todossantoscanine

Nosey

2010-11-27T15:35:00.001-08:00

I have never seen such an expressive sad face in a dog like I saw this morning when Nosey realized we were leaving TS, she turned her back to us and her face....what an expression of sadness, seriously and I think the rest of the team will agree with me.
Nosey we will miss you!!
We made it to Antigua and tonight we are all getting a few gallos and some food at the Portal Latino. I just saw my friends from Antigua and they will also be coming, FUN TIMES!

El Sendero Ecologico....a must !

2010-11-26T14:41:00.000-08:00

On our last day in Todos Santos, Tracy and I went to El Sendero Ecologico which is about 25 min from Todos Santos on the way to Hue Hue. We were amazed with all the beauty we found on this short but steep trail. On our way up the fog started falling down at the top of the mountain range, making the hike even more magical. The trees, the rock formations, the caves used as a ceremonial sites, the stream with gorgeous waterfalls, etc. I really recommend to anyone coming here to do this hike, is very short and you get a lot for it.
I also want to mention how open people are to us here, we get greeted a lot with smiles, sometimes asking when are we coming back or asking something about their dog.It is very gratifying when this happens.
Adios Todos Santos, hola Antigua !!

It´s over?? :(

2010-11-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

Well, today is our last day of work here in Guatemala. It´s hard to believe that two weeks has gone by so quickly. In honour of our last day, the sun is shining brightly and we had a lovely breakfast (banana bread and hot chocolate) overlooking the square. After breakfast we split into groups to finish our last tasks of the trip. For Roberto and I this included the challenge of vaccinating our beloved Nosy, a task no one was looking forward too, as she loves and trusts us so much. After unsuccessfully trying to distract her with chicken (Nosy did not survive this long on the streets by being stupid, that´s for sure) we put on a slip lead and threw my sweater over her and held her down for her vaccine and new collar. We were worried it would take a while for her to forgive us, but she came to see us about 15 minutes later as happy as always, so that´s a relief.

Today we had our last lunch in Todos Santos. The lady who makes our lunches and dinners here has been amazing. She always seems to outdo herself with every meal, and I may be the first team member to head back to Canada without losing weight on the trip!!! Tonight we will have dinner with the whole team, including Bonita and Andres our two interpreters. It´s hard to believe we will be saying good-bye to all this so soon. I know I will miss the amazing scenery, the friendly ppl and all the dogs who have befriended us in our time here. I will NOT miss the rooster who thinks the sun comes up at 3am, however :)

Thanks so much again to everyone who has helped make the project such a success again this year, and especially to all the team members who helped me so much and put up with my inexperience!

last day in Todos Santos

2010-11-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

well I had to wait to the last day to contribute to our blog, seems to be the venezuelan way. We leave tomorrow and I will be spending a week on my own in Guatemala, not sure what I will be doing yet.
I have to admit I was nervous about dreesing up as a dog and expecting to entertain a bunch of kids, I certainly stepped out of the box on this one, but We figure it would be the best way to send the message: how to avoid a dog bite and how to feed your dog more protein in tortilla land. Even feeding the magic formula of 2 tortilla per kg dogs need protein and we hope eggs will help.
The play was a success and we have become instant celebrities in TS. We have been asked a few times to take pictures with kids and even adults!. This hopefully means that the message was sent and that it will make a difference, if that´s the case it was all worth it.
The team work was again great and we leave with a lot accomplished. I have feel a difference from this year to the last one in regards to how people take care of their dogs. Many times post op dogs were picked up in a taxi because owners lived too far and they took our advice seriously when we told them that Oso could not walk that far and that Oso would have to be carried home.
However, San Martin was a different story, lots of underweight dogs and not that great pet care. It was our first time there and we hope things will change a bit for next year.
Well I am off to have some delicious lunch (food has been great on this trip) and then off to El Sendero Ecologico which is hike 20 min from TS towards Hue Hue. This hike was highly recommended by our Peace Corps friend Kelly.
Graaaaciaaaasssss

Last Day in Todos Santos

2010-11-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

It`s our last day in Todos Santos - hard to believe! It's a gorgeous sunny day here in the mountains. It`s passed by very fast. Marjo and I arrived in Guatemala almost 3 weeks ago. It`s amazing how quickly we fell back into the routine. Things that I noticed last year (like the barking dogs and the roosters and pig noises all night long) are just familiar backgound sounds now.

We finished our last spay clinics yesterday. As Kate mentioned it`s very very cold in the AM and even once we heat the room enough to start, it's still cold and a challenge to keep the patients warm. When we surgically open their bellies, we see steam rising from the belly, something we never see in the OR at home. The focus is to be quick and careful with the spays so that we don`t have complications after. If the dogs aren't eating or comfortable the next day or even that night, we recheck them at their homes.

A Todos Santos take on a "Pet Kaddy"

Pila keeps warm during the cold AM hours

We had a couple of cancellations because one community is worried that their dogs are being poisoned and they took their dogs away to Las Ventosas for a couple of weeks to keep them safe. Unfortunately last night we got a call from a woman to say there was a poisoned dog in the street. Kate and Marjo grabbed some drugs and supplies and headed out there. The dog was convulsing and too far gone to save so he was humanely euthanized. We need to talk to the municipality to try and find out who is doing this - but we may never know who.

We've split up into groups of 2 today to do our final housecalls and rechecks. There are a few dogs that are too aggressive or lame to bring into the clinics so we're going to their houses to vaccinate them. This morning Anne Marie and I were a team and we got to try and vaccinate Hueso - our escape artist from last year. She's much the same so once the family had her in the small storage room we just quickly vaccinated her - no chance for a full physical but she`s in good condition and eating well. We also vaccinated the lame old dog from the hostel we are staying all. We'll also leave some pain meds for his arthritis. Same with Marcel, a lame old dog that lives near the old Hispanomayan School.

We`ve accumulated quite a little pack of dogs that hang around us, looking for food but also very happy for the attention. Walking down the main street towards our spay clinics this week we often had a retinue of Nosey, Bobbi, Marcel and now Pila, the little puppy that Anne Marie and Kate rescued. She`s is proving amazingly resilient and becoming less afraid and more puppy-like everyday.

Pila enjoys a break behind the Los Pablos clinic

Andres takes a stint walking Pila

I'm finding it quite amazing how much attention Pila is getting. Many times a day people will stop me and ask me her name and whether she is "macho o hembra", a boy or a girl. They seem quite taken by her which I find surprising given how many dogs - and puppies - there are around. Many times a day I`ll hear "Pila? Como esta Pila?" and look up to see a kid hanging out a window asking how Pila is doing.

2 Todos Santeran children want a photo with Pila.

Pila is booked on my flight and now all I have to do is find the right-sized carrier to bring her home in. I think she'll adapt well to life on the West Coast of Canada.

Todos Santos prepares for Christmas

and the team prepares to head home.

Pila, Pila, Pila!!!

2010-11-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

So Kate and I were enjoying a cup of chocolata on Sunday morning, when we heard some ear piercing cries of a dog coming from the building across the street. They stopped, we looked at each other, and the wheels were turning in our heads of whether to investigate. Then the cries continued, so we went into the building until the cries guided us to a pila on the second floor. A pila is a large 3-compartment sink used in homes and businesses. In front of the pila were two Todos Santeros men with a broomstick trying to push out a small puppy from behind the pila. The water was running and the puppy was soaked, shivering, and clearly in shock. As we approached the men quickly left and I wedged my way in behind the pila while Kate tried to find a rope to use as a leash. I suspected the puppy would want to try and bite me if I reached out to her, but she was so petrified she was frozen still. So after a few minutes of petting I was able to scruff her and pull her out. Then the question was "what do we do with her?" We decided to dry her off and perhaps set her free in a more amiable location. But when we got her back to the hotel, I put her on the ground to dry her off and she immediately took off. So it was Kate´s turn to pull her out of the neighbours yard. We had a clinic in Angles that day so we brought her with us to hang out for the day. Since "dogs in a bag" are a routine occurence here, Tracy and Kate created a puppy hammock in a corner of the clinic room by hanging a VWB tote bag from the ceiling where the puppy slept most of the day. Over the course of the day, Tracy was suspiciously spending a lot of time with the puppy, and sure enough there was the rumour of finding out the procedure for bringing her home to Victoria.
With careful consideration, the puppy has been called "Pila". And it´s been incredible how quickly Pila and Tracy have bonded. However, with what Pila´s been through there is still an urge on her part to flee through open doors. So on Tuesday, in stealth-like fashion, she managed to run out the door while we were doing the spay clinic in Los Pablos. Tracy, Kate and I looked up and down the hill, throughout the building, along the main street, calling "Pila, Pila, Pila!", all to no avail. It occured to Kate that as we were looking for her the local people must have thought we were crazy yelling "sink, sink, sink!". She was small and easily camouflaged. I will admit, I was very pessimistic about seeing her again. A little girl said she saw her running up the hill and down the mountain side. So Tracy followed a pathway, calling for Pila, and sure enough the little stinker came out from a bush and up to Tracy. As I saw Tracy come down the hill with Pila, a bumper sticker about animal adoption came to mind "who rescued who", since clearly it´s destined these two are meant to be together.
And so Pila has a plane ticket to Victoria....(Pila = 2 , Brush with death = 0...Pila + Tracy = home run....)

See you soon,
AM

New kid on the...mountain!

2010-11-24T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. My name is Joye and I´m a technican from Nova Scotia taking part in this amazing experience in Guatemala. You may have read the blog entry about my clinic, Truro Veterinary Hospital, and their huge contribution enabling me to be here. If so, you know that I only had 1 week to prepare for this trip. We are now a week and a half into things and I think I´ve finally figured out what I´m doing here! :)

So many things are different here from the dogs we see back home, of course. The average body condition score is 2 out of 5 rather than 4 and the dogs are all infested with fleas and intestinal parasites. Of course, the clients speak mostly Spanish or Mam (a traditional language), so I have a hard time communicating most of the time. That being said..the "appointments" are similar to those at home in many ways. We discuss diet and parasite control and vaccination and the importance of spaying and neutering, in much the same way we would in Canada. As at home, some people are very receptive to our comments, and some are not. I guess some things are the same all over the world.

Last week we visited the community of San Martin and stayed with families there. The family I stayed with was so helpful and pleasant to be with, even if I´m pretty sure we had to walk to Mexico to get to their house! The people in San Martin, and their dogs, were very different from those we´ve seen in the central portion of Todos Santos. The dogs were thinner and in many cases more fearful or hostile to us during exams. The community seems much less traditional and more Westernized, with more Mexican influence. It´s only an hour by bus away, so the differences were very remarkable.

This week is spay week and so far it´s progressing very well. It´s sooo cold here in the mornings, however, so we are often off to a slow start. I spend much of the early morning shivering and huddled by our meager heater, and I developed a cold on Monday that has been hanging with me throughout the week. Today some members of the team presented a show and activity for the children here on dog safety which was very entertaining and well received. Roberto as Scooby Doo was a huge hit! :)

Well, that´s all my news for now. One more day of spays left and then some catching up and organizing..so hard to believe it´s almost over already. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this experience so amazing for me!!

Joye

2010-11-24T15:19:00.001-08:00

Wednesday 5h30pm....my first time blogging since I arrived in Todos Santos. So much to say but lets concentrate on the kid activity that took place today. It was just GREAT! The afternoon consisted in a play teaching kids how to avoid dog bites and how to feed them more proteins by giving to their dog one to two eggs per week, followed by an english class (veterinarian related) for kids 9 years and older and some drawing for kids 8 years and younger. We were hoping to be able to have 200 kids, I would say we got about 100 kids and I was told its a pretty good turn out for Todos Santos. Roberto was wearing a Scoobie Doo costume for the play, I was a veterinarian and Kelly (Peace Corp volunteer) was Rosita (Scoobie`s owner)

Disons que la piece de theatre fut un succes! Tous les enfants voulaient des photos avec nous et tous ont, je l`espere appris comment eviter les morsures de chiens en lisant le language corporel des chiens, en immitant la roche ou bien l`arbre! Nous avions a la fin de l`activite une collation consistant en un chocolat chaud (pour nous rechauffer en fin d`apres midi) et un morceau de pain rempli de confiture a la banane.
Apres la piece de theatre, Roberto s`est occupe de la classe d`anglais avec les plus vieux et moi des dessins avec les plus jeunes. Les dessins apprenaient aux enfants comment se comporter avec les chiens. Ne pas deranger une mere qui allaite, un chien qui mange, ne pas les frapper, ne pas toucher un chien inconnu, etc...Chaque enfant avait une feuille differente et etait en groupe de 4 pour partager une boite de crayon. J`allais d`enfant a enfant en leur expliquant la signification du dessin. Une chance que j`avais l`aide de Benita (notre traductrice MAM, leur dialecte Maya) car les petits bout de choux ne parlent pas beaucoup l`espagnol.

Je crois que l`evenement fut un succes.......d`apres les visages souriants!

