Volunteer Vets
Spay / Neuter Presentation - CAWS 2008
Most of our volunteer Vets come to us through word of mouth or surfing our web page.
We seem to almost always have a volunteer vet on Island, sometimes gapping a few weeks in-between. Many of our Vets are from the UK, South Africa via the UK and Canada and the USA.
After sending their necessary documents, required to the Chief Medical Officer and a copy to us, they can then go ahead and make their travel arrangements. The volunteer Vets pay their own travel expenses and we provide accommodations and fill up the fridge with food. We have an apartment upstairs our clinic in Grenada and also a beach cottage where we house our clinic on our sister Island of Carriacou.
We ask that the Volunteer Vet bring all their own induction medications. Depending on how long he or she will stay depends on the amount of spays and neuters which determines the amount of meds. I like the Vets to use for induction what they are familiar with. Many are now bringing propofol, which seems to work quite well. We also ask they bring isoflourine, suture, needles, gloves, 4X4 gauze, drapery material, injectable antibiotics, injectable pain meds and if they prefer their own spay packs (instruments) although we have 8 packs in Grenada and 4 packs in Carriacou. They usually bring a lot of supplies as they can phone their suppliers for donations and ask fellow vets to donate to the cause. This is a good time to clean out their almost expired meds as we are going to use them right away.
Once they send their travel arrangements we start to organize. First we collect back all the puppies we adopted that are ready for surgery. When a dog or cat is adopted the adopter signs an agreement to bring the dog back for surgery. Most go out spayed or neutered but some are too young or there is no Vet available. We have a pre-paid adoption fee, which covers the surgery. We always do surgery before the first heat at six months. So these and any of our kennel dogs and cats are first on the surgery list.
We also send out an e-mail to our members and clients (150 locally) telling them of the Volunteer Vet dates and ask they look around their neighborhoods to assist people who may need transport getting their dog or cat in for surgery.
They can then phone the clinic and be placed on the list for appointment. We do ask for a donation of $50 EC or $20 US if possible. We many times already have a full waiting list for next volunteer because it is fairly inexpensive.
Once this work is done we set out to do field work. Because we are located at the far South of the island we now have two spay stations on the north end of the island. One is a private home where we set up on the verandah and can spend the night or two. The owner and some others organize the dogs and cats. The second station is the Belair Plantation where we can also set up below the building with access to water and electricity. We do ask the stations to provide accommodations, food and drinks for the volunteers. Because it is a 2 1/2 hour drive its best to spend at least two days to get the full benefit of the expense and work involved. Most of these surgeries are free as these are financially challenged areas. We ask local business's to help sponsor the clinics. We have a mobile surgery van donated by WSPA that we use to haul everything we need.
Sometimes we opt to go to a village where we have no station but we know wants assistance. If the people in the village are willing to assist with getting the dogs organized we will go there for the day and work out of the WSPA van. We just need to be able to plug in and have access to water and a stovetop. We can usually do between 15 and 20 surgeries in one day depending on the experience of the Vet. We usually use our more Senior Vets for these clinics because they are quicker at surgery.
We sometimes even target just one family for a spay day who have too many dogs and cats and have asked for our assistance. Because its a family who loves their animals its usually a lot of fun. Sometimes we go to their home or we just transport (with their help) all their animals to the clinic if its not too far.
We have had on some occasions a whole team come and give us a hand. We have had the "Puppy Angels" come twice to help us. This is really great as we only have to organize the time, place and animals and they then do most of the actual medical prep work and we do the post op work. They also bring lots of supplies so it does not cost us much. These are free clinics.
We are lucky to have St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada. The Vets from the University usually volunteer to help out at many of our clinics and have students assist theVets. This is great experience for all of them and they are a great help to us at the same time.
Many of our Volunteer Vets come for an extended period. We have had them for two weeks and up to one year. But most stay for one or two months.
We have another station on a sister island of Carriacou. We lease a three-bedroom beach cottage with one bedroom set up as a permanent surgery. The volunteer team over there organizes the animals. Carriacou is a two-hour ferry ride away and is a very beautiful island known for its diving. The people are friendly and really appreciate our work. We like to give our Volunteer Vets as much time as they need to relax and enjoy our islands. We usually work out a schedule when they arrive so they have plenty time for diving, snorkeling, hiking or just lying on the beach.
Even with all this help we only manage about 1,200 spay / neuter surgeries per year which is around 10 per cent of the dog population. So there is still a lot more work to be done.
Puppy Angels
In March of 2007 the
"Puppy Angels" spay/neuter volunteers from the United
States paid a second visit to Grenada. We went to Gouyave in our
Mobile Van to assist the "Fish Friday" group. In
Gouyave we neutered 20 dogs.
The Puppy Angels group also neutered 79 dogs at the GSPCA hospital.
For six weeks this summer in June and July 2007 the
GSPCA were assisted by the husband and wife Vet team of Dr. Dan
Skeldon and Dr. Nikki Wiggs from the United Kingdom.
Dan and Nikki spayed and neutered 46 animals for the Shelter during their stay.
Dan and Nikki stayed upstairs the clinic and helped out at the hospital. They assisted many animals for mange, eye, ear infections and anything else that came up.
We also took a trip up to River Sallee where we held a free vaccination, deworming and skin treatment clinic.
In August 2007 Dr. Joe Hanekon from South
Africa came to volunteer at the GSPCA for two weeks.
Joe assisted in the hospital and preformed 26 spay and neuter surgeries.
In August and September
of 2007, Canadian Vet Students, Jennifer Vanderstarren and Susan
Dailley spent six weeks volunteering for the GSPCA. The students
were from the University of Guelph Veterinary College, Ontario,
Canada. The sixth term Vet Students were completing their
Externship/Elective Program at the GSPCA.
This was a new developement for the GSPCA which we hope to build on. The students were very useful and also gained experience working in a shelter environment and in another country. We enjoyed their enthusiasm and look forward to the next student who will be volunteering during the Christmas holidays.
In September and early
October, Dr. Matthew Clark came to volunteer for two weeks.
For World Animal Day we focused on the Donald Flex family in Grand Anse. We spayed and neutered their 3 male and 3 female dogs and their two cats. We also took in two unwanted puppies and put them up for adoption at the shelter.
Dr. Clark also spayed and neutered 21 dogs and cats at the shelter and helped out in the hospital.
Dr Bill Sones and Georgina
Dr Laurie
Mersha at the Clinic
New Years Day, January 1. 2007 brought the GSPCA Dr. Bill Sones, his wife Dr. Laurie and daughter Helen. Dr. Bill had visited us 3 years ago and enjoyed his visit so much he returned with his family. We had a great time hiking in the rainforest and exploring the island together. And ...oh yes....we spayed and neutered 65 dogs and cats.
Dr. Laurie spent a lot of her time helping us get our kennels more organized. She taught us how to properly feed newborn puppies who have lost their mothers. This is something we had been struggling with. She spent time helping us set up a treatment program for skin problems in our kennel dogs. She also helped us set up our X-Ray machine, which had been a bit of confusion for us.
We at the GSPCA would like to thank the Sones family, Helen, Bill and Laurie for all their help and sharing all their invaluable information with us.
We hope to see you all again next year........
Helen and MaryAnn
Dr Bill Sones
George, Peggy and Helen
Volunteer Vet Program
Mobile Surgery
The GSPCA is fortunate to have a Mobile Surgery Van donated by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). With our van we can reach remote areas of the Island and our sister Island of Carriacou. It's a great way to meet Grenadian people and become part of the Community.
The GSPCA has a large apartment at the Shelter where visiting vets can be accommodated for free. We also have a car for their use. Unfortunately we cannot afford to pay for flights as much as we would like to. But if you can get here we will accommodate you, feed you and show you paradise!! And of course spay and neuter a few hundred dogs and cats.
Dr. Tom Barkdall
Requirements for Volunteer Vets:
- Heat Resistant (we do have air-conditioning)
- Like Snorkeling, Diving, Sailing
- Sense of Humour
- Rum Punch Tolerance
- Love Sunshine
- 5 years experience in spay / neuter surgery
Many of our Volunteer Vets return every year! Our good friends, Dr. Tom Barkdall and wife Cindy from Indiana, USA who keep their beautiful Yacht "Havana Goodtime" here in Grenada have been volunteering every year for several years and have become part of our family.
Dr. Joan Kleynhans
Havana Goodtime
Bill Sones
Dr. David Walker from England returned to Grenada for the
second time to volunteer for the GSPCA. Dr. Walker spent mornings
at the clinic tending to our kennels animals and seeing walk-in
clients. He also spayed and neutered several animals for us.
David and 14 year old daughter Alice had taken diving classes
before they came and managed at least a dozen dives while they
were here. David also works with a charity in the UK
http://www.dogstrust.org.uk.
Thank you David, we love your visits, see you next year??
Dr. David Walker
Alice and Peggy
Dr. Donald Schrank with Puppy
We have with us now, Dr. Donald Schrank from the USA who will be volunteering for a year! Check out Donald's blog at: http://doningrenada.blogspot.com
After reading Donald's blog and think you may still want to come to Grenada and volunteer for us please e-mail me, Peggy, at pegalex@caribsurf.com and I will send you more information.
Dr. Mike Cohen with Monkey
Dr. Mike Cohen, a classmate and good friend of our Dr. Shrank, recently spent 10 days volunteering at GSPCA. With two Vets on hand we were able to get all our kennel dogs neutered and reorganize some of our daily procedures.
Suede
We had a bit of excitement while spaying a beautiful Weimaraner named Suede. Our second diaphragmatic hernia, jeeze louise (just breathe Peggy). A simple spay turns into this huge surgical ordeal! But you just never know....thank God for two of the BEST and most capable surgeons who saved this poor dogs life! You can read all about it on Dons blog page. http://doningrenada.blogspot.com/
Monkey
We also had our first Monkey patient. Poor little guy needed some stitching up on his face where he tore his mouth and jaw became infected. He left good as new and cosmetically just as cute thanks to Dr. Cohen and Dr. Shrank. We had a great time at the Regatta in Carriacou where Dr. Mike proved just as talented at winching as he is in surgery!! You can read more about Don and Mikes adventures on Dons blog page. http://doningrenada.blogspot.com/
Dr. Winston and Pam Schrank,
Don's parents
Don's parents Dr. Winston and Pam Schrank paid us a two
week visit and went to work assisting their son. Dr. Winston is a
radiologist and Pam is a nurse. So its a family affair at the
GSPCA and we are loving it!!! Don has spayed 115 dogs and cats so
far!! Both his parents and I agree, "He is a such a talented
surgeon....the animals practically get up an walk off the
table!"
Thanks Winston and Pam, it was great having you here and hope
you come back and visit us again soon!
Words alone cannot express the gratitude the GSPCA has for our volunteer vets spending their holiday time here working with us. What we learn from each one of you is invaluable and we have such fun doing it! Thank you all so much and we hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we do having you here!!
