121st STERILIZATION CLINIC IN VOLCAN

(Para la version en espanol)

 September 30, 2018

 Today 45 animals were spayed/neutered by Dr. Andres Tello, 
our wonderful veterinarian. Plus Dr. Tello also performed 
several exams and other  procedures, including
 surgery on a female dog for a venereal tumor. 

At this 121st clinic, Dr. Tello sterilized 19 dogs and 26 cats. Of the dogs, 10 were female and 9 were male. Of the cats, 20 were female and 6 were male. This brings our total of dogs and cats sterilized to 4,634.

As usual we had a lot of no-shows, 24 total: 10 female dogs, 2 male dogs, 5 female cats, 7 male cats. Those people with female animals will probably show up at a future clinic without an appointment, saying their animal is either in heat or pregnant and they need the surgery that day!

Francia Pinedo contacts EVERYONE before a clinic to confirm their appointments. People with confirmed appointments who do not bother to cancel and then do not bring their animal(s) are inexcusability discourteous!

Our next clinic will be on October 21, 2018. That clinic is full and we are taking reservations for November 18th. November will be the final clinic for 2018, and we will resume in January of 2019.

My Ketch pole came to the rescue again! One of our volunteers told us about a female dog in heat near Romero, naturally with lots of males around her. Our wonderful John Gould went, and with the help of my Ketch pole, captured the dog. She was very skinny, obviously a street dog. Since she had been in heat, she needed to be kept away from intact males for a few days. So I cared for her at my house for several days. She is medium size, beautiful, and very sweet. She has now been adopted, named Regina.

Early on clinic day, a male dog came near. He was afraid at first. I gave him a few cookies and was able to lure him inside. Don then closed the door. The dog has obviously had an owner--his tail is docked and his ears were trimmed--but there's no doubt that he was dumped. Now named Toby, he is with me now. He is very skinny and has a bad skin condition, which I will cure before offering him for adoption. Toby is very sweet, gets along well with other dogs, and he deserves a good home. Feel free to come visit him while I'm curing the skin problem.

Please open your heart and give Toby a forever home!

Great news: I have been invited to give a presentation at the Escuela Basica General de Volcan about the clinics, proper care of dogs, the laws in Panama, etc. It will be at 10:00 am on October 19th. The principal will select 150 of their 600 students to be present. David Dell will video my presentation. It will be in both English and Spanish. Francia Pinedo will present the Spanish portion. We will upload the video to Youtube so that the rest of the 600 students can view it, as well as schools all over Panama. And of course, being presented in two languages, people who don't speak Spanish can understand it. I'm very excited!  It is a wonderful opportunity for education!

Remember, we also offer teeth cleaning of dogs. The cost is $25.00. Please make an appointment if you want this procedure. (I wanted Alex to clean the teeth of three of my dogs today, but he was sick. We hope he is doing better!)

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:

Following are our other regular volunteers. I believe that we now have the best team of volunteers we have ever had!

Francia Pinedo served as registrar.  
Don Binder weighed animals and gave the anesthesia injections. He, Elcy Morales and Agueda Castillo 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 helped remove cats from crates to anesthetize them (sometimes dangerous). John and other volunteers carried animals to and from the surgical table and then to the recovery area, plus he provided help in many other ways. (See above how he captured a female dog in heat.)
Various volunteers assisted Dr. Tello and gave post-op injections of B-12 and antiparasite. Those include Kathleen Arauz and Elcy Morales. They dressed the incisions, applied flea and tick treatment, tattooed the ears of female dogs, and generally checked the well being of the animals. 
Elcy Morales also helped by cleaning and sterilizing the surgical instruments.
One of our regular volunteers will be absent on October 21, and Nicola Aylward will fill in. She came to the clinic today to learn what to do and learned everything very quickly!

Thanks to Don Binder for making new tags/boletos for the clinic!

We had a lot of delicious food for the doctor and the volunteers! Thanks to everyone who contributed: The main dish by Sara Cotton, drinks by Carla Black, dessert by Don Binder. 

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

Income and expenses: 

$   735.00*

contributions by guardians/owners
       25.00

Al Jan (Volcan)
         5.00  Betsy Barbeau 
       10.00  Judy Odom
       25.00  Dorreene Reynolds
$   800.00  Total cash income

*Note: The $735 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 September 30, 2018 clinic Dr. Tello sterilized 19 dogs and 26 cats.  With my average costs of $25 per dog and $15 per cat, expenses were $865 plus $100 for building rent for a total of $965. Income this month was $800 leaving a deficit of $165. Therefore,  added to my previous out-of-pocket expenses, there is currently an excess of $2,394.28. 

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!

And I can never thank our volunteers enough! They work hard and they are wonderful!

See the photo album for this clinic here: https://imgur.com/a/tj8sefI

Here in Volcan, our small group has been responsible for sterilizing 4,634 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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