Bugs, bugs and more bugs

2010-11-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

Buenas tardes from TS. We have been super busy over the past few days. We have all had a bit of a touch of some respiratory issues here....lots of colourful things living in our lungs i think...which makes the climbs at this elevation somewhat difficult. It makes the flea and bed bug bites seem less of an issue...although Roberto, like last yuear, seems to have the right blood type for the fleas!

Last week we spent 3 days in San Martin, another community about an hour away. It was an interesting experience for us. We were billeted two by two with local families. Our sleeps were not always great as we often had cannons going off at 5 am (religious celebrations ???), roosters crowing starting at 2 am (where are their watches?), dog fights all through the night and fellow roommates who snored loud. The families were gracious and welcoming to us and opened their homes and fed us well. The dogs in San martin were very different than those in Todos Santos. They were very untrusting of people and uninhibited...which was somewhat dangerous and less than relaxing at times. They were also very very thin....which reminds me of the importance of the dump here in Todos Santos and the small slaughter facilities as very important sources of nutrition for the roaming dogs. We only saw a couple dogs out of the many that were in decent body condition. And the puppies were in exceedingly poor condition....a bad combination of intestinal parasites and malnutrition. We were glad to be able to help out there a bit and will see what next year brings. It was a tiring three days for us and we were glad to get back to the simple comforts (??) of Todos Santos.

We started our spays yesterday and i think have done about 8 or ten. It is soooo cold in the morning that we are having to wait until 9 am before the room is warm enough to even consider opening up an abdomen. They are going well so far and we have just two more days of it left. Tomorrow is the grand VWB-VSF fiesta for the kids. Big Dr Roberto has his Scooby Doo costume and a play is planned for the children to discuss responsible pet ownership with the kids as well as proper dog handling and how to avoid dog bites. Plus there awill also be a bit of an english lesson. We are expecting about 200 kids and of course snacks will be provided! It should be great.

Well i must sign off now. It is great being here and seeing so many familiar faces. What has been striking for me is how many return clients we are seeing with their dogs....and most of the males have been castrated by us. All seem to be in good health and are in good body condition. It is wonderful to be able to continue our talk with the clients about parasite control and nutrition. We have figured out that it takes roughly 2 tortillas/kg of dog to have a decent body condition....that means about 30 tortillas for the average size dog here....which would keep the tortilla maker of the family very busy! Most dog receive just 10 tortillas a day...which means they must scavenge the rest off the street. Our talks on nutrition have probably helped these dogs the most.

Adios amigos! kate

2 Tortillas per Kilogram of Dog

2010-11-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

Benita (our Spanish-Mam Interpreter)
taking a patient's history from some children in San Martin.

You learn some unexpected things when you work in a foreign country. The dogs in Todos Santos aren`t fed dog food and a routine question during our exams, especially if the dog is thin or the owner reports it isn`t eating, is to ask what they are feeding the dog and usually the answer is 'tortillas'.

During our clinics in San Martìn we learned that it takes 2 tortillas per kilogram of dog to keep a dog in good body condition. This was our 1st time working in San Martìn. Our clinic was set up in a disused classroom and we were billeted in local families homes, two of us per house. At one house the woman keeps her dog in the yard - so he doesn´t roam and can´t scavenge. So we know that all he gets to eat is what she feeds him and what she feeds him is tortillas only. She feeds him 30 tortillas per day - which she makes by hand as well as all the tortillas for her family - and he is in good body condition. He weighs 15 kg so now we know that it takes 2 tortillas per kg to feed a dog.
Things they don`t teach you in vet college.

The clinics in San Martìn went well but the people there are less familiar with our project so it took awhile for word to get around about what we were doing. The dogs seemed skinnier than the ones we`ve been seeing in the communities so far and we`re not sure why. We`d love to think that it`s our influence but it`s more likely that they have access in El Centro to the slaughterhouse and meat markets. Maybe it`s a combination.

One little puppy in San Martìn broke our hearts.

She came in with a dog that was getting sterilized and she stayed in our clinic (which was held in one of the classrooms in the local school as classes are out until January) through the afternoon till the other dog woke up from his anesthetic.

She was very small and skinny and ate ravenously when we gave her some of our food.

A little puppy curls up beside her adult housemate as he recovers from sedation for his sterilization procedure.

After the other dog`s procedure she went over to curl up beside him on his blanket and they both slept the afternoon away until the owner came to get them. He carried the bigger dog home and a little boy was supposed to carry the puppy home but we saw them way down the main street with the old man carrying the big dog and the puppy trotting along beside - and the little boy nowhere to be found. About 20 minutes later the little puppy came trotting back in through the gate all by herself and back into the classroom. We had to carry her back and find her house - where they hadn`t realized she was gone.

The kids in San Martìn were great. Because school is out we were an attraction so we had groups of them hanging out with us as we recovered the sedated dogs. They chatted away, asked about all our equipment and were particularly fascinated by our hot water bottles.

Back in El Centro we did two more days of clinics and last Monday we started our spay clinics for the females - which we`ll do all this week.
Hasta luego.

A rainy market day in San Martin.

Los Pablos

2010-11-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

Team meeting

We had an incredibly busy day today at Los Pablos. We haven´t counted up our final numbers today but we´re estimating we saw 125 to 150 dogs today. Lots of vaccines and some chemical sterilizations of the males. It´s been interesting rechecking the male dogs we did in 2009. Their testicles are still present but usually palpably smaller, firmer, often assymetrical.
We made appointments for the females for next week when we do our surgical spays.

Again it was great to see some familiar people and dogs. We saw one of the 3 puppies we saw last year with Rawant´s owner. All grown-up and feisty. His name is Muñeco, very healthy. Most of the dogs are very fearful and can be challenging to handle but a few of them are incredibly relaxed and friendly - often dogs from the same households so it likely has a lot to do with how they are raised. Saw Terri - the shy little black and white dog we spayed last year. She's very timid and fearful this year.

Terri - very shy at the clinic this year

Many of the dogs we are seeing are not as skinny as before. Some quite healthy and with one dog we actually had to have ¨the talk¨about being too heavy. Still seeing a few of the venereal tumours (TVTs) which is depressing especially in dogs that have been sterilized - just not soon enough! Hopefully we´ll see the incidence of this decrease as more dogs are sterilized before being sexually active. It´s a treatable disease but requires once a week IV injections for 4 to 6 weeks and we are not here long enough to do this and it can´t be done by anyone in Todos Santos after we are gone. One owner is willing to go to HueHuetenango every week for 6 weeks for treatment if we can find a vet willing and able to do the treatment. That´s a 2-3 hour bus ride there and back. We´ll look into it for her.

