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Sunday,
May 24, 2015 - 29 animals were spayed/neutered
by Dr. Andrés Tello, our wonderful veterinarian. And Rosemary Rios, our
excellent volunteer, cleaned the teeth of one dog.
At
this April May 24th, 2015 clinic Dr.
Tello sterilized 19 dogs and 10 cats. Of the dogs, 16 were female and
3 were
male. Of the cats, 8 were female and 2 were male.
Dr.
Tello also examined one dog that was pregnant and ready to deliver within
a week. He does not do late-term abortions. An expat brought the dog that
belongs to her neighbor. Hopefully we can spay the mama dog in June, and the
puppies in July.
Clay
Conn found a homeless dog behind Romero and brought her to the clinic. She
was in terrible condition. Someone had apparently hit her in one eye
with a rock or stick, and she was covered with lice. Sadly, under the
circumstances, it was best that Dr. Tello euthanize her, which he did.
We
had 46 animals on the list but we had 16 no-shows. This is inexcusable
because we call everyone on Thursday and Friday before the Sunday clinic
to confirm appointments. We understand if something unavoidable happens at
the last minute, and sometimes people call even as late as the morning of
the clinic to reschedule. That's acceptable, and we reschedule them for
the following month.
But
I keep a list of those inconsiderate people who just didn't bother to come
or to call and cancel. They can come to future clinics, but instead of
registering and receiving a number, they are given a letter: A, B, C, etc.
and they have to wait until there's time for them. Sometimes they have to
wait all day, until the last scheduled animal has been operated on.
Tough!. The clinics are CHEAP! We not only provide our excellent
veterinarian, but also provide the costly anesthesia and the animals also receive injections
of antibiotics, pain meds, vitamin B-12, antiparasite, flea and tick
treatment, clipping of nails, cleaning of ears, etc. Inconsiderate people
have to wait until the animals of the responsible people have been served.
In
addition to her own female dog, Amelia Mojica brought a homeless female
dog that stays around the Poli Clinic. A doctor there gives the dog some
food, but he refused to pay the very cheap cost to have her spayed.
(If she wasn't spayed, what would happen to all the puppies she would
have?) Some people, including this doctor, are very irresponsible and
short sighted.
Amelia kindly brought the sweet dog (appropriately named Poli). Amelia paid part of the
fee to sterilize Poli and I paid the rest. I simply can't understand a
doctor being so cheap, uncaring, and short sighted.
One
person brought a mama dog and her 4 small puppies. Click the link below
for the Picasa web album to see a two-pound puppy recovering from the
anesthesia after being sterilized. Dr. Tello can safely perform pediatric
sterilizations.
Despite
sterilizing fewer animals than I'd hoped, we had an unusually frustrating
and "messy" day: numerous cases of diarrhea, vomiting, peeing on
the floor. One cat had eaten a bird and vomited feathers, bones, and all
the rest. She had been anesthetized and Don had a big job of cleaning out
her mouth after all the vomiting.
We
close the front door when we are ready to anesthetize a cat. I had loaned
a crate for some people to transport a very wild cat, but before being
injected with anesthesia, it got loose inside the clinic. What a mess! The cat jumped and ran all over the
tables, running up walls, knocking off food, instruments, etc. from the
tables. Finally, when the cat was on top of a valance above a window, Dr.
Tello was able to give it a very quick injection of anesthesia and the cat
was finally asleep.
Thankfully,
the cat didn't knock off and break any of the very expensive bottles of
medications from the tables. But the cat created an intensive cleanup for
us. (We should have had the owners do the cleanup!)
Francia Pinedo, a volunteer, slipped on some food and rice on the floor,
fell down, and sprained her wrist. I had taken some homemade salami, which
hardly anyone got to sample because the cat knocked it onto the floor. He
knocked other foods to the floor as well.
All
this for only $15 to sterilize a cat. We should charge triple for
something like this!
Other
than the numerous clean-up jobs during the day, plus the mess and chaos
caused by that particular cat, we still had a satisfying day. We are happy to have
prevented the births of many, many dogs and cats that would have ended up
homeless, starving, and dying a lonely, painful death.
Our
next clinic will be on June 28th. Again, I will schedule up to 50 to allow for last-minute
cancellations and no-shows. Please call for an appointment.
