Spay Panamá Project

Finally! After almost 1 year of organizing and planning, The Spay Panamà vets made their way to San Juanito. On April 4th and 5th five veterinarians from the non-profit organization successfully spayed and neutered 86 dogs and cats.

One of the first dogs to get spayed

  

One of the vets hard at work

The clinic was equal parts crazy and cool.

As you all know, Panamá has taught me to roll with the punches. The period leading up to the clinic was a great example of this... 

As if to set the perfect stage, the dog that follows us around everywhere, Carmencita was in heat in the days before the clinic. She was attracting 8+ male dogs at a time that would fight, growl, pee on everything and destroy our gardens day and night. To add tragedy to inconvenience and frustration, Carmencita lead the pack of male dogs to the main road outside my community, where a car struck and killed my neighbors dog as he was fighting in the asphalt.  (R.I.P. Tuto) Another punch was at the last minute we had to change the location of the clinic from the school to the casa communal because we didn't have correct permission from the ministry of education. In the hustle to make the casa communal an appropriate place to hold the clinic I arranged to run electricity from a near by house to the casa communal and spent the morning cleaning the muddy floors with my helper Maria. I waited for the veterinarians to arrive and when they didn't show I hiked up the cell phone hill and called. I learned they had been delayed and would be arriving the following day. 

My kettle reached a boiling point when I arrived back to my house to find the pack of male dogs on my porch. An especially scary male dog made a lunge at Goma ( my cat) and in her attempt to flee climbed my face as if it were a tree. Luckily it was just a small scratch and bruise but it felt like she had scratched my eye out. 

I was tired from chasing off male dogs, tired of the difficulties of scheduling anything on time, and just about ready to give up on the whole project. But when the vets arrived the next day I was glad I didn't. 

They arrived at noon and by 12:30 they had already set up everything and had 4 dogs operated and waiting to wake up from the anesthesia. That set the standard for the speed and efficiency for the rest of the afternoon and following day. 

Alex and I helped the owners push, pull, drag or carry their dogs or cats to the clinic. We used wheel barrows, sacks, baskets, ropes and anything we could find. Upon their arrival to the clinic, one of the vets would eyeball it's weight to the pound and give it the appropriate dose of anesthesia. The animal would then gently fall to sleep and the vets would get busy.

Abuelo bringing his puppy to the clinic

The "recovery room" was a 10x10 sheet of plastic where they would place the finished dogs and cats down to wake up. 

This whole process was completely new to my community members and many of them were sure the sleeping animals were dead. Once the animal showed signs of recovering the owner was free to carry it back to their house.

The dogs and cats recovering from anesthesia 

Abuelo carrying back his sleeping dog in a "motete"

A warm heartfelt thank you to everyone that donated and made this possible! After the clinic 6 year old Mitzuri told me she wants to be a veterinarian. Like they say "Rome wasn't built in a day!" Here's to a bright pet caring future! :)