Bugs, bugs and more bugs

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.