Three tiny "bittens" with girl names showed up. We neutered all three boys and told their owners they had three hombres. They woke up together in a suitcase (some of the pet carriers were very creative). Their paper collars are practically bigger than they are!
I kept looking for one patient in the "lobby" and just couldn't find her. Turns out her owner had left her tied to a tree, and she had the most amazing camouflage...
There were so many big dogs that a lot of the pre-meds happened in the empty lot next to our clinic. I had to carry an armful of muzzles and a bag of medical supplies from truck to truck to inject all the dogs:
Some patients just came in for a "Consulta" or exam. Most of them just needed parasite control or vaccines, but there were a few sick pets we were able to help.
Several of the big dogs were either fat, or had infected "privates", making surgery more difficult for the dog and surgeon both. At this clinic, we had many older dogs too. We figured the owners had all the puppies they wanted, and decided to stop breeding the dogs so they could retire. Thank goodness. This poor girl had had several litters, was fat, AND had an infected uterus (called pyometra). Pyometra can be deadly if not treated, and usually requires a spay to make it go away. This dog might not have lived much longer if we hadn't been there. Hooray for World Vets!
Our new friend Wilson surprised us by showing up on the last day and just cleaning and sterilizing surgery instruments all day. He was great! We didn't have a sterilizing machine, and had to use a series of cold water washes with different chemicals in them to make sure everything was perfectly clean for surgery:
Each surgeon was in charge of getting a new tray of instruments, or "surgery pack" when they needed them. Two of our doctors had brought their own packs from home to use at the clinic, so they would make sure they had all the right tools. During surgeries, Sandy monitored anesthesia, checked vitals, and just helped out wherever was needed. Surgical assistants are very important, and much appreciated!
I wish we had a better picture of this dog. She has the most amazing blue eyes, but she was very aggressive and kept trying to attack people before we could get her in to surgery. I have no idea how anyone got her on her chain to begin with. We had to use a catch pole to hold her, and a special anesthetic that can be injected into the muscle very quickly. Even then, there were several people with heavy gloves on hand to make sure Suzanne was safe as she gave the injection.
Every day, we had a great lunch. Our friend Noel ate with us. He worked with us too, all three days. He is an English tutor on the island, so his English is much more clear than the native Creole most locals speak. A lot of people who have emigrated to the island from Colombia speak Spanish, but Creole is the original language of the natives.
Among the many big dogs of the day, we had one tiny chihuahua. Most of the volunteers were nervous because it kept snapping at all of us, and was too small for any of our muzzles.
Lesley is some sort of land-shark whisperer, and was able to calm the little girl down, even give her kisses after surgery. Wow!
Towards the end of the day, we got in a litter of puppies to be "fixed". The boys woke up very quickly after surgery, and several people got puppy photo ops - Stacy:
Dee (or "Coco Loco"):
Collette got to do the last spay of the campaign, starting just as most of the other surgeons were finishing up their final surgeries. We used the water bottles to help stabilize animals on the surgery table. Although Collette is a very quick surgeon, she still finished quite a bit after everyone else, so we had most of the other surgery areas cleaned up already.
She did, however, still have time for a puppy photo op:
I, on the other hand, was collecting all our leashes, so this is the cuteness that I got to "snuggle":
And then I got sort of startled from behind:
After we were done cleaning up, we piled into our van for the last time - our driver had brought his daughter to see the group of vets, and she rode with us back to our hotel:
And then the clinics were over. We ate, we crashed, and then this morning we went into town to shop. I finally found some Colombian coffee to bring home, and now it's siesta - for about 5 minutes. Then it's off for a boat ride around the island!
No comments:
Post a Comment