All together for the weekend, 82 animals were spayed or neutered. That is
huge. When you multiply by the number of potential offspring, this will make
a significant difference in the 4 counties that were involved (Seminole,
Miller, Early and Decatur).
The medical staff arrived on Friday evening beginning at around 6 o'clock.
Watching them set up their mobile facility was amazing to say the least.
These folks know what they are doing. Out of the trailer came tables and
dozens of plastic containers of medical equipment, lights, floor mats,
pharmaceuticals, forms - you name it! Within an hour or so, they were all set
up and ready for the next day's surgeries.
Upon arrival, each animal was checked in, information taken, and consent forms
signed. Then, while the owners waited, a vet student performed a brief
physical on the animal to assess the fitness of the animal for surgery
including heartworm tests for dogs and feline leukemia/HIV tests for
cats. Rabies and other general shots and worming were done on each animal.
Then the owners were advised of the test results and in the case of heartworm
positive dogs, were advised of the increased risk, and then the owners were
told to return in four or five hours to pick up their animal. The animals
were placed in crates on one side of the gymnasium to await their turn.
There were three licensed vets in attendance: the lead vet, Dr. Rembo, from
Tennessee, and two female vets, Drs. Adams and Still, from Atlanta and
Alabama, respectively. All are in private practice. There were a bunch
of vet techs and students from as far away as Toronto, Colorado,
Massachusetts, Oklahoma, New York and who knows where else. They came from
Tufts, Cornell, UGA and other vet schools. Some faced as much as a 19
hour trip home. They were 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students, mostly female, but
approximately six guys in the group. All brought sleeping bags and slept in
the locker rooms adjacent to the gym.
Five surgical tables were set up on one end of the gym, with an anesthesia
table in front of them. Off to one side was the sterilization center and the
pharmacy. Off to the other side was the recovery area where animals were
taken after surgery and monitored one-on-one with a student until the
anesthesia had worn off and the animals were ambulatory. Then they were
returned to their crates until fully recovered and they could go home.
They were happy to let us observe the surgeries and several of us did. Beth
is almost qualified to do neuters!!!! Needs a little more training on the
spays!!!!
This is such good experience and training for the student vets. April Womack
Chambers, a 3rd year student at UG, who is from Bainbridge (Herschel Chambers
wife) was there doing her 12th clinic. Alan Ralph, Susan Ralph's son, who is
a 2nd year student at UG was unable to attend this clinic, but has done others
according to his classmates.
When the owners picked up their pets, they were given a record of the
procedures and shots that had been administered, a rabies certificate, a
post-operative care sheet and, in many cases, a supply of heartworm
preventative, flea treatment or other medication that the animal might have
needed such as eye drops, etc. While there the animals also had nails
trimmed, ears cleaned, etc. A display of education materials was also handy
with brochures free to those who wanted them.
This program has been operating since 1997 and while they used to do a clinic
every other weekend, they now do about 14 per year. It operates throughout
the US, but primarily in the Appalachian area. All participants are
volunteers. The program offers these free services to anyone who does not
have access to veterinary care for their pets or whose income places them
within the poverty guidelines and who cannot afford the procedures. All of
our participants fell within the latter category, most of them having incomes
below $1,000 per month. Quite a lot of them were seniors, including a lovely
lady of 92 whose two cats were neutered. (She had a surprise since she
thought one of them was a girl!) All of the participants treated the animals
and owners with compassion, competence and caring and performed their duties
very efficiently. We were impressed!
We hope that we can have RAVS return to southwest Georgia in the future,
ideally here in Bainbridge if we can convince them, because of the impact this
will have in our community. These vets and students are wonderful.
