Good news, sad news

It is my pleasure to announce that Miguel is now officially Dr. Miguel! He forfeited his graduation ceremony to attend the training session we set up for him in Costa Rica, but we wanted everyone to know that he is now our only licensed, official, truly graduated vet in Panajachel and the surrounding area.

The training session in Costa Rica was a great success in a number of ways. Dr. Miguel was instructed on a new, small incision spay technique that reduces the amount of needed anesthesia and post-op infections, thereby reducing the amount of follow-up issues. He has agreed to conduct a free and low-cost clinic for Mayan Families Healthy Pets on the last Wednesday of every month! We are working out the exact logistics, for example, how to evaluate families for the sliding scale fee reduction vs. working with Mayan Families family animals for which we provide free services. He is also more than willing to travel to other villages around the lake to conduct clinics.

We are putting the final touches and translation to the food supplement program agreement form. This, too, will require some basic screening of the human participants to determine their need for assistance. Marilena de Perez has agreed to pass out the food from her home in Pana and to keep track of how the animals in the program are doing. We are all very excited about getting this off the ground! We are actively looking for dog, puppy, cat and kitten food donations on a monthly basis. Currently, we have one very generous donation of 50 lbs. of dog food per month. The more we have, the more they get to eat! Thank you, Marilena for your commitment!

Andrea, the mom we rescued from the hole in San Andres, is definitely moving to Phoenix, Arizona where she will live with 5 greyhounds! The adopter, Elaine, works for a vet, so not only will Andrea be well loved and have buddies, she’ll also get any medical care she may need in the future. Bravo, Elaine!! Oh, she is also the first dog to be spayed using the new technique Dr. Miguel learned in Costa Rica. I’m happy to say that her recovery has been rapid and complication-free.
Is anyone traveling to Phoenix at the end of the month or know of someone who is?
We need to arrange Andrea’s flight plan.

All of Miss Andrea’s pups have been adopted along with Puente Grande Girl 2. I think I shared in the last update that Fluffy no mas Fluffy was also adopted. That leaves Puente Grande Girl 1, a very sad looking, but extremely playful and affectionate pup. Thankfully, her fur is beginning to grow back so she doesn’t look quite as pathetic!

While in San Jorge the other day, I was asked to take a young, male dog that suddenly became aggressive towards the kids in the family. Turns out, he had advanced stages of distemper and we had no choice but to euthanize him. Knowing now that distemper is running around up there, we are organizing a free vaccination clinic to take place as soon as possible. Centro Salud, our health department, has offered us free rabies vaccines and certificates, we have a box of insulin syringes, so now all we need are the combo vaccines and we’re on our way!

Also, in San Jorge, I picked up 3 of 12 (!) puppies. There is a rumor going around that the township is about to pass a law restricting the number of dogs to 1 per family and, that any dog not owned will be poisoned. So, there I stood with 3 worried women, wringing their hands over fear that the pups will all be killed. Our problem – what do we do with them if we rescue them? We still lack kennel space! We received a $100 donation for this effort, but still need to raise another $450 to cover the cost of 10 adjoining, covered, security-lighted kennels.

Once in place, the outside runs will at least buy us a little bit of time to place dogs. We are discussing how best to conduct adoption events here in Pana. As we progress in our plans, I’ll let you know how we’ve decided to proceed. It is time for us to build loving, responsible pet owners from the local population. BTW – Dr. Miguel also brought back a lesson plan geared towards boys and young men that instructs proper feeding, medical care, grooming, etc. Our good friend, Francia, is anxious to get her young men involved in getting this ed program off the ground. You go, girl!

The black Mom, Negra, who was dropping dead babies at the time of our last clinic, is finally ready to be released in Jucanya. Poor girl had all her pups die inside her, but her 10-year-old body survived the surgery to remove the pups and some post-op infection. Luckily for her, a Mayan Families family, who originally reported the problem with Negra, has agreed to put food and water out for her every day and to keep an eye on her.

We continue to try to raise funds for an x-ray machine and anesthesia system. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN.

Best wishes,

Selaine