Second Day of Clinics

 

Mauritius, October 4 2012 Thursday

I got up at 5am to work on the computer… as the skies start to lighten and the birdies wake up the greet the day… what a wonderful way to start the morning! I am sitting out on the patio outside our room with a light breeze blowing, low 70’s, watching the sun rise, glancing at the coconut trees, palm trees, hibiscus, the sea… are you all jealous?!?!?

Blue and I made breakfast for everybody, then we loaded up and headed out to our clinic site. We were in the east part of the island today, on an old sugar plantation. The sugar processing plant was gathering the sugar cane. Sugar is one of the top products produced in Mauritius. They also grow a lot of tea, pineapples, bananas, mangos and papayas. Textiles are still an important export, although I believe tourism is now their main source of income.

 

Salim has been our driver for the week. He transports our team to and from clinics, as well as taking us on tours of the island. He is very nice and a wealth of information. The language spoken the most in Mauritius is Creole (which is, I am told, French words but English grammar), although English is the official language of the country. Most Mauritians speak and understand English, but often will act like they don’t. The language is very nice to listen to, and the accented English is very pretty.

All Mauritians are required to go to school until about 18 years of age. It is the law. I don’t know if they can get permission for home schooling or not. But if the children don’t attend school, the parents can get in trouble. Primary and secondary school is free, university is very expensive. Mauritius has one of the highest literacy rates of any of the African continent. (Over 80%, I think).

 

Also, everybody in this country is required to work. There is no welfare system. After age 60 (or 65, I can’t remember) there is old age pension. Anyway, many Mauritians have gardens and/or chickens and they sell fresh produce and eggs or fresh baked goods or cooked foods on the streets for added income. Everybody is contributing to the income of the family and the country. The taxes are lower than ours but also tiered according to income. Unfortunately, the government is very corrupt (isn’t that universal??) so there are still huge problems here. The island is a paradise, but life here isn’t totally a paradise!

 

 

Well, enough of the lessons for the day! So off we went to our clinic site!! We were the first to arrive. Once the PAWS group arrived with all of the equipment, the stations were set up fairly quickly. Dogs started arriving in spite of some bouts of rain. Judy and the other receptionists had their table set up out on the veranda. Lovely spot! Our building is a huge house with large, open, airy rooms. We were able to set up all five surgery tables in one room, prep next door, instrument care in a small side room that led to the outside. Animals were brought in through this room. Recovery was down a short hallway. 

 

 

The PAWS team did most of the induction and prep today. Karen (tech) was a floater and helper, Blue did instruments and floater. We have good surgeons on the team. Jay does most spays (dogs and cats) through a flank incision and is very fast and efficient. Siobhan (“Sha-von”, accent on second syllable) does flank spays on cats and ventral midline on dogs. In the US we do all ventral midline. I have tried doing flank spays on two cats, but could not find the uterus (“it’s right there” is what we hear) either time and needed Siobhan to find it for me. Otherwise, it is a simple procedure. There are pros and cons of both surgery methods and I would like to become efficient at the flank spays. Karen is a good surgeon but has to spend time overseeing everything so she doesn’t do surgery constantly. Lisa is actually a board certifies“criticalist” which means she does emergency medicine and cares for the super critical cases. (She practices at a large referral center in Manhattan). She does not do surgery except when she is on a World Vets trip. She does a very good job! Every once in a while she needs a hand, but she is steady and calm (definitely needed in her regular job!). And, of course, I am also there doing surgery…but you can’t tell by the photos! Since I am the one taking the pictures! 

 

Once again we sterilized and treated all the animals that came in. Unfortunately, even with all the advertising and canvassing that the PAWS group did, less than 60 showed up. Most of the local people don’t have any transportation so PAWS drivers go around in the trucks and pick up pets and owners, but many were not at home. During this campaign the surgeries are free. Normally I think the clients are charge 1000MRU (about $35) for surgery (spays and neuters are the same price). Many people don’t have that much money to spend on their pets but they still often don’t take advantage of the opportunity. It is sad and so familiar…

 

The way animal control is done here is sad (I won’t go into it here) so this campaign and all the work that Mauritius PAWS does is so very important. The PAWS group has the two full time vets and about 20 paid employees that do animal care and welfare, treatments and sterilizations and LOTS of education in the country. They have two clinic sites. They do an amazing amount of work, but there is sooo much more that needs to be done. It is estimated that there are between 200,000 and 300,000 stray dogs in Mauritius!! The country is only about 35 miles wide by 40 miles long, that is a lot of dogs in a pretty small place. A lot of the funding to support all this work comes from large corporations and private donations. Even at Mauritian prices it has to be very expensive to keep such an organization going. They are to be commended!

After a good day of clinics, we went back to the house. Wendy had made a nice meal of spaghetti and salad with chocolate mousse for dessert. Nice way to end the day!

Tomorrow we have the day off and Salim will take us on a tour of the southern part of the island.

Ciao for now!