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| The view from Dr. Linares' clinic. |
One of the dogs that came in was a pitbull brought by a young girl. The pitbull had gotten into a fight with another dog and she had some puncture wounds on her chest. I understand that a lot of dogs here in Guatemala are used for protection. Many properties have concrete fences lined with barbed wire at the top and windows have metal bars covering them. But it always seems that people use their dogs appearence as a threat but want a nice happy dog. One of the punctures was large enough with some damage to the muscle that it needed to be sutured up. Dr. Linares allowed Terri to do this and it was extremely similar to closing after a spay. First suture the muscle, then the subcutaneous tissue and then the skin. Easy as pie.
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| Good as new! |
We had another euthanasia case come in. The dog had become paralyzed in her hind legs over the course of a few days. Dr. Linares suspects that a disc slipped causing gradual swelling around the spinal cord, which explains why it took a few days to become completely paralyzed. Prognosis was poor so the decision was made to euthanize her. We came to Guatemala knowing that some people don't view animals the same as they are usually are back in Canada. Many people view them as being disposable and not worth treating should they need care. The owner was noticeably in distress and as much as I hate to see people upset, it was reassuring to see the human animal bond exists down here in Guatemala.
While we were at Dr. Linares, we bought a dose of Revolution for one of the dogs, Milagrose at AWARE. We first met Milagrose a few days into AWARE when we were told that one of the dogs had her face ripped open - it looked like it had been scratched open by another dog in her pen. We went to clean up her wounds and put some ointment on it and saw that she had terrible demodectic mange. So it was likely that she had scratched her face open herself. There wasn't any room in the clinic and there was nowhere else to put her at the time. A couple days later, Terri and I were giving her an amitraz bath to help her with her mange. That day, a few animals were moved out of the clinic and one was adopted, leaving room for more animals. We decided that it would be best for her to get out of the outdoor pen and into a cleaner place where she could be watched more closely. She slept soundly in her kennel for the rest of the afternoon that day. We also gave her a cone to prevent her from scratching her face. Over the next few days, her face was cleaned and medicated. The swelling in her face was going down and she didn't seem as aggitated by it. She was getting better... slowly. A few days later after getting another amitraz bath, she rubbed her face against the bottom of her cage so much that, even with the cone, she tore open all of her scabs. The four of us talked about her that night and decided that if we could get a dose of Revolution to treat the mange quickly instead of amitraz baths, then she wouldn't be as itchy and her scratched up face could be fixed faster as well. 1 dose is 95 quetzeles here, which is about $12. I had never really appreciated how much selimectin (the drug in Revolution) can do, probably since mange isn't as big a problem in Canada and I've never seen a case this bad. Dr. Linares also gave us 1mL of cortisone injection since it is more effective than using the ointment on her face. We're hoping now that she continues to get the treatment she needs and improves. For me, personally, the worst part about leaving AWARE is not being able to see how she's doing. She's a very sweet dog and quickly became one of my favourites here.
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| Terri with Milagrose! |
We were also asked to deworm several kittens. They were nuts, in a friendly way. The dewormer was a pill so we covered it in a little bit of wet fat food, which to them was more like crack. We picked them up one by one to give them the pill. Terri held and I gave them the pill. The first one or two went well. They took the pill, swallowed it and nobody was hurt... yet. By about the time, we were on the third kitten, one of the kittens we had already pilled started climbing up Terri' clothes and was now clinging to her shirt (and skin) around her ribs trying to get more of that sweet sweet deworming pill. Meanwhile, I have wet food smell all over my hands at this point. So they started using their claws to dig into my fingers as they bit into my delicious, moist fingers. We hurried through the rest since we knew that the more time that passed since getting that delicious dewormer, the hungrier they would get for more. Our scratches and bites are gone now. Our emotional scars may never fully heal though.
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| This is a friendly adult cat. We were too busy being mauled by the kittens to take any picures. |
I hope this hasn't been too long winded. Either way, I'm going to stop now. Bye.
Michael