Be
sure to click the link below for the Picasa web album of pictures taken
during this clinic.
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 or financial benefit. 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:
Joselyn Espinosa and her sister Cristina Espinosa handled registration..
Joselyn also learned to give injections and perform other pre-op tasks.
(Elsi Morales, a regular volunteer, is a wonderful teacher.) Joselyn said she really liked
learning the other responsibilities. (See the next paragraph about some
of the other jobs Joselyn performed. with the training of Elsi and Don.)
Don Binder and Elsi Morales weighed animals, gave the anesthesia injections, plus 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, and performed
whatever other duties were needed.
Jose
Espinosa, my permanent employee, helps weigh and tag the animals,
provides transportation for animals when necessary, and helps with
various duties. He also takes my car to pick up and deliver animals when
necessary. Then Jose and I go to the clinic site following
the Sunday clinics to clean and organize for the next one and bring home
the many blankets to wash.
Rosemary Rios, Francia Pinedo, and Stephanie Rodriguez assisted Dr.Tello, gave post-op injections of B-12 and antiparasite.
They dressed the incisions, took the temperature of the recovering
animals, tattooed the ears of female dogs, administered flea and tick treatment,
generally checked the well being of the animals.
Alex Rios
helped to clean and sterilize the surgical instruments.
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: Rosemary Rios and her mother Olinka for the main dish, Azel
Ames for drinks, Marguerite Morris for desert, and Amanda
Rankin for fruit.
Income and expenses:
| $
545.00* |
contributions by guardians/owners
|
|
25.00
|
cash
donation by Al Jan (Boquete) |
| 48.25 |
donation by Fran Hogan, Boquete (50.00
minus 1.75 PayPal fee) |
|
50.00 |
Pay
Pal donation by
Susan and
Pat Farrell, Boquete (no PayPal fee because they signified the
payment was for "friends or family.") |
|
48.25 |
donation by
Maureen Pilsen, Boquete (50.00
minus 1.75 PayPal fee) |
| $
716.50 |
Total
Cash Contributions |
*Note:
The $545 contributions by guardians/owners were for spaying and neutering
only. Payments for other procedures were collected from owners and paid to Dr. Tello
separately. Neither those payments nor the charges for other services are
included in the income and expenses above.
Thanks
also to John and Heidi Gould for the donation of a large animal crate.
We
frequently transport animals to/from the clinics, so if anyone else has
crates to donate, we will appreciate it very much!
Also,
I need extra crates at my house to use when I'm fostering a dog and
giving him/her treatment for necessary conditions. I have a "foster
dog" at my house right now. "Max" was neutered at our
clinic. Francia Pinedo, one of our volunteers, will adopt him, but he
has a horrible problem with raw, bleeding ears. I will keep him and
treat him for at least least three weeks of twice-daily treatment that
will be required until he is ready for his home with Francia. (He is a
VERY sweet dog! I wish I had room to keep all of the rescues!)
I
also keep a cone collar on Max so he can't remove the medication from
his ears. Much of the time I keep him in a place separate from my other
dogs, but I've recently been giving him access to some of my other dogs.
(No way should anyone toss a "new" dog into a pack unless they
have supervised control of the "meetings." (Chaos and death
could result!)
Max
is a very sweet dog. For now, I'm keeping the two most aggressive of my
dogs in their crates while I allow Max to interact with the other
dogs. Soon he will be able to intermingle with them all. Poor
baby, though. He's at a disadvantage for play while wearing his cone
collar. (It is necessary, though.)
At
this May 24, 2015 clinic Dr. Tello sterilized 19 dogs and 10 cats. With my
average costs of $25 per dog and $15 per cat, expenses were $625.00 plus
$100
for building rent for a total of $725.00. Income this month was $716.50 leaving
a deficit of $8.50. Thanks for everyone's generous donations. My current out-of-pocket
expenses are $565.00.
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!
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Joselyn
Espinosa has assisted with registration, but today was her first
time to learn about giving various injections. She did a great job!
For
other pictures taken
during the
clinic, click
HERE.
Click on the
first
image to enlarge it, then you
can
advance through
the
rest of the
pictures.
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Here in Volcan, our small group has been
responsible for sterilizing 3,043 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
US telephone: 817-349-6345
skype: muffiemae
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