Tomorrow we are off at 6 AM to a new community for the next 3 days. We expect the clinics will be busy.

Roberto and Marjo consult with 2 clients

1st Clinic Day

2010-11-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

Truro Veterinary Hospital supports Todos Santos Canine Program

2010-11-14T17:48:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give you a little update on the Todos Santos clinics - starting next week!

We have a great team and Tracy and Marjo are already there preparing everything. We are reaching out to an additional community about an hour away this year too - so hopefully that will go over well. I can't wait to hear what happens this year!

Last Friday, we weren't so sure if we would have a complete team to send because our new additional technician had to withdraw from the team due to visa problems. We were very sad and of course, stressed because the team was already quite small this year!

I decided to write to Joye Sears, a technician in Truro, who had applied after we sent out our call for volunteers in September. She was very keen but did not speak any Spanish so we did not select her.

With only one week to organize - she is GOING! It's really great and I can't believe it has worked out.

She, like all the others, is responsible to pay for her flight, which given the short notice ended up being something like 1300$. Plus she is having to take 2 weeks off work without any notice.

I just spoke to her on the phone and she told me that her clinic, Truro Veterinary Hospital, (165 Arthur St Truro NS) decided to pay for her flight and give her one week's wages!!!! They have decided that this is important for the global community and will be making a fund available, from now on, to their staff for community services, etc. WOW. I wanted to share this because I think this is a great example of clinics getting involved and giving back!

Thank you Truro Veterinary Hospital for helping to support Joye and the Todos Santos Project!

-Enid

Todos Santos 2010 - The Count Down Is On!

2010-11-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

Supplies, supplies, supplies. Do we have everything? Do we have enough of everything? Will it all arrive at the same place, at the same time, and will it all be intact? That is what is filling my brain right now. Our 2010 visit to Todos Santos is days away now. Dr. Tracy Cornish and our head technician Marjolaine Perrault are heading down in a matter of days for the pre-project scouting/organization effort. This involves a hundred different tasks, including, but definitely not limited to, picking up some supplies from a local veterinarian, arranging housing for us all, getting clinic rooms finalized, advertising the clinics through posters and radio announcements and touching base with our municipal government contacts and Peace Corps volunteer. Complicating the number of items that must be dealt with before the rest of the team comes to town is the fact that it takes A LOT longer to complete tasks in Todos Santos than it does in Canada. The rest of the team arrives at the end of next week. We will all be in Todos Santos by November 14th and our clinics start the next day. We are excited. And I am sure somewhat nervous.

Our project this year will be similar in many ways to our previous trips to Todos Santos. We will be chemically sterilizing male dogs with Esterisol and surgically spaying female dogs. The team is a bit smaller, with 3 veterinarians (Drs Kate Kuzminski, Tracy Cornish and Roberto Martinez) and 3 technicians (Marjolaine Perrault, Anne Marie McPartlin and Catalina Zapata). Every team member is a returnee, except for our new technician Catalina. Sadly we will not be joined by Dr Enid Stiles this year. (Its not too late to change your mind Enid!) What will be different, however, is that we have two exciting additions to the project this year. The first is that we have been asked by another remote village of Todos Santos, San Martin, to help with their canine issues. As a result we will spend 3 days there vaccinating dogs against rabies and chemically sterilizing male dogs. There are no guest houses/hostels in this area, so we will be billeted with local families. This is something new for us...and could be interesting considering many people still speak Mam, a Mayan dialect, in Todos Santos. Our smiles will go far I hope. The other exciting addition is that Dr. Roberto Martinez is working on a children's play that will focus on dog bite prevention and improving the nutrition for the dogs that live with them. We all can't wait to see this big guy in his dog costume. We promise to post some pictures.....

And as I scurry around making last minute arrangements and hoping that our duffles fit everything we want to bring down, I reflect on our task ahead. We all know it will be hard...and uncomfortable...and exhausting. But we also know what a great opportunity is before us. We are so fortunate to be able to make this trek, back to a place that is very near and dear to our hearts. I know we will do great things because this team is great. And committed. And we believe in the project and in improving the lives of the people and the dogs of Todos Santos. It is a long way from Canada, and not every one will get why we do what we do. Why we travel so far to help a community so high up in the mountains that some days I swear we are above the clouds. The truth for me is that we all live in one world. And we are all responsible for each other. And if we don't, no one else will right now. So for me it is easy. The sheer gratitude demonstrated to us by the people of Todos Santos is overwhelming. We don't need to speak the same language to know what our attention to their dog means to them. A smile says a thousand words......

Todos Santos here we come...........

Kate

Vets without Borders Web Series - Episode One

2010-11-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is the first episode of the webseries, Vets without Borders, which was filmed in 2009 by May Street Productions. Veterinarians without Borders sent a second team to Todos Santos, Guatemala in November 2009 to to examine, vaccinate and sterilize the remaining male dog population. During this phase the team also started sterilizing female dogs. This websiode shows what the team does on a daily basis to help the live of the dogs and community of Todos Santos.

Todos Santos on my Mind

2009-12-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

Back in Canada for a couple of days now and I do find myself thinking alot about Todos Santos. There were challenges working in Todos Santos, not the least because of the different languages (Spanish and Mam) and conditions, but there was also unexpected joy and fulfillment there as well. While there, we were up by 5:30 AM and going steadily all day until we climbed the hill back up to Las Ruinas after dinner, and fell into bed.

It was an all-immersing experience.

Most of the team hadn't worked with each other or even met each other before meeting up in Guatemala City but we pretty quickly got into an easy working relationship that felt very comfortable and mutually supportive. We had great team leaders in Marjo (head tech and Todos Santos guru) and Kate (our head vet) and when we lost Kate, who was due back in Canada after 1 week, Enid (Vice-President and VWB/VSF Coordinator of Canine/Feline programs) very capably and seamlessly stepped into Kate's shoes for the remainder of the project, bringing her own special warmth to the team.

We had 2 amazing translators from Todos Santos: Benita who speaks Mam and Spanish, and Andres who speaks Mam-Spanish-English - his English much appreciated by those of us with more rudimentary Spanish.

Andres also got to accompany us on many of our hikes as we carried patients home after surgery or did housecalls to follow up on all of our medical and surgical patients.

Both of these people were essential in communicating pet histories and homecare instructions as well as medical advice.

As mentioned in previous posts, various Todos Santos community leaders were also very helpful and supportive - helping with electrical supply, water, truck transport, keys, locating rooms for the community clinics or even speaking with pet owners and answering their questions or concerns.

