Dogstar Foundation Veterinary Times article

34 Veterinary Times

BAPTISM OF FIRE LENDING HAND TO SRI LANKAN WELFARE EFFORT

PETER HISCOXBSc, BVSc, MRCVS

fi nds himself thrust into the deep end: a south Asian adventure just after graduation, featuring temples, tuk-tuks and maggot-affl icted canines

WELFARE SRI LANKA

AFTER graduating, I wanted to spend a month volunteer-ing in a developing country, so I contacted the overseas organisations listed on the BVA’s website.

I decided to go with the Dog-star Foundation after receiving a very enthusiastic reply from Samantha Green, its founder.

The Dogstar Foundation is based at the Millennium Elephant Foundation (MEF) in Samaragiri, Sri Lanka, and provides free veterinary care to dogs and cats primarily in the Kegalle area. This is done via mobile clinics and outreach projects offering free neutering and vaccinations.

Dogstar was set up in Sep-tember 2006, when Sam was volunteering with MEF. She was also teaching English at a local Buddhist temple and noticed some of the dogs in the monks’ care were in need of veterinary treatment.

As the monks had no access to veterinary care, Sam arranged for Dr Dangola, a vet based at the nearby University of Perad-eniya – who was coming to MEF to treat some of the elephants – to see the dogs at the temple. One dog was treated for mange

and open sores, and four pup-pies were vaccinated against rabies for only £12.

This experience gave Sam the idea of setting up a permanent method of working with MEF and the University of Peradeniya. The name Dogstar was chosen as it is the more common name for the star Sirius in the constel-lation Canis Major, and is the brightest star in the night sky visible from both England and Sri Lanka. The Dogstar Foundation is run by Sam and her husband Mark, who divide their time between Sri Lanka and the UK.

IncredibleI fl ew out to Sri Lanka in July, less than a week after graduating from the University of Liverpool – I wasn’t sure what to expect. During my first weekend, a neutering clinic was due to be held in conjunction with staff and students from the University of

Peradeniya. However, a few days before the clinic was scheduled to take place, we learned the arranged location would no longer be suitable.

Luckily, the father of one of the men working at MEF offered to help us arrange the clinic in his village instead. I found myself in the back of a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxi), being driven along a bumpy track to a village that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

We were taken to the grounds of the village’s Buddhist temple, where a school building would serve as the clinic’s venue. The view from the temple grounds was incredible – beautiful paddy fields and palm trees, with a mountainous backdrop.

Having received the monk’s approval, we made our way around the village, putting up posters advertising the clinic, and calling in to people’s houses to invite them along personally. We were aided in our task by a rather large team of local young men who helped us educate people about the importance of having their cat or dog neutered.

In the days leading up to the clinic, the weather was quite wet, and we were anxious about how the conditions would be on the day, as rain usually reduces the turn-out. However, the morning of the clinic day greeted us with glorious sunshine, and it was actually one of the hottest days during my time there.

We arrived early at the school building to set out tables, and cover them in plastic bags and newspaper for operations. We also wrapped bricks in news-paper, for holding anaesthe-tised animals in place. As people began to arrive with their cats and dogs, the clinic quickly became very busy – it was a bit of a baptism of fi re.

While some owners were able to handle their animals well, others were clearly frightened of their pets, and had to be discour-aged from hitting their animals to control them. The animal handling by some of the staff and students from the university wasn’t as sympathetic as I would have liked, as some of the dogs were pinned to the fl oor for their pre-med intramuscular injections of chlorpromazine.

Whi le a h igh degree of restraint may sometimes be necessary, Dogstar is working

with the university to improve positive handling.

There was, however, a slightly more humorous side to some of the animal handling, as, in the absence of purpose-built cat carriers, fl our sacks make a popular alternative.

One old lady, whose smile revealed the lack of a few teeth, even brought her cat along in a carrier bag. When the cat – scared by the presence of so many dogs – attached itself to her face, she simply peeled the animal off and soothed it in her arms, apparently without a scratch to show for it.

The anaesthesia was certainly more basic than I was used to, as the dogs were induced and maintained on top-ups of thio-pental. Sometimes, anaesthesia seemed to go pretty smoothly, but some dogs appeared a bit too close to coming round part way through the operation for my liking. Dogstar was also unable to get hold of injectable analgesics (despite much effort), so analgesia was only provided after recovery, in the form of tramadol tablets.

Although the surgical instru-ments were sterilised before the clinic (thanks to the autoclave

Dogstar had donated to the university), the fast throughput of animals meant instruments had to be cleaned in liquid disinfectant between patients.

The owners who brought their animals along to the clinic were clearly fascinated by what went on, with many watching the operations, and some even staying until the end to help clear up. The local monk also avidly watched a number of the pro-cedures, and was keen to pose for a photograph with some of the team members.

By the end of the day I was

The Buddhist shrine where the author was fi rst introduced to Michael, the temple’s resident dog.

Left: Michael, the temple’s dog. Right: the veterinary activities attract an entourage at the temple. Inset: Sampath, the tuk-tuk driver, with the author’s preferred mode of transport.

continued on page 36

Many owners who came to the clinic were keen to stay with their pets for as long as possible.

The author prepares to conduct his fi rst castration procedure.

Visitors wait in line to be seen. One woman (dressed in pink) brought her cat along in a carrier bag.

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36 Veterinary Times WELFARE SRI LANKA

completely exhausted, but satis-fi ed that 30 animals had been neutered and 35 had been vac-cinated against rabies.

