November 29, 2010 - 12:01 am
Welcome to the Vets without Borders blog.
Veterinarians without Borders / Vétérinaires sans Frontières – Canada is a charitable organization with a mission to work for, and with, communities in need to foster the health of animals, people, and the environments that sustain us. We have a number of international development projects around the world and this blog will bring you stories from the field.
November 25, 2010 - 11:24 pm
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
November 24, 2010 - 11:23 pm
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
November 3, 2010 - 11:25 pm
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
November 1, 2010 - 11:18 pm
Guillermo and I were very pleased to receive the following email from Kaytie:
“On September 12, 2010
K9 Awareness held a Dog Jog-a-thon to raise funds for Vets Without Borders
Chilean project. Our goal was to have at least one K9 treadmill running for 12 hours by dog owners purchasing a ticket to run their dog for 30 minutes each. We started at 8 a.m. and finished at 8 p.m. with a total of 42 dogs participating. Along with money raised from the sale of the tickets we had a wonderful silent auction with a great selection of donated items to bid on. A friend and business associate, Charmaine Hammond combined celebrating the birthday of her star dog “Toby” who is featured in her new book “
On Toby’s Terms” with our event. Charmaine had the book on sale and donated $7.00 per sale to the fundraiser as well. Between the Jog-a-thon ticket sales, book sales and the Silent Auction, less the expenses of running the event, we raised $1,800!”
Have a look at come of the great photos:
