Another not so quick update

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

Hey everyone,

Thank you to Caleb for maintaining the blog, please visit the blog and the link to some pictures from the first part of our trip. I should be able to update the pics late next week when we get back to Lima.

I did my first spay! It was by chance on Thursday night when we were visiting the Australian vet at Amazon CARES shelter, after our day of work at the primate centre. She helped me through it and the street dog recovered fabulously, because she escaped the next morning! We are finishing our work at the primate place on Monday and spending Tuesday and Wednesday in the Berlen market doing sterilizations with Amazon CARES. (We have also been bringing cats from the primate centre to them for sterilization, it is quite an adventure to catch feral cats - everyone there has a good laugh at our expense!! ...but we have also found a home for one of them as soon as he is neutered- yay!). Last night, we were invited to a meeting between Beth the Aussie vet and several of the local vets. It was the first meeting to discuss sterilizing small animals in the Iquito´s area.... how, why, etc. There were some tough questions for Beth, I was glad to be a bystander :) This is a time for potential change here in Iquitos, and we are lucky to be even a small part of it.

BEWARE.... VET TALK TO FOLLOW!!!! In case any of you vet people are interested in what we have seen.....

In general, mange is rampant, and all parasites everywhere in cats and dogs. We have not seen a lot of exotic parasites, just the same ones we see in Canada. We did some post-mortems of laying hens yesterday that were completely obstructed with ascarids. We also found 2 cases of paraphimonus (sp?), a reportable endo parasite in bovines.

LIMA sterilization campaign: acepromazine, ketamine, atropine. All IV or IM. Lateral flank approach for the spays. Nylon (fishing line) suture material. Very similar surgical techniques to Canada, besides the flank approach (flank is faster, smaller incision and location is less likely to dehisce due to pressure from abdominal organs as with the linea alba....but don’t lose a pedicle b-c it’s hard to find again!) Sterility is minimal, but animals are given long acting antimicrobials post-surgery, along with anti-parasitics, etc. no analgesia. Subcuticular intradermal closure.

Iquitos sterilization/Australian vet: xylazine, ketamine-diazapam, atropine. All IV or IM. I know understand why zylazine is not routinely used anymore in small animal medicine, my spay had cold, grey mm´s, and took forever to wake up. The vet was reassuring, but I was pretty freaked put: P on the upside, she says they very rarely have complications with xylazine, and all spays get IV fluid to help support the CV system. Sterility is much better here, I got
to use gloves and clean instruments, and proper skin prep for the incision site. Vicryl mostly, subcuticular intradermal closure. Rabies vaccines, anti-parasitics, and nsaid´s are used. My spay was a big dog with a deep chest, and had had about a million puppies in her day. I was exhausted afterwards, but had a great teacher, which helped immensely.

VET TALK FINISHED!

We get back to Lima on Thursday, when we will start working for a marine mammal rescue organization. Their busy season starts in June so hopefully we will be able to help mobilize and rehabilitate some seals and dolphins. The vet trained in Peru and specialized in California so he has a lot to teach us!

That is all for now, hope you are all doing well.

Liz

Photo Spectacular

Hello Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed last weeks photos. I have the go ahead to post up the username and password. The photos are posted at this website: photos.yahoo.ca

Username: globalvets
Password: peruvets

It has way more photos that what I posted here, so I recommend you check it out.

-Caleb

Salud from Peru

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

Hola from Peru everyone,

We have been in Peru for almost two weeks now. Our plane to from Toronto toLima was detained in a town called Chiclayo for one night because of bad weather, so we arrived a day late for our activities. We stayed in a great hostel in Lima, the guys that worked there helped us learn Spanish, and even showed us around the city and took us dancing on their time off. We arrived inIquitos yesterday, the northern jungle city of Peru, awake for 36 hours!! So tired.

Work: we have spent several days volunteering at local shelters, walking dogs and handing out pamphlets in the park in the weekend. This past Saturday was our first sterilization campaign, we all tried a neuter. A total of 39 animals were sterilized in about 6 hours - the vet works very fast. Besides watching and helping with surgery, we were completely in charge of anesthesia which was a quick lesson in subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous injections....And dosage calculations....Who ever thought that Dyson would comeback to haunt us in Peru! Our most important lesson here, despite the excitement of surgery, is learning from the people here that volunteer their time and resources, going against the norm, to help animals. Their passion and dedication to improving the lives of animals is astounding. Practical education, for example, how to feed a dog when you do not have enough money to feed your family, along with sterilization seem to be the major areas of emphasis for long term change.

We have met people from all over the world. The education manager at Vida Digna (lima animal shelter, "dignified life"), is from England. Travellers at The Lima hostel from Belgium, Israel, Australia, etc. We have also connected with a vet from Australia that is working at the only animal shelter in Iquitos (pop:300, 000). There is a cat hanging around our residence that we are going to catch and bring to her....It has no use of one front leg and walks palmargradeon the other front leg. Starving, fleas and mange of course, and we think it has a maggot infected cuterebra. A sad sight to say the least. Maria puts ona latex glove and pets it sometimes : )

Other: the food is great. I am making out okay as a vegetarian, my favorite peruvian dish is good ole beans and rice : ) None of us have been really sick yet so we are crossing our fingers. Amy tried roasted guinea pig, which suitable grossed us all out. The people have been amazing as well. I have always felt safe....From our hostel friends who teach us Spanish and take us out, to the taxi driver who invited us to her house, and the several people who have gotten up early to meet us at the hostel, take us where we have to go and then go back home to start their own day! I hope we can bring some of this unabashed helpfulness back to Canada.

We spent a day at the veterinary university in Lima. They had the deanґmeetings room prepared with a coca'cola bottle at each seat, and we presented about Canada, vet school in Canada, global vets, etc. They then gave us a similar presentation about vet school in Peru, and then the band came and played three songs for us. The music here is beautiful by the way! We we represented with pins of the university shield, and taken out for a tour with a great lunch (Maria tried bbqґd octopus!).

We are currently working at the primate center in Iquitos, we tattooed monkeys and gave tuberculosis tests today's. Then we worked in the lab, fecal flotations looking for bovine parasites in local cows, and 3 monkey necropsies. They are so much like people it is unnerving.

We are off to find some dinner, they are taking us to visit the zoo tomorrow where they help care for some of the primates. Should be fun. I have been managing to run about every other day, which helps keep my head clear. Our spanish is terrible but we are committed to learning and practicing at every opportunity. I would like to return here, maybe next summer, and speaking the language will help so much. We are spoiled in that most people speak at least some English, and many speak excellent English.

Best wishes to all of you, I hope you summerґs are going well and you are spending you time in meaningful ways.

Liz
P.S. the keyboards here have "ссссссссссссс" ґs. Cool eh

The Week in Photos

Hello,

I recently got a link in my email from Team Peru. They have a photo album of the trip so far. Here are a few selections. If they decide it's alright, I will publish the link.

First day with Amigos de los animales

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

Today was our first day at Amigos [de los animales], we took a crazy bus with the Amigos person, and saw a lot of stray dogs and poor parts of the city. Now we appreciate why Mira Flores [where our hostel is located] is considered a tourist part of Lima. Also a lot more stray dogs, although they looked in better condition than I expected. The people did as well. We also saw the desert. I took a lot of pictures at the shelter, but not of the city for fear of being seen as rude.

Back in Mira Flores we found a stray dog in the park across from the hostel, and bought him some dog cookies but the hostel would not let us keep him : (

I meant to write more, but it is very late now and I am very tired. Went for a run today, Janet came as well.

Buenos noches

Liz

Airport Goodbyes

Here is a parting shot of Team Peru at the Airport as they embark on thier adventure.

Soy esparamos por las amigas

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

We went for a drink last night with the members of UPA - they are very nice and enthusiastic about their causes. We did not do a campaign today - UPA had to cancel theirs because the vet was already committed to ASPA. ASPA had called us before we met with UPA, and we told them we already were helping with a campaign. It was too late by the time we figured out that we were, in fact, not helping out on a campaign - ASPA was too full to take us. It is okay, we really needed the day to go to the bank, to go to the supermarket (bienesimo -delicious food), and the artisan market (traditional crafts). I bought an earring, and a money belt (I need one to be safe). It is fun to barter as well - both my earring and belt were set at 15 soles, but I got them for 10 (diez) - about 4$ Canadian. We are scheduled for a campaign on Friday and Sunday of next week with UPA, and today we will call Amigos. WE also have found some numbers for ORCCAMM, so we will try to contact them, everyone say s they are still around. The guy that works nights at the hostel gave us the name of his friend who is an Australian vet in Iquitos, so we will maybe do some campaigns there as well. We hope.

The food is good, I have had pancakes for breakfast the last 2 days. Lots of potato dishes and lots of americano food if we want it. No one is sick yet, so we are happy. We met a nice girl on the plane who is from Peru but lives in Toronto now. She recommended some restaurants to us - including a vegetarian place. We bought some groceries so we do not have to eat out all the time.

First Communication From Peru

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

We have finally arrived in Lima. WE were at the airport and they [the hostel] picked up a different Elizabeth. So we took a taxi for too much money, but the driver was very nice and helped us practice espaniol. It is exciting to say something in Spanish and have someone understand you. That does not happen very often.

we are about to call UPA [the animal shelter] and get in touch with them for meeting tomorrow for the spay-neuter clinic. and shower. and change clothes. and eat. There are a lot of pretty dogs here (bonito perro). We have email at the hostel here which is very great.