Doctor Megan

It would seem I've taken on many different titles since I've arrive back at the park. The latest one is Doctor (or I suppose that should be Vet) Megan. Just over two weeks ago, a bird that was hit by a car was brought to the park. Several people seemed to think it was a kingfisher, although we later discovered it's actually an Indian Roller. Vets here are fairly useless (sorry to any Thai vets who might be reading this blog). They're generally people who didn't have the grades to make it into medical school. The vet that the park employs took a look at the bird & told me that it was fine - it just had a sore foot, but she gave it a calcium injection & said it should recover soon. Took it back to my guest house & had a closer look at it. I'm not a vet, but the two things that jumped out at me were that one of its wings appeared to be broken, it was bleeding from its mouth, and it was missing an eye.... Guess those weren't as important as a sore foot.

Brought it back to the park & luckily one of the women there had volunteered in a bird sanctuary for a long time. Managed to set & bandage its wing. Seems the bird isn't actually missing an eye - it's just swollen shut. Hopefully with enough care it will recover enough to fly again....

My second run in with Thai vets occured a couple of mornings ago when we woke up to discover one of the park's puppies had died. An hour after we discovered her, we noticed her sister was really sick. One of the staff drove me into the nearest town to take her to the vet. Just as I carried her into the office, she started bleeding from both ends. I put her on the vet's table & the vet took one look at her, laughed and told me it was too late. Splendid beside manners. Most vets here are buddhist, and because of their beliefs they refuse to put animals to sleep. Instead was had to sit there for 10 minutes & watch her slowly die. Sweet dreams, Nat & Nina.