Last day of clinics

Peru Wednesday August 10, 2011
Last day of clinics. Only one tent had blown down overnight, it was put back up quickly, equipment was redistributed, and the work began! The other veterinarians and I did a fair bit of teaching this morning, then just got down to business in the afternoon.
Carmen assisted a lot, then I had her help with a cat spay. She did very well. Francisco did part of a dog spay. It was his first time to do any surgery and he did pretty well! He was very excited to get to actually do part of a surgery. Several other local vets came to visit during the day, also.
The wind really picked up again in the afternoon. Makes for rather miserable conditions to do surgery. It also cools off quite a bit so the animals get cold. Luckily the recovery area was indoors and it was very snug and warm for the critters to wake up. We did over 60 animals today.
Rhonda and I were getting pretty punchy and started singing and dancing. Michelle was ready to deck us as she was trying to place a catheter. We had to leave the area… and sing elsewhere!!
There was a Peruvian Hairless dog at the clinic. This is Michelle’s favorite breed. I told her she could not bring one home (so she found a t-shirt with one on it!). That is A-OK!!
There was a municipality party after we finished clinics. Michelle had to go get checked out by a local physician and I went with her, so we missed the get together. But we had an interesting time at the doctor’s office! We were able to get all the vaccines needed to finish her rabies series. The entire series (five injections) needs to be of the same type of vaccine, and we could not be sure that the same type would be available in the States. So it was great that the doctor was able to get the vaccines for us to take home. He also put together a cold pack for carrying the vaccines and supplies. Cost way more than we were led to believe, but a ton less than it would have cost to have everything done in the States. Hopefully we won’t have any problems getting the supplies back into the country! When we get home, Michelle gets to send paperwork to the travel insurance company and get appts with her MD to finish the rabies series.
We figured we missed dinner with the rest of the group, so we went to a roasted chicken place and had a great meal! We started with a yummy salad bar (very different than ours), then a HUGE ¼ chicken and fries. We were stuffed! And it was only 12S/ (most of our meals were 35-50S/!!)
Percy, one of the bell boys, has been very helpful and friendly. He loves Woofie and said Woofie needs a “chullo” (one of the colorful knitted hats). What a great idea! Woofie has different collars from countries he has been to, and the chullo is the perfect Peru addition. Percy said he would get one for Woofie! Too exciting!
We stayed up late getting packed to head to Machu Picchu!! We could only take a backpack with a maximum weight of 11#!!! So we all just planned to wear the same clothes for the couple of days. Oh well, we are all in the same boat! We were total ding-a-lings trying to get packed… we were buzzing all over the place! Finally went to bed after midnight, and had set up a wakeup call for 4:30 am….