108th STERILIZATION CLINIC IN VOLCAN

(Para la version en espanol,
haga clic aqui)

 August 20, 2017

46 animals were spayed/neutered by Dr. Andres Tello,
our wonderful veterinarian, Plus he also performed several
other
time-consuming procedures. See the explanations below.


Dr. Tello sterilized 27 dogs and 19 cats. Of the dogs, 19 were female and 8 were male. Of the cats, 11 were female and 8 were male. This brings our total of dogs and cats sterilized to 4,063.  

In addition to sterilizations, Dr. Tello also performed some extraordinary surgeries! 

*A little two-month-old female puppy had been hit by a car a few days prior to the clinic. Her hip was dislocated, and it was necessary to remove her entire hip joint. She will need some special care after the surgery, and her recovery time will be up to six months. But then she will walk and run with no problems at all. (In the past, Dr. Tello has performed the same kind of surgery on two of my dogs. You'd never know they had any kind of injury.)

*One male dog had a very advanced venereal tumor. The tumor was actually protruding from the penis sack. The concerned owners had recently learned about Dr. Tello and our clinics. They had previously been to numerous veterinarians in David during the 18 months when they first saw blood dripping from their dog's penis. Those "veterinarians" had given the dog antibiotics, which will do nothing to cure a venereal tumor. The tumors are eventually fatal, for both males and females, and by the time the owners of this poor dog found us, blood was pouring from his penis. I'm sure this precious dog was not far from dying. They will return to our next clinic for Dr. Tello to examine the dog. There is a small possibility that the dog will need limited chemotherapy; but Dr. Tello is almost certain that he was able to remove the tumor in its entirety. The photo will be disturbing to some, but if you want to see it, click HERE. (That ugly growth is on the end of the dog's penis.)

(In the past we used to encounter venereal tumors quite often at our clinics; thankfully, because we have sterilized so many dogs in the area, we seldom see them now.)

*Also--if you read my July web page about the little dog Zeus...well, another  wonderful success story. Zeus had a badly broken rear leg. I took him to the border to meet Dr. Tello so he could perform the necessary surgery on Zeus' leg. I again went the the border a few days after that and brought Zeus home with me to care for. Dr. Tello had inserted a pin into Zeus's leg for stability, and he removed the pin at our clinic today. Zeus had healed so quickly that removing the pin turned out to be a lengthy process. I will keep Zeus with me to administer pain and antibiotic injections as necessary, and then Zeus will go back with his owner. She obviously loves Zeus. I will miss him, and he will miss me. Zeus has strongly bonded with me.

More great news! Besides our two remaining local "mascots" that we sterilized several months ago, we managed to capture three more today--new "visitors" to our clinics--two males and one young female.

A brown male dog had been coming around the clinic for four months.  Indeed, every time I'd go to the clinic to do some work, he would show up with the other two. I'd give him treats. He would eat from my hand, but he was too scared to let me even pet him. Alexis Vasquez, a new volunteer, managed to capture him, and we neutered him.

These "visitors" obviously have owners nearby. The dogs seem to be well fed and not neglected, but the owners are either oblivious to the necessity to sterilize their dogs--or they simply don't care. I do care. So I paid for the sterilizations of these dogs myself. I'd much rather do that instead of having them breed and create many more homeless, suffering puppies.

Patricia Ortiz brought her newly adopted female dog, who had recently given birth to six puppies. She needs to find good homes for the puppies. I took plenty of Kirkland kibble for both mama and the puppies. Good news is that as of this writing, three of the puppies have been adopted. (Frank and Betsy Barbeau adopted one of the little puppies. She (Addie) weighs only three pounds and has already shown that she is smart as a whip and has a great personality!)

They all look very much alike so they apparently had the same "daddy." Here are a couple of pictures. Please contact me to adopt one--6517-8752 or muffiemae@gmail.com

There were no pregnancies today. (Dr. Tello charges $10 extra for pregnancies because the surgery takes longer and is more complicated.)


Wow! We had a total of 18 no-shows: 9 female dogs, 3 male dogs, 6 female cats.


Remember, we also offer teeth cleaning of dogs. The cost is $25.00. Please make an appointment if you want this procedure. 


Our next clinic will be on September 24, 2017. Please call for an appointment right away. The clinics fill up rapidly. 


You may click the PayPal "Donate" button below to help the animals. It is to my personal PayPal account at muffiemae@gmail.com and your contribution will not be US tax deductible. Please specify your payment is for "friends or family" so that PayPal will not charge a fee and every penny will go for the animals. If you don't have a PayPal account, you can use a credit card.   

