Tuesday, May 5 Entry by Mike Corcoran, DVM Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! Today was a very busy day at the clinic. Not only did we increase our number of sterilization surgeries to 53 spays and neuters today, but we had some very important visitors. Some veterinarians from the zoo in Managua brought us a very special patient and asked for our help. They have a coyote who has been in a long-term struggle with an infection in one of the bones of his front leg. The infection has gotten out of control and has put her in danger of having an [View Full Entry]

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Granada Nicaragua - Day 3 First Day of Granada Spay/Neuter clinic Up early, we each ate a quick breakfast at the casa. The walk to the clinic took about 10 minutes. We could see the locals lined up outside as we approached. The clinic offered a perfect location for the project with two separate rooms and a large shady courtyard in the back. Check-ins went smoothly with lots of help from Heidi (a local Vet student who works with Dr Tom) Fatima, Lilly (local volunteer) and Claudio (Dr Tom’s tech). Fatima, who was actually born in Granada, was a huge asset [View Full Entry]

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Granada Nicaragua Day two Today is a day for the team to sightsee and spend some time bonding and recovering from our day(s) of travel. After waking, we walked together a short distance to a restaurant for a nice brunch. After eating some fantastic food, Donna (one of the founders of the local clinic here), gave us a ride to the grocery store to buy some snacks, drinks and breakfast foods. After touring a bit we boarded horse drawn carriages for a tour of the city. Surprisingly, horse drawn carriages and carts are a major form of transportation in this still [View Full Entry]

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Collectively written by the majority of our team…. Well, today was the busiest, and for many of us the most satisfying of the clinic days. From the moment we arrived at the clinic, animals were ready and waiting for exams and surgeries. Today everyone learned new very valuable skills and techniques that they will carry with them throughout their careers- who knew I would be teaching an actual veterinarian how to skillfully and successfully attempt the limbo pole???  So to take off from the above blog…..she can really limbo. However, the main emphasis today [View Full Entry]

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It is tough to describe a day in Roatan. Today began with an early morning snorkel in the ocean. It is a great way to start the day. The team headed out to the clinic beginning at 8:15. We were greeted by patients waiting to been seen and surgeries to be done. Today was a very productive day. We have really come together as a team and are able to function very efficiently. Total animals seen today was 104. Mainly dogs and cats were treated but Dr. Dave saw one white tailed deer. Forty eight animals were sterilized and 1 surgical [View Full Entry]

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All work and no play today! We headed out to the clinic at 8:30am this morning. We had patients waiting when we arrived this morning and immediately got to work. There was a big morning rush and then a bit of a lull for an hour or so. The lull was short lived and soon we had a steady stream of patients for surgery and appointments. In all we treated 81 animals today (26 surgeries and 55 appointments). [View Full Entry]

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Today those of us who are volunteering on this trip enjoyed two new experiences among the many we are amassing on this already amazing adventure. We got to see the veterinarians and technicians of World Vets in two hours transform a school science lab into a fully functional clinic that we expect will allow for the treatment of as many as 500 dogs and cats over the next three days. Even more exciting, we got to meet the schoolchildren of Roatan. The students of the Roatan Bilingual School in Coxen Hole listened intently as Dr. Winnie and Dr. Tom explained about [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Roatan, Honduras! In the interest of full disclosure, the team has actually already been here for a few days…it’s just difficult to convince anyone to sit in front of a computer for long enough to write a blog. Apparently when you’re staying in a gorgeous 5 bedroom house with huge back porch, pool, swim-up bar, and a few short steps down to a private beach, people tend to find better things to do with their time. The group arrived on three separate flights on Saturday, each of which was met by Sandra, our local contact who seems to know [View Full Entry]

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After the first day, we brainstormed on how to improve the efficiency of our clinic.  We tried to move around the staff to optimize their skill set but there were still a lot of challenges:  aggressive dogs that needed special care, owners that wanted something seen right away, the temperamental pressure cooker aka autoclave.  Our system worked well enough that we were able to accomplish about 60 + surgeries daily with other random surgical/medical tasks to do as well.  Mavia was helpful to assist in premedicating, providing water and shade for those waiting for surgery, recovery and TLC for t [View Full Entry]

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The next day our friend Misty came to pick us up as planned at 8:00am in her trusty old red pickup. We clambered in and headed for Animalandia picking up Nancy and Alex at the Desert Inn at the way. Animalandia is a clinic that was started by one of the locals Lucy, who has a tremendous heart and generous spirit. She had worked with an American veterinarian to start helping with spays and neuters of local animals and after funding from numerous donors and donation of the land by the town of Loreto, a clinic was built several years ago. [View Full Entry]

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