Two other people from Todos Santos were also a huge support to the team during our stay. Roman and Christina (and their family) opened up their home in Las Ruinas to the team and made us feel incredibly welcome

- and their generosity continued throughout our stay with much-appreciated thermoses of coffee, with loan of a gas heater to help keep our post-surgical patients warm, and many other kindnesses. They also gave us the opportunity to to see 2 documentaries on Todos Santos Cuchumatan that gave us a little insight into some of the history of the community over the last 30 years. Their tienda (store) across from the municipal square was always a welcome place for coffee and chat during our downtime.

One of the unexpected pleasures (for me at least) of the time in Todos Santos was the enforced return to very basic medicine. With one of the VWB/VSF-Canada mandates being sustainability, we worked with equipment and supplies that are or would be locally available, not with what we were used to at home. Surgery and medicine became much more dependent on our 5 senses and on the "art" of veterinary medicine - and many team members commented on how rewarding (though challenging) this was. Walking up and down the mountainsides on our housecall rounds, and focusing on basic factors such as homecare and TLC, was a very peaceful and uncluttered experience.

The people of Todos Santos were very gracious and I hope I've learned from their patience and stoicism. I very much appreciated it that they have been willing to let us come there and work with them and that they have entrusted us with their pets' care. The relationship with their pets can appear quite different from 'back home' but their affection and bond with their pets was clear.

There are many pets that I met that I continue to wonder about:

Terry the Rottweiler who was doing incredibly well as we left; Terri the gentle little black & white dog who stole my heart; Nosey our mascot who was always so happy to see us and who could never get enough love and attention - as well as her little black buddy, dubbed Fritz, who appeared at 4 AM on our second-to-last day in Todos Santos and made himself right at home at Las Ruinas and at Roman and Christina's tienda ... Tuzo and so many other pets that we met.

To my team mates, it was truly a privilege to work with you all

(Merci beaucoup - gracias a todos).

Erin and Jeff - you both pitched right in seamlessly and helped where needed, in what must have been a doubly-strange environment (Todos Santos and the sometimes graphic world of veterinary medicine - sorry again about the dinnertime conversation Jeff!!).

Marjo, Kate and Enid, thank you for your inspired and always supportive leadership. It was a great experience working with VWB/VSF and the memories will endure.

What I'm left with is a strong desire that the work, which started several years ago in this community, continues to build on what was accomplished last January and continued this November/December. We saw many people who asked us when we are coming back, and there are many issues that could be worked on together with the community, and with other international partners and funding. It al leaves me with a very strong sense of hope and possiblity for the people and animals of Todos Santos Cuchumatan, and I'm grateful to have been allowed to be a small part of it.

Phase 2 Todos Santos comes to an end.............

2009-12-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well, Phase 2 has finally come to an end, and we are all on our way home (some already back I hope!). My first day away from Todos Santos was a serious culture shock. Having travelled in many corners of the world, I did not expect to feel this as much as I do. Walking around Antigua yesterday with all the Guatemalan's dressed in western clothes, eating hamburgers and ice cream, was truly surreal. What a rare and wonderful place Todos Santos is, where people hold onto their culture and language and wear it with pride. We have witnessed not only the good but also the difficulties this community has with poverty, politics, alcohol, unemployment, health, etc.

I thought it would be nice to have a few photos for our final words on the blog.
As school was out, we often had the children bringing in the dogs to the clinics. It was wonderful to have them watch us with curious eyes and minds and let them listen to the hearts of their dogs through our stethoscopes. We of course had to call their parents when it came to doing any sterilization procedure, THANK goodness for cell phones!

As you have read in the blog a whole bunch of times, a very special dog has attached herself to VWB/VSF . She is owned (or as the family likes to say - ''adopted'') by a family that lives next to the hostel some of us stay in. Her name is Nosey and she is simply the most gorgeous little dog in the world. We all want to take her home, but we know she is loved and cared for and takes everything in stride. She was spayed in Phase 1 and has put on weight since then - she is now the proud owner of some serious 'love-handles'!
When we left at 4:30 am on Saturday, she followed us down the hill and proceeded to jump into the mini-bus.......... we all held back the tears as I picked her up and out of the mini-bus. We will miss you Nosey - see you next time girl!

I won't go into too many details on the rest of the photos, most of them are pretty self-explanatory. The people and their dogs, and the comfort the dogs took in having them there for them when they were recovering.

Sometimes the conditions we worked in were very challenging. We needed to help a dog who had some post-operative complications. This photo is of Marjo and I kneeling on the dirt ground, with smoke and dust everywhere, while the little girl did the dishes in the basin and the other child decided to sweep...... all while we had this doggie under anesthesia and her belly open.......... true asepsis....... HA - I don't think so BUT this is what we had to work with and happy to say, we visited Hueso (which means collar in Spanish) on Friday and she was eating our chicken and doing REALLY well. Thanks for great antibiotics and flushing, flushing, flushing...........

Not all conditions were that bad, this was our final surgical clinic, where we set up for 3 days. It was REALLY cold in the morning but by midday day the sun was pounding on the metal walls and things would warm up.

And yet another picture of dear Nosey......... and our AWESOME chief vet, Kate. We missed you Kate this week - I certainly cannot fit those shoes.

A final goodbye to the entire team, who worked with true team spirit and never ceased to amaze me at every moment. Encouraging and caring to each other, even when things got rough. Professional, compassionate, sensitive, and all in the name of the people and their dogs of Todos Santos. VWB/VSF thanks you all - your work lives on in.

Enid

The People and their dogs

2009-12-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

For two and a half years I have been sitting behind a computer and speaking on the other end of the telephone line from Canada, co-ordinating this community based project in Todos Santos. I am happy to say that I can now see with my very own eyes the impact of all our hard work. The stories and pictures I have heard these past years from our volunteers did not prepare me for the overwhelming beauty and passion of the people of Todos Santos. I have been fortunate to travel to many countries throughout the world, but this community has caught my heart and soul.

What I did not expect was the relationship the people of this community have with their dogs. My first eye-opener came the evening we arrived (Dr Jenn Messer and I arrived mid-way through the campaign). We were on our way to dinner down a narrow, rocky and incredibly steep hill to the house of the women who makes our team meals. On the way, the infamous Nosey, a white dog with a kink in her tail who has happily adopted our team every year, trotted along jumping on us and nudging her nose on our hands and legs (and so the name Nosey). In front of us a group of 4 children were playing in the street with a dog, and I had to assume it was the family dog. It would have blown all our child-bite-prevention campaigns in North America right out of the water as I watched the children pulling the dogs ears, grabbing it around it's neck. At one point (lets not get too disgusted by this........) the child sat on her bum on the ground, grabbed the dogs back legs and put her head right up next to his bum............... I don't know what bothered or impressed me the most? the child likely being exposed to various transmisable parasites we all know these dogs have OR impressed by the fact that this dog tolerated this and may have even been enjoying all of this pulling and grabbing! I would love to see my own Jack Russel and half the dogs I see in practice in Canada allow this kind of handling by ANYONE - especially a child!

