Portland, OR (PRWEB) January 20, 2006
Veterinary Ventures, an all volunteer group out of Portland, OR, is spending the month of January in American Samoa providing much needed veterinary care and spay/neuter services to an island nation with a severe pet overpopulation problem and not a single small animal veterinarian. Their weekly journal can be viewed on the AnimalHelp.Com AnimalBlog and chronicles their challenges and triumphs helping the animals of this third world nation.
Prior to Veterinary Ventures departure to American Samoa, AnimalHelp.Com helped to gather donations of much needed veterinary medical equipment and supplies for this non-profit group.
Arriving in American Samoa on December 29th, the 25 volunteers made up of 11 veterinarians, 6 veterinary technicians, 6 animal care assistants, and 2 veterinary pharmacists, faced challenges immediately upon their arrival. In their first AnimalHelp.Com blog entry, Pharmacist Sandy Calves describes After a bit of a slow start to the spay/neuter campaign-we are really cooking. I say we had a slow start because we arrived late on a Thurs night, unloaded and set up our hospital in a government facility on Friday so wed be all set for Monday morning surgeries. But come Monday morn, we were told that the Governor had changed his mind and wed need to find another building for surgeries. Surgery was canceled for that day and we quickly found another building, a local village police hut, which we have now lovingly termed our Surgery Hut. We quickly made home of our new facility and had the hospital set up by about 2pm..ready for surgery to start bright and early Tuesday morning.
That first week, although shorter then they expected, in addition to providing health care check ups and services, the team was able to spay or neuter 150 animals. The team is enthusiastic because their goal for the month was a minimum of 500 surgeries, and they feel confident that they will far exceed this number.
On January 17th, the second blog entry was posted on AnimalHelp.Com by Joi Sutton, DVM, co-founder of Veterinary Ventures. Describing an even more exciting second week, Dr Sutton begins her entry with Well, if ever there is a day when you feel like you made a difference, last Wednesday was one. We got to work to find a family waiting with a stray dog who had had a dead puppy sticking out since the night before. (They didnt know to contact us at night.) You know it is bad when they haul in your patient, feet up, holding onto her by her feet. She was nearly dead.
Dr Sutton describes how they saved this little dogs life. Now, as a vet who has practiced for nearly 13 years Ive smelled some bad smells in my day, but this was foul. The dead pup was stuck and would not budge. In fact, during surgery we found that all of the now dead pups were monsterous. So, we started bolusing this nearly dead stray mama dog fluids, antibiotic, narcotics, etc. We tried to remove the rotting pup but couldnt – had to remove what we could externally and intra-op I pushed the remaining portion of the pup into her uterine body and removed it with the green/grey colored uterus. We ran fluids/hetastarch/etc into her, I was the surgeon and was going as fast as my little hands could sew, and Dr Julie Decaire (our emergency/critical care vet of the team) ran the show. Yes, mama dogs heart stopped halfway during surgery. Yes, it looked bleak. And yes, Dr Julie made a miracle happen. A little CPR. A little magic.
But 2 days post-op, the little dog that they named Princess, developed complications. She did develop a bit of peritonitis and a loop of bowel had adhesed onto her uterine stump. She had fluid building up in her belly and abdominal pain despite some hefty morphine, so we explored her on Friday (2 days post initial surgery). Dr Becky and I gloved in together and took back her stump and ovarian pedicles a bit further, flushed the heck out of her abdomen, and sewed her back up. Her bowel (except the small area where the serosa had adhesed to her stump) looked fabulous. Get this: since we have no suction in our mash unit, our version of abdominal lavage consisted of pouring half a liter into her abdomen and then having 2 big strong Samoan men tilt the table (her head up, her tail down) to drain her belly. We did this six times. Voila! Dog is doing fabulously.
More good news from this second week, the team not only saved little Princess, but was able to perform 30 to 40 spays and neuters each day, and also set up a clinic where volunteers Dr Cindy Zikes and vet tech Ronna Overman are treating the numerous dogs on the island that suffer from TVT. Thats transmissible venereal tumor. A very nasty disease which is treated with a chemotherapy drug called Vincristine.
The complete online journal can be read at http://www.animalhelp.com/wordpress and new entries typically are posted each Monday. Photos will be added soon, but internet access is somewhat limited for the group. AnimalHelp.Com will continue to support the amazing work being done by Veterinary Ventures, and will post updates on future trips to other nations who need veterinary help.
Veterinary Ventures, Inc is a 501c3 non profit organization founded by Dr Joi Sutton and Sandy Calves, PharmD from Portland, OR. Each of the volunteers pays their own travel and expenses for the month long trip, and the group relies entirely on donations to support their efforts. Contact information can be found on the AnimalHelp.Com website for those interested in volunteering or donating.
AnimalHelp.Com is a pet health and care information website featuring articles, veterinary dictionary, pharmaceutical and disease indexes and other consumer information for pet owners and animal lovers. AnimalHelp.Com enthusiastically supports the efforts of organizations such as Veterinary Ventures who make such a large difference in the lives of animals.
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Veterinary Volunteers Keep Online Journal From American Samoa
