Just finished our 1st day of clinics. We're in the community of Los Mendozas in Todos Santos. The rest of the team arrived late yesterday afternoon on the bus from HueHue (Huehuetenango) after a 5 hour ride up from Guatemala City. Poor Kate (our indefatigable team leader) had to hop right back onto another bus with Marjo (head tech) heading to San Martin, another hour away. They were meeting with the local council to finalize some arrangements for Veterinarians Without Borders Canada's 1st project in that community. The local council are each going to billet 2 team members and we'll be doing the clinics in the local school since the kids are out of school until January. Lots of dogs there so we'll be busy!
The rest of the team got the supplies together for today's clinic and Roberto went on the radio to make another announcement about our 2 week project in Todos Santos.
We all got up bright and early this morning to get ready and our 1st patients arrived shortly after 8 AM. The dogs are looking pretty healthy - better body condition than previously. A few dogs with skin problems, one dog with an infected elbow from a dog bite, a couple of males with TVTs (Transmissible Venereal Tumours) and one poor dog with a massive facial tumour.
We helped the ones we could (antibiotics, pain control) and we'll do some housecalls later in the week to follow up.
Most of the dogs we could manage with muzzles and soothing words but we had one dog that its owners couldn't manage so we'll try again early tomorrow at our next clinic and see if we can get a muzzle on. The owners want the dog sterilized so we'll do our best to make it happen.
We saw a few old friends including Terry the Rottweiler with the infection from last November. He's looking good, doing well.
The rest of the team got the supplies together for today's clinic and Roberto went on the radio to make another announcement about our 2 week project in Todos Santos.
We all got up bright and early this morning to get ready and our 1st patients arrived shortly after 8 AM. The dogs are looking pretty healthy - better body condition than previously. A few dogs with skin problems, one dog with an infected elbow from a dog bite, a couple of males with TVTs (Transmissible Venereal Tumours) and one poor dog with a massive facial tumour.
We helped the ones we could (antibiotics, pain control) and we'll do some housecalls later in the week to follow up.
Most of the dogs we could manage with muzzles and soothing words but we had one dog that its owners couldn't manage so we'll try again early tomorrow at our next clinic and see if we can get a muzzle on. The owners want the dog sterilized so we'll do our best to make it happen.
We saw a few old friends including Terry the Rottweiler with the infection from last November. He's looking good, doing well.
Many of the dogs coming in have been sterilized already but their owners want a health check. A few puppies for checkups that we'll see next year when they are older.
It ls good to be back and nice to see familiar faces and walks the streets (and CLIMB the hills) we knew last year. We have 5 returning team members this year and one new tech, Joye, who amazingly, was able to make arrangements to come at the last minute when we were down a tech.
We are fewer team members this year so we're going to have to be as efficient as possible.
Time to head back to the clinic to help load up the truck to take our gear to Los Pablos, where we'll be holding our next clinic tomorrow.
We'll write more when we can.
We are fewer team members this year so we're going to have to be as efficient as possible.
Time to head back to the clinic to help load up the truck to take our gear to Los Pablos, where we'll be holding our next clinic tomorrow.
We'll write more when we can.
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