The trip was being attended by some core members, Sharon, Suzy and myself, by some more recent repeat visitors, the two Toni\u2019s and by some newbies, Jill, Sophia, Lizzy, Amy and Fay.<\/p>\n
So via different planes and preceding journeys we all managed to arrive on the same day into Durban S.A.\u00a0 With our possessions scattered between suitcases along with swabs, syringes and scalpel blades!<\/p>\n
Without waiting, we were greeted by Caron, who loaded us into 2 vehicles and took us to a hotel.\u00a0 We were staying the night there before setting off in the morning for the 5hr drive to cross the border at Kozi Bay into Mozambique.\u00a0 After a nice meal in a little restaurant, we all collapsed into bed with our new sleeping partners\u2026 hoping we wouldn\u2019t move around too much, snore or steal the sheets!<\/p>\n
The next morning Benny and Stone arrived in a minibus\/people carrier, loaded our suitcases and off we set.\u00a0 Stone was simply hysterical and we missed joking with him on our return journey.<\/p>\n
Customs went smoothly, when the customs officers asked Toni to open her suitcase, we all silently gasped, wondering what he would find.\u00a0 In fact she just had sterile gloves and when asked \u2018What is this?\u2019 She calmly replied \u2018 I have sensitive skin and can\u2019t go in the sun without gloves on\u2019.\u00a0 So despite it being a totally ridiculous reply, because said with such confidence, no further questions were asked.<\/p>\n
Kozi Bay Border involved a change of transport, where we said \u2018Bye\u2019 to Benny and Stone and where Shannon and Sara arrived.\u00a0 Sara Grosso is a Portuguese vet, who works in Mozambique and has been working from time to time for Protect Ponta.\u00a0 She had put in a lot of work, preceding our visit and spent the 2 weeks with us, helping, vetting and communicating.\u00a0 So a big thanks to Sara.\u00a0 The biggest difference about leaving SA and entering Mozambique are the roads.\u00a0 In Southern Mozambique, or at least where we were, there are no roads, simply sand tracks.\u00a0 4 wheeled vehicles are necessary.\u00a0 After another hours drive on the, not flat and definitely pot holed sandy tracks we arrived in Ponta do Ouro.<\/p>\n Here we were greeted by our hosts for the week Lois and Rob.\u00a0 They were simply fantastic sharing their house and being responsible for food and beverages for the week.\u00a0 Thanks to Rob, we now know what R & R\u2019s are!!<\/p>\n Once the suitcases were unloaded and Suzy was allowed \u2018to sort\u2019, the rest of us went for a walk and swim in the sea.<\/p>\n Wow, the sea was warm and the scenery spectacular.\u00a0 However, the weather on our first week was somewhat UK as it rained a lot despite not being cold.<\/p>\n Day 1.<\/strong>\u00a0 Monday and the start of our working week.\u00a0 Sara and the Protect Ponta team were anxious, would anybody turn up? \u00a0 Would people bring their animals? \u00a0 After all it was a new concept.\u00a0 Bring your animals, get them operated on, get them vaccinated, de-flea\u2019d and wormed and take them away again.\u00a0 For us it was important that we didn\u2019t make any mistakes.\u00a0 First impressions count and word travels quickly in small communities.\u00a0 We are also on show, everything is visible.\u00a0 Despite all the first day stresses, nurses sorting out their roles, vets sorting out their instruments, we also had the students.\u00a0 Not only our 2 UK final year Bristol vet school students but also 4 final year vet students from Veterinary Faculty, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique.\u00a0 Prof Vidane was accompanying Mercia, Bil\u00e9rio, Orlando and Jo\u00e3o Pedro.\u00a0 So from the first day our roles as simple vets had changed, it was no longer a simple number crunching exercise but a teaching role.\u00a0 Our objectives were not simply to sterilise as many animals as possible but to be able to help, assist and demonstrate skills that we had learnt to a new generation of vets.<\/p>\n As vets, we all giggled together at the end of the first couple of days, the stresses are different.\u00a0 How can you visually tell whether a knot tied is as tight as a knot you yourself would have tied? Also a few of us, had left Uni a very long time ago,\u00a0 so the technical terms needed to describe \u2018Yes pull THAT bit\u2019 were lacking!<\/p>\n However, the bonds were forming within the team and everybody adapted to the situation.\u00a0 The nurses and trainees played their major role brilliantly.\u00a0 They had to be flexible as the students were slower and therefore the animals needed anaesthetic top ups and required more observation while waking up.<\/p>\n The wonderful thing about these Spay Sisters trips is the exchange between vets.\u00a0 We are all carrying out the same procedure, but despite years of experience, you always finish your sejour with another practical tip to facilitate the job.\u00a0 The Jill Mullen suture ( Modified Miller) definitely won the Moz17 prize – thanks Jill.<\/p>\n We had also been given the challenge of castrating a 3 year old donkey.\u00a0 Protect Ponta had managed to borrow some emasculators and get some domosedan (the sedative for equidae).\u00a0 Which despite some reasonable anxieties, a lot of donkeys have haemophilia, the operation carried out by Toni (sensitive hands) and myself went very smoothly.<\/p>\n By the end of our 4th day in Ponta da Oura, the vets had acclimatised to their instructing role.\u00a0 Jill managed to oversee 3 dog castrates at once! Sofia and Mercia, were chatting away, whilst operating on their table. The students were excelling at their hands on experience.\u00a0 While some nurses were helping catch anything that didn\u2019t want to be caught, the others kept the production line moving.\u00a0 There was only one bitch spay with puppies who needed a restitch and that didn\u2019t involve the muscle layer and one castrate dog that we gave a bit of fluid to as he returned, having been taken home as he was still a bit flat.