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Sunday,
May 19, 2013 - 43 animals were sterilized today by Dr. Tello sterilized 25 dogs and 18 cats. Of the dogs, 17 were female and 8 were male. Of the cats, 16 were female and 2 were male. I took my recently rescued little female dog to be spayed at this clinic. When I found her she had terrible mange and someone had covered her body with dirty used motor oil. (Some people think this cures mange; but not only does their skin absorb the toxins, the oil causes sunburn.) As of this clinic, she (now named Daisy) had received 2 weeks and 3 days of treatment for the mange, and she is slowly beginning to grow hair in the bald places. (For pictures, click HERE. ) You can see how terrible she looked at first and how much she has improved in just a short time. Daisy is young, but she has already had at least one litter of puppies. I kept her separate from my other dogs at first (so they don't contract mange), but Sunday Dr. Tello said I can now put her with the rest. She is ecstatic! She loves to be in a safe place where has a warm, dry place to sleep, good food to eat, and where she can run and play with 12 other companions of her own kind - plus she adores ME! Richard Reynolds brought six puppies that belonged to a neighbor. They were all sterilized (5 females and one male), and four were adopted at the clinic today. Two more still need good homes. The owner said he will allow his male and female to be sterilized at the June clinic (and I wonder if he will pay anything for them, either?) But good news - no more puppies from that particular source! A link to most of the pictures I took during the clinic is below. However, in consideration for the squeamish I did not include pictures of two extraordinary surgeries done by Dr. Tello during this particular clinic: eye surgery on a cat, and amputation of a dog's rear leg. If you want to see those pictures, click HERE. ) Regarding the dog whose leg was amputated, a couple of weeks before the clinic I saw a woman near Berard's. A limping dog was following her. I looked at the dog's rear leg and I was appalled to that his foot was missing. In its place was an ulcerated oozing wound on the end of his leg that would never heal and the entire leg was swollen. I asked the woman about the dog and she said he was hers. I made an appointment for her at this May clinic to have the dog sterilized - and what I already knew would be an amputation. Two hours after her scheduled appointment, she had not arrived. Normally if people don't come and haven't bothered to call and cancel, I don't call them. However, I was really worried about this dog; we called the woman and she said she didn't have transportation. I sent my employee in my car to bring her and the dog to the clinic. When Dr. Tello examined the dog, he said the bone in his leg was also infected. Amputation was the only solution. This was Dr. Tello's final surgery of the day and it took well over an hour. After the dog was awake, my employee took the dog and his owner home. We give an injection of long-lasting antibiotics to all animals at the clinics, but this dog would require another injection in three days. We called the woman on Tuesday, and she said her dog was doing very well. On Wednesday, May 22nd, my employee and I went to administer the additional injection, and yes, he was doing great. Dr. Tello is a wonderfully skilled veterinarian and surgeon. I can't repeat often enough how much we love and appreciate him. He operates at spay/neuter clinics in Volcan, David, and Boquete each month, and because our clinics are designed for low-income Panamanians, he charges a pittance of what he reasonably charges in his private practice. And for these surgeries other than sterilization at our clinics, I always ask him how much to charge. (I usually add $5.00 or $10.00 for the clinic expenses - anesthesia, medications, supplies.) For amputation of the dog's leg, he charged only $40 - and said it would normally be $120 (which is also cheap for such a complicated and lengthy surgery). I knew the dog's owner didn't have much money, so I asked her for $50, all of which went to Dr. Tello for sterilization and amputation, with nothing for the clinic. She could pay only $30 at the clinic and said she would pay $20 later. I advanced the extra $20. For already sterilized cats, Dr. Tello only charged $20 for the cat's eye surgery, $10 to remove a tumor/hernia from a cat's tummy, and $15 to euthanize a cat. (The euthanasia solution is very expensive and VERY difficult to get. We can't get it in Panama at all, and a small bottle in Costa Rica costs the equivalent of $70.00.) The amounts paid to Dr. Tello for these other surgeries and the money from the owners of those animals are not included in the income and expenses statement below. A young male dog, probably less than a year old, wandered onto the porch of the clinic. We sterilized him also. He was not skinny and probably belonged somewhere. By the end of the day, he was fully awake and alert, and ready to be released to go wherever he lived. So the "owner" got a complimentary sterilization that I paid for. Note: except for rainy days we will sterilize male street dogs and release them at the end of the day. With female street dogs, we require that someone keep them and care for them overnight before releasing them. Speaking of costs: An expat had his cat's teeth cleaned at our April clinic. Rosemary Rios, a volunteer, is excellent at cleaning teeth of dogs and cats. We charged the man $20. He said vets in the US wanted $600 for the same procedure. The clinics now fill up very rapidly. We already have 44 animals scheduled for the next clinic on June 23rd. We will schedule up to 50 to allow for no-shows...and if they all show up - plus a few walk-ins - we will attend to them all. Please donate! Your PayPal tax-deductible donations for Chiriqui go through Spay Panama's Animals YES in the USA and are eventually forwrded to me. If you donate via PayPal, please be sure to specify that your donation is FOR CHIRIQUI. Please send me an email if you donate by PayPal so I can thank you personally! If you donate via PayPal, it often takes a long time for the funds to reach me. (See income and expenses below.) If you are local to Panama, please consider donating directly to me. If you're not able to donate in person, I can give you information about how to deposit to my bank account, either in Panama or in the US. Thank you! I can give you a tax-deductible receipt for your US tax return. Donors and amounts are reported on my web page for each clinic. Income and expenses are listed on each clinic web page. Thank you for your help! Your contribution helps make Spay/Panama-Chiriqui services possible. PLEASE BE AWARE that if you donate through PayPal, I cannot credit your donation on my web page until I actually receive the funds. If you have donated through PayPal and your donation has not been credited on my web page, please contact me. Anyone who is local to Volcan, PLEASE talk with your friends and neighbors, explain the importance of proper sterilization and tell them about our clinics. My goal was to sterilize at least 30 animals during each clinic - but we are now far exceeding that number. MANY thanks to our wonderful volunteers and contributors. Without their help and dedication, this important work simply could not be done. And by the way, with the exception of Don Binder who is a dedicated volunteer, all the rest are Panamanians. No one except the doctor receives a penny. All funds go for the animals.
*Note: I did not have the name of the person who donated $50 via PayPal for the April clinic ($48.50 after fees) so I included the donation without a name. The donor was Deb Koch, Panama/Canada. She contacted me to say she was the donor. Thank you, Deb! At this April May 19, 2013 clinic, Dr. Tello sterilized 25 dogs and 18 cats. With my average cost for sterilizations of $25 per dog and $15 per cat, expenses were $770 plus $100 for building rent, for a total of $870. With contributions of $755, there was a deficit of $155. Therefore, my accumulated deficit is $2,281.60. My heartfelt thanks for all the generous donations of those who have contributed in the past and who will contribute in the future! I very much appreciate any and all contributions. They are welcome and needed!
Here in Volcan, our small group has been responsible for sterilizing 2,027 dogs and cats to date. Added to the 129 animals that Spay/Panama (from Panama City) sterilized in in Volcan in February of 2005, we have sterilized 2,156 dogs and cats! 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. 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 Back to Clinics Page Back to HOME PAGE |
Cristina Espinosa did a good job with registration. She is only 13 years old and is the daughter of my employee, Jose Espinosa. 