Except for our wonderful veterinarian, neither I nor anyone else connected with the clinics receives any pay. I rent the building where we hold the clinics, and I buy all the anesthesia, medications, instruments, supplies, and equipment--and provide transportation for those who need it. I have no offices, no salaries, no paid advertising. Every penny goes for the animals. This is a project from my heart, and I pay the deficits from my own pocket. 

Thank you in advance for future financial help, and thanks to everyone who has donated in the past.


Volunteers:

Francia Pinedo handled registration. Francia did a great job, as always!
Don Binder weighed animals and gave the anesthesia injections. Elcy Morales, Kimberly Castillo, and Enid Maldonado  gave the pre-op injections of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. They also put mineral oil in the eyes of the animals so they would not dry out, shaved the surgical site before surgery, and performed whatever other duties were needed. 
John Gould and Amanda Dettloff helped remove cats from crates to anesthetize them (sometimes dangerous!). John carried animals to and from the surgical table and then to the recovery area, plus he provided help in many other ways.
Jose Espinosa, my permanent employee, and I go to the clinic building the following week to clean, bring home blankets to wash, and organize for the next one. 
Various of the volunteers assisted Dr. Tello and gave post-op injections of B-12 and antiparasite. They dressed the incisions, applied flea and tick treatment, tattooed the ears of female dogs, and generally checked the well being of the animals. 
Alex Rios also assisted with after-care duties. There were no teeth-cleaning appointments today.
Dee Braden cleaned and sterilized the surgical instruments.
 
We had a new volunteer: Bruce Jarvis. Welcome to the team, Bruce.

As always, we had a great team of volunteers and everything ran very smoothly! 


We had a lot of delicious food for the doctor and the volunteers! Thanks to everyone who contributed: The main dish from Susan Lovett, Betsy Barbeau provided drinks, Marukel Rodriguez brought cookies, and I took organic bananas.

Please forgive me if I forgot to thank anyone who donated or contributed.


Income and expenses: 

$  845.00*

contributions by guardians/owners

      25.00

Al Jan (Volcan)

     114.42  Darrell Woodwood (Canada) 
      28.83  Malcolm Henderson 
      97.80  John Taylor
     50.00  Anonymous
       5.00  Sharon Borgman
       5.00  Liz Waring
$ 1,101.05  Total cash income

Also thanks to Jimmy Markson and Jan Herzog, who donated a top-of-the line dog crate!

*Note: The $845 contributions by guardians/owners were for spaying and neutering only. Payments for other procedures were paid to Dr. Tello separately. Neither those payments nor the charges for other services are  included in the income and expenses.


At this August 20, 2017 clinic Dr. Tello sterilized 27 dogs and 19 cats.  With my average costs of $25 per dog and $15 per cat, expenses were $960 plus $100 for building rent, for a total of $1,060. Income this month was $1,101.05 leaving an excess of $41.05. Therefore, my current out-of-pocket expenses are  $152.64.  I have never before had such an out-of-pocket expense! Many thanks to everyone for your generous donations!

My heartfelt thanks for the generous donations of those who have contributed for this clinic, who have contributed in the past, and who will contribute in the future! We need and appreciate your help! Love and thanks to everyone!


 

This is the little male dog that had the near-fatal venereal tumor. The surgery was complicated and extensive, but Dr. Tello thinks he removed all of the tumor. He will check it during our next clinic.

Be sure to see all the photos taken during the clinic! See my Flickr web album HERE

Click on the first picture to see the captions and advance through all the pictures.

 


Here in Volcan, our small group has been responsible for sterilizing 4,063 dogs and cats to date. (And this number does not include the extraordinary surgeries that Dr. Tello has performed at our clinics...removal of tumors, amputations, etc., nor the clinic we performed in Davila in which 35 dogs were sterilized.) 

There are many more to go, but we are making progress!  Our goal is to sterilize at least 75% of the dogs and cats in the Volcan area, and thus almost completely solve the problem of homeless dogs and cats, and the terrible venereal disease suffered by so many dogs--but thankfully, we see a lot fewer venereal tumors than we did in the past!.

Remember: In 7 years a female cat and her off springs can be the source of 420,000 kittens.  In 6 years a female dog and her off springs can be the source of 67,000 puppies. Unless your dog/cat is totally confined and unable to continue the population increase (AND the spread of venereal disease), please do the humane thing of having them sterilized!

For the health and safety of your dog/cat, however, have the sterilization performed by a competent vet who is experienced in early sterilization (eight weeks of age and up) and small-incision surgeries, and one who closes with stainless steel sutures....like Dr. Tello, who we are so fortunate to have operate at our clinics. (I do not trust care of my dogs or injured dogs that I find in the street to ANYONE except Dr. Tello.)

Thanks to everyone who participated in our clinics today, and to those who had their pets sterilized. Always remember that TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Dorothy Atwater -  6517-8752 or muffiemae@gmail.com
skype:  muffiemae

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