Home visitsDuring the rest of my time in Sri Lanka, I made a number of house visits to neuter dogs owned by people unable to attend the clin-ics – I stuck to castrating male ani-mals, as under the circumstances I didn’t feel confi dent performing bitch spays on my own.

I taught Sam how to monitor the anaesthetic so I could get on with the operation, which she did bril l iantly. Sam was also great at restraining the aggressive dogs we encountered frequently, and her supply of muzzles was invaluable.

It was quite different to per-

form operations in people’s living rooms and back yards, although having owners watching while I neutered their pet wasn’t the most relaxing of experiences.

One of the more bizarre operating experiences was after we received a call about a cat that had been spayed at the clinic, and now had something hanging out of the wound.

On arriving at the house, it was apparent the wound had broken down and the omentum was protruding. I had not previ-ously corrected a surgical hernia, nor anaesthetised a cat using a xylazine and ketamine combina-tion – but there’s a fi rst time for everything. I later regretted per-forming the operation hunched over a child’s plastic table in the house’s front yard – it took my

back a day or two to recover. We returned a few days later

to check on the cat. The owners were unable to locate her when we arrived, but assured us she was now much better.

We also held a number of clinics at Buddhist temples in the surrounding area for people to bring their animals in for vaccines and any necessary treatment. We administered rabies vac-

cines to all animals that hadn’t received one in the past year, and we vaccinated as many dogs as we could against parvovirus, distemper, infectious hepatitis and leptospirosis.

Many of the dogs we saw also had bad cases of mange – some had almost no hair left, leaving intensely pruritic, leathery skin.

We were able to treat these cases cheaply and effectively, either with amitraz baths or with injections of ivermectin (although this would obviously be off-licence in the UK).

RewardingThe most labour-intense and rewarding case I dealt with dur-ing my time in Sri Lanka was a

dog we came across by accident. Driving back from the university to the MEF in a tuk-tuk, we stopped to take some pictures of an impressive Buddhist shrine by the side of the road.

The monk from the associ-ated temple came out to speak to us and, on learning I was a vet, asked me to look at Michael, the temple’s dog (and the temple orphanage’s resident pet). He had been suffering from a painful ear for a number of weeks.

Michael’s ear was too pain-ful to get a good look at, so I arranged to go back later that week when I would be able to anaesthetise him.

When I looked into his ear, I found it was full of maggots.

The author and his colleagues get to grips with the patients at one of the clinics, with many owners looking on.

House calls were a little different in Sri Lanka…

! BAPTISM OF FIRE LENDING HAND TO SRI LANKAN WELFARE EFFORT – from page 34

The spectacular view of the countryside from the temple grounds, where the neutering clinic was held.

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37March 1, 2010 WELFARE SRI LANKAI removed as many as I could and cleaned out the ear. We left instructions with the monk to keep Michael’s ear as clean as possible, and went back to check on him as often as we could.

We had to anaesthet ise Michael again the following week to remove more maggots, but after that his ear healed well, and it was good to hear he was continuing to enjoy life as the temple/orphanage pet.

This initial contact with the temple allowed a relationship to develop with Dogstar and MEF. We held a vaccination and treat-ment clinic at the temple, and were invited back to participate in a community celebration. MEF volunteers also agreed to repaint the inside of the orphan-age, and Mo, who volunteers as an administrator for Dogstar, has agreed to return to the orphan-age to teach English.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka was a great way to become immersed into the country ’s culture. This wasn’t always easy, as I found a lot of Sri Lankans had a more laidback attitude to life than I’m used to, so things didn’t always happen as effi ciently as I would have liked.

However, what struck me most was how grateful and generous people were, even when they clearly had very lit-tle. It wasn’t unusual for people to invite us into their homes, after we had seen their pet, for a varying combination of tea, coca drink, cake, fruit and even cream crackers. On a couple of occasions, I fi nished neutering someone’s dog to fi nd a curry had been made for me.

OpportunityVolunteering with Dogstar was an incredibly worthwhile expe-rience. If I had chosen to go with a more established charity I may have gained more surgi-cal experience, but as Dogstar is a relatively small organisation operating on very limited funds, I really felt I was able to make a difference, whatever I did.

This included simple proce-dures, such as teaching Sam how to monitor anaesthetics, draw-ing up an anaesthetic monitoring sheet for use at the neutering clinics, and helping formalise

PETER HISCOX gained an intercalated degree in animal behaviour and welfare from the University of Bristol in 2007 and qualifi ed as a vet from the University of Liverpool in July 2009. He now works in small animal practice at Vets4Pets in Harrogate.

the standard surgical protocol to help Dogstar ’s successful accreditation as a member of the World Society for the Pro-tection of Animals.

If you would like to fi nd out more about Dogstar, or make a donation, visit www.dogstarfoundation.com

! To download published Veter-inary Times articles, or to discuss the latest news in the profession, visit www.vetsonline.com "

Left: the author worms a puppy, assisted by his tuk-tuk driver and keenly observed by a young monk. Right: some of the Dogstar and university team with a monk from the temple.

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*J.C. Hodgson, J.-Brebner, I.J. McKendrick (The Veterinary Record – 145, 3, pp 67–71, July 1999)

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Ask your vet for advice on these products. Further information is available from:

Setting the baaa

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Although not a substitute for good management, the use of prophylactic antimicrobials to reduce lamb mortality from watery mouth is justifi ed.

VT40.08 master.indd 37 19/02/2010 11:01