As the days have passed, I have continued to be taken aback by the interest and support the community now has for our work. People approach us on the street to help with their dogs, ask us when we are coming back, and are disapointed when we tell them their dog is too young or too sick to be sterilized and/or vaccinated.

Dra Camposeco of the Guatemalan government, who is responsible for rabies control programs throughout the country, kindly came along with Dr Messer and I for a few days to see what we were doing here in Todos Santos. She was highly supportive of our work and joined us for our meeting with the mayor. It has been a challenge to find ways to involve and collaborate with local government, veterinary professionals, non-governmental organizations and the veterinary university. Timing has not been in our favour and Todos Santos is not an easy place to travel too and accomodations are minimal to say the least, even for Guatemalan's. Having Dra Camposeco see the community rally behind our work and the mayor becoming increasingly supportive, has been invaluable. We have now been published in the community governments yearly publication (pictures and reports of the work that was done in early 2009), and the mayor has promised to allow us use of a permanent room and transportation for our campaigns in the future. We explained how difficult transporting our daily clinics has been and the difficulty and safety issues surrounding getting these dogs home after being sedated or anesthetized, sometimes having to walk 30 minutes to get home. The mayor has thanked us for our work and has confidence in our abilities to continue working with Todos Santos and the health of their dogs and people that live so closely with them.

A few things that have shown us that people are ready to take responsible action and promote a healthier dog population (both in numbers and in health and welfare - which of course may lead to a healthier community):

- they are paying for the Tuck-Tuck taxi to take their dogs home if they are too tired to walk after surgery

- community leaders of other communities that we are not presently working in, are calling to ask if we have space to spay and neuter their dogs

- it appears the condition of the dogs has been improving since last January

- And as per Marjolaine "when I first started coming to Todos Santos 2 years ago, I would walk the streets with a rock in my hand to scare the aggressive dogs away", now she walks in close quarters with many dogs we do not know and carries left-overs from dinner to give them as food! They are changing, and she is not the only one to see it. People are commenting that the number of aggressive street dogs has dropped dramatically and with time, we hope this will help with tourism and in so -help with economic development in this poor community.

I will add however, that although there are fewer dogs running around and fewer aggressive dogs, you still need ear plugs at night to muffle the sounds of the dogs barking (and the firecrackers and lets not forget, the churches signing over loud speakers into the wee hours of the night).

We have finished our last day of clinics and will spend the day tomorrow doing house calls and rechecking on all the dog sterilizations. It will be a busy day for me as well, as I have a lot of work with the municipality to begin collecting data on the waste management issues here. We are in early stages of working on the waste issues in Todos Santos in collaboration with a group of engineers at University of Guelph and Engineers without Borders. This year, we hope to begin this phase of the project by reducing resources for the un-owned dogs, so that the carrying capacity of the population may be reduced. If there are fewer resources available (such as the left-over meat from the slaughterhouse or the abundant garbage in the hillside dump) COMBINED with population management, the community may be able to sustain a lower number of un-owned dogs. Alternative waste management may bring economic value to the community (if changing to biofuels, recycling, etc) and a healthier environment to live in.

This project truly is ONE HEALTH - healthier dogs lead to healthier people, bringing all disciplines together to find locally driven solutions.

We still have a long way to go, but every year we are getting one step closer: the community grows closer and closer to us and their trust and confidence in our work is stronger and stronger.

My final words are to our volunteers: never in my life have I seen such a dedicated, hard-working, passionate, and sensitive group of people. From 5am to 5pm at night, they do not stop and always have smiles on their faces and concern in their hearts. Without our volunteers this project would not have been able to be where it is today, and for this I want to thank you all from the deepest part of my heart.

ibuenas noches! More on the blog tomorrow and a story about Rewant.............

some todos santos challenges

2009-12-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

It´s Day 11 in Todos Santos and Day 9 of the clinics. We´re into our spay clinics now and doing follow up housecalls on patients - and also some housecalls on other dogs. As we´re walking down the street or along one of the hillside trails, people will come up to us and ask if we can check their dogs out because there is something wrong. We´re pretty limited in what we can do here as we have limited drugs and limited equipment and no diagnostics - such as labwork or x-rays - no diagnostics except our eyes, nose, hands and ears.

All our post sterilization patients are doing well. It can take them a day or so to start to eat though some eat within a few hours. For the ones that aren´t eating we do a housecall and check their temperature, check for infection and pain. we can treat with pain control and with antibiotics. With some of the patients all that is needed is good old-fashioned tlc: keeping them warm till they are more active and feeding them palatable food.

Terry the rottweiler is doing well. He is eating well and comfortable - the swelling is all gone and he´s been seen walking around town. When we go to check on him, he growls and barks at us and is too aggressive to pill any more so he is definitely feeling better.

Yesterday we did our last male sterilizations - timed so that so if they have complications they´ll occur before we leave saturday and while we can do something about them. There were 2 dogs that were too aggressive for the owners to handle so they couldn´t bring them into any of our clinics but the owners really wanted to have them vaccinated against rabies and sterilized. Yesterday we gave the owners some oral sedatives to feed the dogs and had them lure them inside with food so that we could try and catch them. It took all day but by the end of the day they were confined and slightly sedate and we were able to restrain them enough to sedate them further and sterlize them at the houses. We are hoping this helps with the aggression.

Doing the housecalls takes quite a bit of time as we have to walk to each house and there are no street names or numbers. We just have to ask someone local to show us where the owner lives. we´re treating almost all the patients outside. the people here have been very friendly and very patient.

It´s time for dinner - my guess is the menu will be potatoes, frijoles, chicken and tortillas. My team mates have mutinied with the tortillas and though we get served dozens of tortillas with every meal, I´m the only one eating them anymore and finding it hard to represent for the whole team.
Got to keep strong and healthy for tomorrow.

caring and itching

2009-12-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

I could see on everybody´s faces how much we care, how much we love what we do. I felt proud to be there, proud to witness such love and care for what we do. We are a few days away from finishing phase2. We are doing spays in Los Pablos for 3 consecutive days to wrap up our work here. After that we have to make sure all our patients are doing well before saturday.
Team work has proved so crucial here, we have really bonded and we all seem to know how to be more useful and productive to make things flow, although sometimes we find ourselves facing difficult situations and even then we find ta way to get it done and continue doing everything we can to make our work efficient and fun.
I am itching as I type, so rewarding though!

