Hello friends,
This blog post is brought to you by two vet students from New Zealand, who recently spent some time working at the Animal Tracks clinic in Goa...
International
Animal Rescue Goa (IAR Goa) is located in the village of Assagao in the Indian
state of Goa, and aims to reduce the suffering of stray cats and dogs through
sterilisation, vaccination, re-release and finding responsible owners.
The rescue organisation has
its own veterinary hospital, which has six full time veterinarians, three nurse,
kennel staff, and volunteers. The vets have a bi weekly rotating role. Every
week there is one vet in the kennels, one in out patient department (OPD), and
three in surgery. The 3 nurses would mainly assist in surgery.
There
are 97dog kennels (which were all occupied at any given time, with stray
animals), 40 cat kennels, two operating theatres, an examination room, and a
radiography and ultrasound area. We worked with and saw a range of animals
whilst at IAR, including cats, dogs, cows, goats, monkeys, snakes and birds.
In
the first week we were tasked with kennel treatments, which included dressing
wounds, assessing recently caught stray animals, and administering medications.
By the end of the first week we had already moved into the OPD (out patient
department) and surgery.
Our
favourite location was working in OPD. Everything happens all at once in OPD;
there is no isolation room, no treatment room and no consult room. People
arrive at the clinic and collect a number and then the vet visits the patients
in order. The vet assesses the animal, collects history, and treats the animal
in front of everyone. We felt useful in the OPD as we both have prior nursing experience
and had just completed our third year of vet school. The vets would often ask
our opinions and valued our input. We could discuss cases with the vets we
worked with and felt like we made a difference while we were there.
One particularly memorable
moment for us came on one of the first days: we put a nasogastric tube in a cat
which then needed an Elizabethan collar. The vet asked us, “How good are you at
making e-collars out of x-rays?” We laughed at first because we were confused,
but then managed to do exactly that!
Many animals with skin lesions were often covered in
turmeric powder. At first we were confused why so many animals looked yellow but
then soon came to realise that first-aid adopted by owners of using turmeric as
an antiseptic, are quite common and sought out by the culture.
There
was a gas anaesthesia machine available, which was used for prolonged and
special surgeries. Use of gas anaesthesia was impractical
for the high volume of spaying and neutering being done routinely.
It
was interesting to us how clients were often involved in treatments and
restraint of the patients, mainly due to the lack of nursing assistance. People
transported their pets to the clinic on motorbikes mostly - that’s just how
people get around in Goa so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to them!
When
we weren’t busy working, we would spend our days soaking up the sun on the
beaches or trolling along the street markets. We really formed some lasting
friends and we actually really miss all of them! Who knows, maybe one day when
we’re vets, we’ll find ourselves back there again.
For more information about IAR and the fantastic work they
do, visit their website.
