Lachlan was dehydrated because he’d been left out in the garden in the heat and he was malnourished, just skin and bone,” says Jackie Ratcliffe, Chairperson of K9. “He had scratched himself raw because of the mange and as there was no hair on his body, he had sunburn as well. In addition, he was covered in warts due to his bad diet. I’ve never seen a dog like it.”

The young girl who reported the young retriever’s plight to Jackie described Lachlan in one stark sentence: “There used to be a dog in the courtyard but he’s not a dog any more.” Not only was the dog half dead but the mange was the sarcoptic strain, contagious to other dogs and humans alike.

“Malnutrition is one of the commonest problems with the dogs at K9 and they often have heavy worm burdens damaging the gut,” comments Dr Max Spicer of the Veterinary Hospital in Dubai. “People take worms as a fairly minor issue but they can kill: an impaction forms in the gut which then ruptures. Ringworm is also pretty common here. The fungus lives on the skin and the spores blow around pretty easily with nice dry conditions for the spores to survive.”

“Sarcoptic mange is quite common as well. The human variation is intensely irritating, especially if it’s hot. You just want to rip your skin off. The mites are ubiquitous and hide out in cracks and fissures. They don’t really like living on skin and tend to transfer from dog to dog. In the first stages you’ll get an itchy dog; he’ll start scratching himself, then you get hair loss, wounds to the skin and crusty lesions developing. In the wild dogs will die, manic about scratching, they lose protein through the oozing sores, get emaciated and normally die. Demodectic mange normally manifests itself in dogs that haven’t developed their immune systems like young puppies or dogs that have other problems like cancer. It’s not spread from dog to dog and there’s no risk to humans. In fact most humans carry demodectic mange mites in their eyebrows.”

Lachlan actually had both variations of mange. Fortunately, Karen and Charlaine MacLachlan were not deterred by the horror of the retriever’s condition or the fear of contagion. They deliberated over coffee in the Madinat.

“We can’t take him, we’re in an apartment. The only thing that we can do is offer to help pay for his treatment,” said mother Karen.

Warned by K9 that it might be expensive they replied in unison, “It doesn’t matter,” and adjourned for a further cup of coffee.

“We’ve got to take him out of there. The heat is not helping,” said Charlaine.

Decision made, the MacLachlans took the seriously damaged dog despite warnings on the levels of care and expense needed. It was a huge responsibility that required a high level of commitment; the family accepted the first and ably demonstrated the second.

“Charlaine massaged him twice a day with oil and every other day we bathed him with Aludex. We hosed him down to stop him biting and bleeding. If his tail knocked against the coffee table it would bleed, the skin was so thin. Physically it was a lot of work but after a week he started to perk up and his personality showed through.”

The malnourishment was another major problem. Lachlan was more than 10 kg underweight and was unable to absorb food. On antibiotics prescribed by the vet, they had to experiment with a variety of foods before they found one that did not result in violent bouts of diarrhoea.

“Once a day we tried to give him meat: fresh lamb, beef, or chicken in a stock which he absolutely loved but it wouldn’t stay in his tummy. We tried everything from Eukanuba to Pedigree Chum; he finally managed to keep Blue Label Butch down which is a chicken, fish and rice mix.”

Commenting on appropriate feeding for dogs Dr Spicer says, “Dietary intolerance is common, particularly with red meat and even lamb products. In a young animal there is a nutritional demand for a higher protein level than an older dog. But any trace of an allergen can start a reaction and if the animal is sensitive to beef protein for example, it will manifest itself through skin diseases or irritation, diarrhoea and vomiting. Beef tallow is found in all sorts of products, particularly in dog biscuits and even in chicken flavoured foods. We have specific prescription diets that classically include salmon and potato. On the list of allergens you have wheat, then rice and then potato. We import veterinary specific supplements and these vary subject to the type and weight of the dog. On the whole, it’s better to buy a commercially prepared diet rather than try to concoct one yourself because the manufacturers have developed recipes that include all of the dietary elements needed.”

And then on the subject of dogs and heat.

“Fur is a very good insulator so it can insulate the heat away. However the problem is that dogs and cats are not very good at regulating heat; the only way that they can do that is through their tongues and paws. They don’t have sweat glands like humans and so can’t evaporate heat. Heat stress is quite common. Short coated dogs don’t fare so badly but all animals can get heat stress and can die. Cold climate animals like huskies don’t do well over here and even if they can survive in an air-conditioned environment, that’s not much of a life. Common sense needs to prevail. If you have high temperatures, take your dog out in the early morning or late evening. Humidity is another issue. It may feel fairly cool but if you have humidity at 80-90 per cent then they can’t heat exchange from the tongue. When the air is saturated and you’re trying to evaporate water from your tongue, it’s just not going to move and that’s when heat stress kicks in as well. That’s particularly true in August and September when it gets really humid. You should even be careful about exercising at night-time during that period. Get up early in the morning, accepting that they’ll put on a bit of weight, change the calorie intake and then they can burn it off in the winter.”

Six months down the road, Lachlan is a beautiful, healthy dog with a gentle nature.

“It has to be a family effort,” says Karen, “and everyone has to agree that the dog comes first on the list. It’s a combination of total commitment and patience.”

“And love,” says Charlaine.

“At the end of the day anything that we have given has been rewarded and repaid. Lachlan is our companion and the fourth member of this family.”

Lachlan’s tale is one of love and commitment but not all dogs are fortunate enough to be rescued or treated with such care. Dr Spicer’s advice to anyone thinking of getting a dog would be to go straight to K9 rather than buy a possibly imported dog from a pet shop. Lachlan may be an extreme case but by no means one that is isolated. In all cases, the dogs do need good homes. But pedigree dogs bought as a status symbol are definitely not on his list of recommendations.

“Get a mongrel, a cross-bred dog. They haven’t been messed around with genetic breeding which can bring in recessive genes. Hip dysplasia is a problem with a lot of the breeds and then there are heart valve and eye diseases. Look at the Shar-Pei: inherently it has a lot of problems with ingrowing eyelids, wrinkles, hot and wet eczema. It takes a lot of maintenance to keep these animals healthy in hot weather. Mongrels, cross breeds and hybrids are the best. They last a long time, regulate themselves better and that also means lower vets’ bills. We see a lot of skin allergies with all animals but the structure of the dog is much better. And shorter haired dogs are better; and dogs like lurchers, we don’t have the environment to take them out properly. We need a park where we’re allowed to walk or a selected area of beach where there are patrols to clean up. Or force people to clean up, maybe charge people to use the area.”