Reflections

2009-11-30T15:47:00.000-08:00

i left Todos Santos this morning at 4:15 am on a mini-bus. i thought i was lucky to avoid the chicken bus down the mountain...my legs certainly had a bit more room, but the Guatemalans are over achievers when it comes to winning the 'how many people can you fit into a vehicle' game, and we had 18 other people in the van with me...i am glad i don't have personal space issues.

i have left Todos Santos with still one day of sterilizing and 2-3 days of spays to go. unfortunately i must get back to work in ontario and Dr. Enid Stiles arrived on Saturday to tag team me off. it is with mixed feelings that i leave Guatemala. i will be glad to get back to some comforts of home but will miss the friendly smiles of the community and the dogs and the spirit of the project. and of course the team.

the time i was there went pretty well. we saw many dogs we had seen in january and were able to continue our sterilization campaign on new dogs. we were also able to double the number of spays we had done in january...and the team still has a few more surgery days ahead of them. these days are difficult, stressful days as we are operating under exceptionally foreign conditions. the dogs ooze more, they are underweight and not always what we consider ideal surgical candidates. plus it is cold. with our successes always come complications from which we learn and continue to improve our protocols and procedures. some day it will be old hat.

as i left todos santos this morning i saw an incredible orange moon hanging in the valley. it was huge...what we call a harvest moon back home. i wondered when i would back to this village. and when i did return would the dogs i know still be alive. i know we have done some great work in todos santos...and funds willing, will continue to do so. this is not a short term project. but it is a project that is desired by the community. the peace corps volunteer told us last night at dinner that she appreciated the work that we are doing and is thankful that she can walk out in her town now without getting bit or attacked by dogs. can you imagine what it would be like to live with that fear day after day??

so now i sit in antigua. i have had a hot shower and am going to find something other than rice and beans and potatoes and tortillas to eat for dinner. a big plate of vegetables would be amazing. now that i have good lighting in my new room, i see that i have hundreds of bed bug bites along my entire mid-drift. thankfully they are not too itchy...yet. while tonight i will be very comfortable, i will be thinking of my team and sending good wishes their way for a successful remainder of the week. i will be wishing i was back with them in todos santos. i will also be wishing for the continued improvement in Terry's health and for the speedy recoveries for our surgical patients. but i don't think i'll be wishing for tortillas.....

Buenos noches.

Terry

2009-11-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

The dogs were quiet last night. Most nights we are serenaded through the night with dog packs barking and howling, and chronologically-challenged roosters crowing all night long. Yesterday was our 5th day in Todos Santos and our first cold rainy misty day here. People were staying inside and it seems even the dogs were staying close to home. We all had our best night´s sleep.

We´re starting to gel as a team and getting a routine down. Every morning we meet at 6:30 AM and carry the supplies and equipment to whichever Todos Santos community we are in that day. We are a strange sight as we walk through the streets carrying big green supply cases, duffel bags and 3 tables - though not as strange as the 1st day we arrived on the ´chicken bus´from Huehuetenango and carried all our packs and luggage up what seemed like a steep goat trail up the mountain to Las Ruinas where we are staying.

We´re doing the canine chemical sterilizations this 1st week as well as the rabies vaccines and flea treatments. If there are any complications from the sterilization, they usually occur in 72 hours so we want to be finished our last one while we are still here to monitor and treat patients. So far no serious complications.

If patients come in sick we treat as best we can with our limited supplies. While doing a housecall on a post-procedure patient, Kate saw a Rottweiler lying by the roadside and looking very weak and emaciated. Terry (many of the dogs here have english names like Doggy, Smoky, Scooby etc) the Rottweiler had been sick and not eating well for awhile and eating nothing for the last 3 days. He turned out to have a severe infection of his prepuce, probably from getting bitten by another dog, and was getting septic and was in quite a bit of pain. He was treated with subQ fluids and antibiotics and pain control and the following day, Roberto (one of the team and a Spanish-speaker) and Andres (our English-Mam-Spanish translator) carried Terry to the community we were working in that day and we kept Terry there all day to treat him with IV fluids, IV antibiotics and more pain control. We kept him warm and dry and later in the morning the little boy from the family came with 2 buddies and his grandfather to visit the dog and to try and get him to eat. Terry wouldn´t eat for us but when the little boy offered him cookies, Terry gobbled them down. The little boy stayed there most of the day feeding him when Terry wasn´t sleeping and by the end of the day, Terry´s vital signs had improved and he was looking better.

Roberto and Andres carried Terry home at the end of the day yesterday and the family set him up in a confined area sheltered by a tin roof. They built a good fire beside him to keep him warm and covered him with a blanket. We asked them to feed him some good soup and meat (most dogs here are fed tortillas and bones and whatever they can scavenge).

Late last night before climbing back up to Las Ruinas and bed, we checked on Terry and found him looking brighter, eating and drinking well. We left the family 2 hot water bottles and said we would be back in the morning.

This morning we went back to check on Terry before our clinic started at 7 AM. He was standing in the area by the fire and the owner told us he was walking around a little. He was eating well and they had been feeding him sopa de pollo (chicken soup). The hot water bottles we had left them were warm and obviously recently refilled to keep him warm. We checked him out and things were looking much better. Gave him his morning antibiotics and told them we would be back at the end of the day and would visit twice and day until he was OK again.

This afternoon we´ll continue with the male sterilizations, rabies vaccines and parasite control. This weekend we start spaying the female dogs that we´ve vaccinated this week and whose owners wish them spayed. We continue through next week until Friday. Rabies control is really important here as all the dogs run loose and there is quite a bit of fighting.

At the end of the day we´ll head back up to Las Ruinas. I´ll keep my eye out for Domingo Mendoza Ramirez. He is about 70 or 80 years old and every day I see him working hard in his fields, building a fence out of maize stalks, to keep animals out of his fields. We chat: he asks me where I´m going and how I am. After we chat he always says:
Nos vemos mañana. We´ll see you tomorrow.

It´s been an incredible experience here in Todos Santos so far. A combination of old-time James Herriott type medicine with the housecalls and limited supplies and more modern medicine with the prophylactic sterilizations and vaccinations we are doing.

Nos vemos mañana.

Fortunato

2009-11-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Today was a really slow day, this would be why I had time to write this blog!