\u00a0 133 animals had been sterilised.<\/p>\n We were pleased with the following day being a day off, when we were yet again spoilt by Protect Ponta and those who wanted to go diving could.\u00a0 We then had to say \u2018fond farewells\u2019 to our super hosts Lois and Rob before setting off for our second accommodation, Shannon\u2019s house.\u00a0 What a\u00a0spectacular location, her house facing the beach is in Condominio Mar Azul, in Ponta Malongane.<\/p>\n Our next 6 working days<\/strong> were divided into 2 days at Zitundo,<\/strong> 2 days in Ponta Malongane<\/strong> and 2 days in Mamoli<\/strong>.\u00a0 In Zitundo, we were based in the village hall, which had been cleaned up for our arrival and the Mozambique flag was flying.\u00a0 To make these trips successful there is so much behind the scenes work and we were so grateful to Vanessa and the Protect Ponta group for sorting out everything, from our breakfast to the transport to these places and everything that entails.<\/p>\n In Zitundo, one of the Mozambique vets encountered his first experience of the bleeding bitch spay.\u00a0 Which resulted in an action packed response by the team as the head torch was found, the drip was put on and the incision extended. \u00a0 In general, from a veterinary point of view, the dogs do bleed more than in Europe.\u00a0 The reasons are multiple, they can be at any time of their cycle and a lot have Babesiosis and Difilariosis.\u00a0 The nurses found and removed a lot of ticks.<\/p>\n Thanks to Daniel\u2019s input, he works for the W.H.O and was not only a good cat catcher (Neil was our first week cat catcher and despite being a beginner, deserves applause\u2026 it is not an easy job)\u00a0 but also managed to provide us with rabies vaccines for not only the 293 animals that we operated on but also the 52 animals that came along simply for vaccinating.<\/p>\n At the end of our second day in Zitundo, by which time we had noticed the local ladies\u2026 Whilst we were working in the village hall they were cutting down all the overgrown bushes and greenery around the village hall, so thanks to Vanessa, we all had a little ceremony, leading to us all dancing and singing together.<\/p>\n Another 2 productive days in Ponta Malongane, thanks to the help of Christopher, who was instrumental in helping communicate with the villagers and explaining the benefits of getting their dogs operated on.<\/p>\n It is difficult when you come across dogs which are ill, one bitch had TVT (transmissible venerial tumours) and so despite finding metastatic tumour spread within her omentum, we proceeded with the operation.\u00a0 Giving her back to her owner, we tried to explain that she was ill and wouldn\u2019t live for very long.\u00a0 But whether this information was understood is debatable.\u00a0 Our aim is obviously not to leave the owner, with the idea that the operation was the cause of her later dying. So we organised for him to get a new dog after our departure.\u00a0 He seemed happy with the solution.<\/p>\n Our final operating site was inside a too dark hall or under the trees outside, in the blazing sun.<\/p>\n Leading to the girls finally catching a bit of sun between animals as there were fewer attendees due to the Chief having not really taken much interest in the project. It also lead to the students, really getting stuck in and making sure all their surgical techniques were working and that they would be returning to their normal lives having acquired new skills.<\/p>\n Working day 1 to 4 were carried out in Ponta do Ouro<\/p>\n Working day 5 to 6 were carried out in Zitundo<\/p>\n Working day 7 to 8 were carried out in Ponta Malongane<\/p>\n Working day 9 to 10 were carried out in Ponta Mamoli<\/p>\n The last 2 days had less owners and animals arriving due to the fact the chief of the area had had less involvement with the project.<\/p>\n For this project, there are obviously a lot of necessary medicines and equipment from viscous eye gel and caustic pencils to tape.\u00a0 However the vital 5, which we used on this trip were:<\/p>\n 15 x 10ml bottles of Sededorm<\/p>\n 25 x 10ml bottles of Ketamine<\/p>\n 1\u00a0 x 50ml of Dolorex<\/p>\n 1 x 10ml of Dolorex<\/p>\n 2 x 100ml of Meloxicam<\/p>\n 2 x 250ml of Shotapen<\/p>\n A successful Spay Sisters trip is not simply due to us but also to the people in the back ground that play their part.\u00a0 So our thanks to \u2026.<\/p>\n David at Elm House Veterinary Centre<\/a> for allowing us to buy through his surgery.<\/p>\n Monica and Koen at Cabinet V\u00e9t\u00e9rinaire de St Pons for allowing purchases through the surgery<\/p>\n Lawson Cairns for allowing us purchases through his surgery<\/p>\n Daniel\u00a0of WHO for rabies vaccines<\/p>\n Protect Ponta<\/a> for not only the super accommodation and food, but also allowing us to dive and swim with the dolphins.<\/p>\n Alan <\/a>and Greg<\/a> the two photographers, who provided us with some wonderful visual recording of proceedings.<\/p>\n and to everybody else who played their part in making it happen!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SPAY SISTERS MOZAMBIQUE 2017 SPAY SISTERS were setting off again!! This time in conjunction with the offer from Protect Ponta and a helping hand from Dr. Lawson Cairns to Southern Mozambique. The trip was being attended by some core… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166,"parent":6,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-144","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions\/213"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.spaysisters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/customs-benny-and-stone-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTotal animals neutered 293.\u00a0 Total animals vaccinated 345<\/strong><\/h5>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n