Friday, May 12, 2017

And so it began.

Each of our mornings began with a short walk up the Prado to meet our 
'57 Ford Fairlane
We had a great driver.
A sure ride in the morning.
At the end of our day a phone call would have him waiting for us at our designated time.
If you are looking for a reliable driver drop me a line.
How about this for a walk from the street to our "clinic"?
The first morning of our campañas is always a thrill.
To think of our humble beginnings is 2003 and how far we have come.
While giving my greetings to the team on our first morning I came
up with a Rock 'n Roll analogy.
"In 2003 the Spanky Project started as a garage band ... now we are playing arenas".
Yes in our early days we did hold our spay/neuter clinics on kitchen tables and in garages.
Now, thanks to the Oficina del Historiador we have a permanent home for our campañas.
The beautiful Quinta de los Molinos is our "clinic"
We had the great honour of having three veterinary professors  from the 
 Universidad Autónoma de México join us for our World Spay Day 2017 week.
Thanks to the Consejo Cientifico Veterinario de Cuba we we introduce to...
 Dra.Leslie Santiago Sánchez, Dra.Norma  Solis Alanis and Dr Eduardo Tellez Reyes-Retana 
We are so please to share with you this news!
Dra.Leslie will join us again in 2018
A big thank you goes out husband and wife team Drs. Nana & Leyssan.
They, in addition to their respective jobs, work tirelessly to coordinate our campañas.
On our opening day our first patient was a French Bulldog whose caregiver is 
a Canadian working in Cuba.
Dr.Travers did the clinical exam and followed up with the surgery.
Each campaña finds us with a special case or two.
Stella was a special case. The short nosed shape of the French bulldog was a cause for concern to Cuban Vets when considering Stella for sterilization. Her caregiver was waiting for the clinic she attended to get gas for their anaesthesia machine. He consulted with us. We said we would insert and airway and do the surgery with our injectable anaesthetic protocol.

Stella came procedure went without issue and went straight into recovery...
... where each patient is given the upmost of care and attention.
Note the hot water bottles on Stella to bring up her body temperature.
Anaesthesia decreases the bodies ability to regulate it's temperature.
Sometimes a little warming is needed.
 After recover it is time for discharge. 
Dr.Travers gives post op/recovery instructions to Stella's people.
 A big thank you to Bryant, Stella's caregiver.
He left us a very nice donation which covered the entire team's lunches for the entire campaña.
Join Bryant in supporting our work in Cuba.
"Help Cubans Help Their Animals"
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