First day of clinics

 

 

Tuesday April 23, 2013

Got up early and went for a long walk to a neat peninsula called Quarantine Point.  As its names suggests, the location housed quarantine facilities which screened persons afflicted with the dreaded leprosy from the rest of the population.  It had stormed a bit during the night, there were still huge banks of clouds, though it did not rain while I was walking.

 

A wind blown tree on the tip of Quarantine Point.

 

Had a simple breakfast of delicious fresh fruits and yoghurt, then gathered supplies and met up with the group to go to our first day of clinics!

 

Rita (the GSPCA liaison), Elizabeth, Kate, Lynell, Jen, Pam, Les, Avery

Beth, Deb, Domino, MacKenzie, Karen (our trusty leader!), Heather (I am behind the camera, as usual!)

 

The clinics were held at the GSPCA: Grenada Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  (In America it is ASPCA).  They have a nice facility where they provide low cost care for animals all over the island.  We had electricity, running water, even anesthetic machines!  The St George’s Veterinary College is nearby.  They provide care for animals, but at the cost equivalent to North American prices, which is beyond most islanders’ means.  At the vet school there are most diagnostic capabilities such as digital radiography, endoscopy and ultrasound available. 

 

 

Vanessa with a young patient

Beth, a licensed technician, will be placing an IV catheter prior to anesthesia/surgery.

It was the typical chaos trying to get set up and started this am.  There were about 15 feral cats in cages to be done and a stack of dogs.  Many of the dogs were collected by volunteers and brought in this am.  Once they were finished and awake, they were to be returned to owners and a new batch of dogs brought in.  One of the little dogs had been hit by a car a week ago and broke a hind leg.  There are no orthopedics available, so they decided to have the leg amputated.  That surgery was assigned to me later in the morning.

This giant white board lists the work for the day.

We had students from the St George’s Vet School helping along with the employees of the GSPCA, so there was quite a crowd.  It was sort of an organized chaos…

We did some additional procedures such as bite wound repairs and mass explorations.  Everything went fairly well.  I think some volunteers were concerned that there would not be enough work to keep us busy, but we stayed busy all day.  Tomorrow there will be three shifts of dogs brought in.  I don’t know about the cats.

Elizabeth spaying a dog, Kate assisting/monitoring, Karen observing.

Domino assisting Deb in surgery.

A little patient in rocovery.

 

After we returned to our “home” we visited for a while around the pool, then returned to our rooms for a light supper.   We needed to clean up first!

Having trouble getting on the internet… so I will just keep writing these and hope to be able to download them at some point!

Stacy