There’s a new dog on the patio these days. At the moment
we’re not quite sure what colour Hamish will be when
his hair grows back. When he arrived a month ago he was skinny,
hairless and his back was a minefield of healing sores. According
to Ibu Rai, the vet that initially treated him, this was good
progress. He was a terrible mess when he was first rescued.
Hamish had mange, a life-threatening parasitic condition that
affects so many dogs in Bali. We see the victims of mange
everywhere and they’re very hard to look at; miserable,
hairless dogs by the roadside frantically scratching, their
bones almost poking through what’s left of their skin.
Mange is caused by mites. There are several different kinds
of mange, but the variety we usually see here is the highly
contagious Sarcoptic Mange, or Scabies. The female mite jumps
from dog to dog, and after mating burrows under the skin where
she deposits three or four eggs. The eggs hatch in a few days,
and the larva crawl out from under the skin, moving around
on the skin’s surface where they molt into a nymphal
stage and finally become an adult. The adults mate on the
surface of the skin and the cycle begins again with the female
burrowing and laying her eggs. The burrowing female mites
cause the skin to exude serum which dries to form scabs and
crusts, and the presence of the mite and eggs under the skin
generates a massive allergic response.
Sarcoptic Mange is highly contagious to canines, humans, and
furry wild animals. In humans, it also causes Scabies, which
can be cured with a cream but you’d really rather not
get it in the first place.
Dogs with Sarcoptic Mange dig and bite at themselves with
great ferocity due to the terrible itching caused by the mites.
Their skin reacts with oozing sores due to scratching, which
are then aggravated by fleas which feed on the open wounds.
A strong, disagreeable smell often accompanies mange. The
skin is the largest organ of the body and with so much of
it compromised in a mange attack, the dog’s whole system
is affected. In Bali, the situation is often made worse by
stress, a dirty environment and poor nutrition. If untreated,
the dog may die of exhaustion, dehydration or secondary infection.
By this time the dog is a gruesome, stinking mess and no one
wants to go near it. Sadly, few people seem to be aware that
Yayasan Yudisthira provides free veterinary treatment for
street dogs in Bali, including treatment for mange. The mobile
clinic will also respond to calls for dogs that have been
hit by traffic. The staff will offer the wounded animal food
that has been laced with tranquilizers. When the dog falls
asleep, it is taken to a vet or put to sleep on the spot.
The clinic also conducts spaying and neutering upon request.
Call 742 4048 or 0817 348 229 to report street dogs in need
of help.
Mange is treated by an antiparasitic vaccine administered
either orally or by injection. In complicated cases like Hamish’s,
where there was severe secondary infection due to flea infestation
within the wounds, topical antibiotics were also applied.
A nutritious diet and stress-free environment is also part
of the treatment.
Other mange varieties include Demodectic Mange or ‘Red
Mange’ which usually affects puppies and younger dogs.
Cheyletiella Mite causes a type of mange called ‘Walking
Dandruff’ Then there are the ear mites… I feel
itchy just writing about it all.
The Yayasan Yudisthira mobile clinic travels around Bali on
a weekly schedule and visits Ubud on Fridays. But there are
so many dogs in need of help in Ubud and Gianyar that the
area requires its own full-time clinic. Janice Girardi, a
champion of Ubud’s street dogs for many years, is coordinating
a project through Yudisthira and with the help of the Australia-based
Bali Street Dog Foundation that will provide a mobile clinic
to serve Gianyar Regency six days a week.
If you’ve ever bitten your lip at the sight of a miserable
dog infested with mange or seen a dog hit by a car and wished
there was something you could do, then this is a chance to
offer practical assistance. The project is still short $10,000
needed to run the van for a full year including all medications
and equipment to perform sterilizations, emergency assistance,
worming and skin disease treatment, petrol, wages, food and
other essentials.
“It would be excellent if people from the local community
could donate toward this cause,’ says Janice. “
Our friends in Australia are very generous but we need to
support this initiative as well. The Melbourne Bali Street
Dog Foundation is holding another fund raiser in April and
needs items to auction. If anyone would like to donate money
or products that can be auctioned for between A$50 and A$1500
such as jewellery, high-end décor items etc, please
call Janice, Tika or Tineke at 977 217.”
The best way to safeguard our pets is to keep them in a fenced
garden. It’s no longer safe for dogs to wander the street.
Not only are they at risk of being hit by cars and motorcycles
(increasingly driven by 10 year olds) and catching mange or
sexually transmitted diseases (yes, dogs get them too), but
if your dog is attractive then it’s a prime candidate
for dog-napping. Also there has been a vicious rash of poisonings
in the Ubud area; three friends have lost their beloved pets
to poison recently and one street alone lost ten dogs in a
single night. Men on motorcycles throw parcels of meat laced
with poison to dogs on the street in the early hours of the
morning, then return an hour or two later with a truck to
pick up the carcasses of those that died. According to rumour,
the meat is sold in Denpasar as satay.
Hamish spent his first two weeks here sleeping, eating and
listening to soothing music on the patio overlooking the pond.
Slowly he’s starting to brighten up and take notice
of the rest of us. He has the makings of a fine dog, and will
be a handsome one once he grows some hair. But the best news
is that Ubud has one less bald dog, and that help is on the
way for the sad ones who are still on the streets.
