Manao's road to recovery is going to be a long one

In case you don't know, "Manao" is a Tiger Cave Temple dog that is a relatively recent drop off. While very well behaved and with a pleasant temperament, Manao was still a bit of a wanderer and even though the temple grounds are quiet and quaint with plenty of nature, there are some busy roads nearby and we suspect that this is what resulted in Manao (which means lemon or lime) getting a badly broken hindquarter leg.

like all dogs tend to do when injured, Manoa didn't seek out any help and also showed his teeth when we would get near. This is a natural reaction that any dog makes even if they know you because while we love dogs, they don't really understand why they are in pain and prefer to suffer in solitude. We only noticed the extreme damage because one of the monks told us that he wasn't walking very often and when he did he was keeping one leg completely off the ground. He would also really struggle to get up from a seated position and would take a long time to sit down, often yelping as doing so.

We found out from and X-ray exactly how bad this break was.

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you can see that the bone is completely split in two from these pictures and without intervention some regrowth could be expected over a very long period of time, but the "doggy hop" would end up being something that Manao would probably have in his life for all of his life.

We got involved though, and now Manao is on the road to recovery. While it isn't good for his social skills it is essential that we keep Manao isolated during the recovery time which just like it would be with a human, will be many weeks.

Manao is not pleased about being kept in a kennel most of the day and we let him out as often as possible but we need to be very careful with how we handle him. We are also pleased that he has put on some healthy weight since staying with us, and I think the regular gifts of fried chicken are probably helping with that.

Some might be asking why there is no cast on him and that is because the bodies of dogs and humans are very different. While it is possible to isolate that portion of the leg, it would incorporate completely eliminating his ability to move at all for a month or more. This would drive a dog absolutely crazy and research has shown that provided a dog doesn't face any sort of situational stress such as competing for food or aggressive other dogs around them, they will naturally keep the leg in the correct position to heal.

Dogs are so wonderful because I don't think this would be the case with any of the humans I know, or even myself. Dogs don't know a lot, but if there is one thing the excel at, it is surviving by any means necessary.

While I do not fully understand what happens in these situations the vet makes a small incision to the dog's leg, puts some sort of temporary contraption around the bone to hold it in place and if the dog remains in a mostly sedentary position for a few weeks, the bone will regrow and form a bone bridge of sorts. This will remain delicate for many months however, and Manao will likely have to go through doggy physical therapy afterwards.

We don't have the resources to do this 100% properly but we will do our best. Without our intervention Manao would have likely crawled away to some portion of the jungle that no other dogs are interested in and eaten way too little, and this would shut down his immune system and make the situation worse as other things such as parasites would likely set in and attack his weakened immune system.

Frequently in Thailand, you can see dogs limping around with almost no hair on them and the reason why the hair loss happens is because their entire system is under so much stress that their bodies lose the ability to combat omni-present parasites. This is often what will kill them, rather than the injury itself.

It would also be excruciating because Manao would not be capable of scratching with one of his legs.

I am happy that the monks pointed his situation out to us because since there are over 100 dogs at the Tiger Cave Temple, we likely wouldn't have known about it until his physical state had already progressed beyond the point of us being able to help him in a meaningful capacity.

All in a day's work and here's to a speedy recovery for one of our little darlings.