty about that, since TBH (after, for example, trying to get some action on a Red Ant infestation on campus) I was well aware that the official channels often don’t work (here especially?) when you are trying to get them to do anything out of the ordinary, that they don’t actually have to do.

I’d guess its a mixture of simple laziness and a more subtle pressure of conformity. Above was almost certainly a fob story.

Anyway, hadn’t seen the dog for a while, but he was back in class for the new semester, and seemed to have lost more weight. By chance there was a student from the Stray Society in the class, we got talking about the dog, and arranged to take it to the vet, with another Taiwanese teacher who is thier staff “instructor” contact.

The vet initially thought heartworm, as I did, since the dog has short hair and sleeps out, so its exposure to the mosquito vector will be high.

While trying to calm the dog for blood removal, I noticed some ticks attached, and removed about a dozen of them before the vet stopped me. These were apparently brown dog ticks, much less obvious than ticks I’d removed before. They present in multi-parasite clumps that look like small scabs until you get your eye in.

The immunology (SNAP 4DX PLUS test for heartworm as well as Ehrlichia ewingii Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma platys, Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum) was only positive for Ehrlichia canis. This is a tick-bourne bacterial infection of white blood cells, difficult to treat in the chronic phase because the infection is intracellular and so partly protected from drugs. The prognosis is described as “guarded”

Apparently this infection caused heavy casualties to US military dogs during the Vietnam war.

The treatment applied was 3 intramuscular injections. I was told two of these were local anesthesia and the third the therapeutic agent, with a follow-up six-week course of pills which are probably deoxycycline.

I couldn’t get an intelligible description of the injected therapy but from a bit of Googling it was probably imidocarb proprionate, which (again from Googling) is of doubtful efficacy, at least on its own, and is contraindicated where the lungs are compromised. Since the dog is weak, thin, and coughing up blood, I suppose its quite likely to kill him, but given the difficulty of clearing this type of infection, I suppose that hitting it with two hammers may be necessary.

Cost me 1300NT which I thought was pretty reasonable.

They’ve asked me to become another “staff instructor” for this club. Not sure about this. Lack of Chinese is going to be a problem, and, while I feel some responsibility for this individual dog, therapy for a large population of “sponsored strays” is a potentially large financial commitment.

I also think that, with rabies now endemic, even a Taiwanese campus administration might consider on-campus strays a hazard, and that’s likely to end badly.

I’d like to help, though, and will probably start by trying to reduce the tick infestation levels, which seems likely to be most cost-effective.

Plus I loathe the little bastards.

Thank you for taking the side of the doggies.

Yep, ticks are a great nuisance, and not that easy to get rid off, even if you use the sophisticated weapons -drop stuff like Revolution or others. But there is a solution. Same with the rabies fears. having all strays vaccinated will be a “fun” project, but it is doable. And necessary. I’d do it straight through the club, gets some vets on board, and get started. If more warm bodies are needed -say, for an in campus collection, money collect I mean- remember everyone who wants to graduate has to complete a certain number of volunteer hours. A few flyer and you’ll have enough two legged, opposable thumbs volunteers for non-doggie related work. Manning cookie sales/kiss booths to get money for tick medicine and vaccination fees (tick medicine probably more expensive, rabies should be 200 tops).

Saw Goh-2 on campus yesterday, moving slowly and apparently in some pain, presumably a reaction to treatment.

Bit more reading suggests the prognosis should be downgraded from “guarded” (which would apply to the intermediate subclinical phase) to “poor to grave”, applied to the chronic phase which seems to be where he’s at.

I suppose you could infer that treatment wasn’t justified, but 'tis done now.

[quote=“Icon”]Thank you for taking the side of the doggies.
[/quote]

No one rooting for the ticks?

Y’all are a bunch of mammalists.

After fighting against them two years ago and almost losing the battle… hell, no!

Update in case anyone’s interested. Goh-2 seems to have recovered from the immediate effects of the treatment.

There’s no obvious improvement in general condition, but I suppose that wouldn’t be expected yet. This infection is apparently difficult to clear, and its apparently difficult to tell when it has cleared, since the antibodies persist, though they don’t confer immunity to re-infection. There are also autoimmune sequalae which continue even when the bacteria are gone.

From a quick check a few days ago he still seems to have ticks, despite the vet’s treatment, though they may have been dead ones still embedded (if that happens?)

I’ll try and have a better look, but have been preoccupied with work lately, and (after the visit to the vet) he’s not so easy to handle.

We have 120 dogs in what should be a tick-infested area, but we count maybe one or two ticks found on maybe one or two dogs every one or two months. That’s because the dogs all get garlic every day—about one clove per 20 kg. It works. Wisely skeptical Forumosans tested my claim in a previous thread and all reported that garlic was more efficient at keeping ticks off dogs than the parasiticides that people usually use. Try it and see.

And, by the way, we’ve had a great success rate treating ehrlichiosis (and babesiosis). For severe cases, where the dog has become anaemic and very weak, a blood transfusion is usually necessary and successful. We have donor dogs who have saved the lives of several dogs with severe babesiosis; we’ll be happy to lend them for a blood transfusion for your campus dog if needed.

Seán 0920 620 109

[quote=“Ex Animo”]And, by the way, we’ve had a great success rate treating ehrlichiosis (and babesiosis). For severe cases, where the dog has become anaemic and very weak, a blood transfusion is usually necessary and successful. We have donor dogs who have saved the lives of several dogs with severe babesiosis; we’ll be happy to lend them for a blood transfusion for your campus dog if needed.

Seán 0920 620 109[/quote]

Didn’t see this at the time, but a belated thanks.

Here we go again. Same dog lacks energy and is coughing, and mosquito population seems to have exploded this year, probably due to the atypical rainfall, so heart worm seems very likely.

I’ll need to get him to a vet, which won’t be easy, since he’s got a long memory for needles, plus my car’s broken.

If he’s clear I suppose I’ll have to start him on preventatives, though I dunno if he’ll take pills.

I’ve also wondered about the practicality of some sort of mosquito-proof kennel or mesh tent. Can dogs used to sleeping out be trained to use such a thing?