These clinics in Todos Santos would not be possible without the help of some comunity leaders. Most of them help me in many ways like getting apropriate rooms, a truck for transporting supplies from community to community and some time being present all day to ensure all goes well. Today for exemple I was happy to have Fortunato help. Fortunato is very well known and respected in Todos Santos.

A dog owner came to have her dog sterilised but was afraid that it was a sin to do it! It is against nature and God would not want her to do it. Fortunato had a chat with her in Mam of course. And the lady felt much better with her decision.

Mam is the mayan dialect spoken in Todos Santos (theres 21 mayan dialect in Guatemala). It is a very hard language to learn! I have been trying to learn it for 2 years now....the only problem is that I dont have anybody to practise with when I go back home!

Well.....I hope tomorrow will be sunny because recovery is always a chalenge on rainy, cold days like today, and we start our spays on Saturday......

Got to go back now....Ton teka at nim xyan tuj tnom Todos Santos.

Cold and Rainy

2009-11-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

Today our friend the sun disappeared. It is drizzly and chilly. The team is doing well, although yesterday we did have two of our techs out with various gi related manifestations. Not a nice place to be when you are sick. Thankfully they are feeling better today and are back in action.

Our clinic today is in the Salon de El Centro...which is just the community centre in the centre of town. It is a big gym, with open windows at the ceiling. It is cold and we can see our breath: plus it is raining into the building through the windows that run along the sides of the building. It is a challenge to keep the dogs that are sedated warm. We have a butane burner which we use to boil water for hot water bottles and two space heaters.....but only one functioning power outlet which is located along one of the sides walls where the rain is coming through the windows. Good times.

Today our clinic is slow. Basically there are very few dogs coming to see us. We have had a good turn-out at the other 3 days so I am not sure why today is different. Perhaps our signage is not as good, perhaps the community leader for el centro has not encouraged his members to attend..or perhaps it is just the rain. Marjo, our head technician who has been to Todos Santos many times, went to the radio station this morning and made another radio announcement to remind people. This is the third radio announcement regarding our clinics. We will see how the rest of the day goes.

Our days this time around have been much lighter than our January trip. The main reason is that we are seeing a number of dogs that we sterilized in January so they only need deworming and rabies vaccination. This is a good reason for things to be a bit lighter.

We have hospitalized our first patient. Terry is a Rottweiler we sterilized in January: It was a big deal to sterilize him because he is a purebred and the people that have purebreds here want to preserve the ´good genes´. I was going to do some houe calls yesterday and walked past his house. He was standing there emaciated, drooling and looking exceptionally uncomfortable. He looked awful and was definitely not the big burly dog we sterilized in January. I had Andres our local translator find the owner and find out what was going on with Terry. The owner said he hadnt been well since we sterilized him in January´: Ok - so that was 11 months ago! On further questioning it turns out he was ok after the sterilization and then got hit by a car a number of months later...and had had a poor appetite for the past 3 months. And had not eaten anything for 3 days. This dog looked like he wanted to die. On physical exam I found what looked like old bite wounds on the cranial aspect of his prepuce and pus was just dripping out. His prepuce was huge and the cellulitis and swelling extended into his groin. The testicles felt absolutely normal and were non painful. He was lame and having difficulty chewing...I think he was septic. I am pretty sure this dog´s current problems are not related to his sterilization in January. Too long a time lapse and it looks like he has multiple bite wounds on his prepuce and his leg. The owner had had the local veterinary supply guy, Pauncho, come out and look at the dog. pauncho had given him an injection that very morning: Who knows what it was. Pauncho is also the guy who does dog castrations in town....but it doesn´t hurt the dogs because he ties their muzzle with binder twine and uses antibiotics. And I assume he does it like you would a piglet. Poor dogs. We have tried to explain about the pain to him, but it doesn´t seem to be flying just yet. I think because Terry¨s owner associated his recent illness with the January sterilization he didnt want to bring the dog to us....and it took quite a while to get him to warm up to us treating Terry: But we started with SQ fluids, IV antibiotics and pain meds yesterday, and today he let us bring the dog to the clinic where we got a catheter in and he is now on IV fluids and IV antibiotics: we have flushed the abcess and are keeping him warm and comfortable. Today he seems better although getting him to eat is a challenge. But we will do what we can and will hope that over the next week we can improve his situation. The client is much more open to us helping him out and has done a big turn around. Baby steps.

Off to the farmacia to see what I can find for poor Terry! Buenos dias.

Heavy Into Rice and Beans

2009-11-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the second day of our clinics. So far so good. As in January, we have the good fortune of having an excellent team. Great technical skills, a laid-back approach to being in a foreign land and a good sense of humour. Oh- and of course the ability to eat rice and beans and various carbohydrates without complaint...and not too much gi upset as yet...although to be honest we do have one team member who now considers Immodium a very good friend. But of course, we have only been here a few days, and do have a number to go....we´ll see how everyone is next week.

I arrived here on sunday, a day later than the rest of the team. My flight was uneventful and I somehow managed to get all my supplies and anesthetic drugs here without any complaint from anyone at any borders or the airlines. And I was only a little bit concerned with my Esterisol getting broken as it got tossed on top of the chicken bus for the 2 hour bumpy ride into Todos Santos. The term ´bumpy´is abit of an understatement...it is more like a 2 hour kidney bruising, nauseating carnival ride in an old school bus that was not made for the giants of Canada. My knees were bruised and locked by the time I got to TS.

The team seemed to adjust to life in Todos Santos very quickly and had taken Sunday to not only get the surgical packs and supplies in order, but to take some time to hike up the mountain a bit. The rugged, hilly terrain is challenging to function in...it is sort of like being on a stepper all the time. A fantastic crash course in getting in shape quickly. The first few days are always hard here...but usually by day 3 or 4 it is easier to breath and the hills don´t seem so bad.

This is my third time here in Todos Santos. It is always nice to come back here. The people are so friendly and they always remember us. It is also great to see dogs who we have become attached to still alive and doing well. I love seeing Nosey come running up to us as if we are long lost family members. In reality I am sure she just sees us as tourists with tortillas in our pockets! And my other good friend Betty who I came to know last May: how do these dogs survive here??

Yesterday our clinic was in Los Pablos, today it is in Che Cruz. We have seen about 40 dogs so far today and I think we saw about 55 yesterday. We are vaccinating and chemically sterilizing male dogs at the moment and are booking spay appointments for the weekend. We have seen many of the dogs we castrated last year. They seem to be doing well and it is great to see the pride in the people when they bring in their dog with their vaccine certificate from January and we tell them they are doing a great job.

well - i will sign off for now. Have to go to the farmacia to see what meds I can get for a dog and then back to the clinic. Beunos tardes.