Our team recently returned to the islands of Guimaras and Iloilo to perform an outreach spay and neuter clinic.
You may recall we visited last year also, which was the first time returning since the Covid 19 pandemic.
It was wonderful to be back – even the dog at the B&B where the team stayed in Guimaras seemed pleased to see them again!
Guimaras Outreach Clinic
The first day of surgery was in Guimaras and held in an indoor gym – like a large basketball court. There was no air conditioning and the operating tables were trestle tables propped up by play mats to make them higher for our team to perform surgery without stooping their backs too much.
During this clinic, despite the heat, the team performed 54 operations, mostly spays. It is recommended by Dogs Trust International to prioritise spays during outreach clinics. This is because if there are no bitches in the area to impregnate, it doesn’t matter so much if there are unneutered dogs. In an ideal world, all roaming animals should be spayed or neutered, but time resources don’t always allow for that. Ensuring no females can reproduce will significantly help to control the dog population in a focused area.
Iloilo Outreach Clinic
At the end of the clinic, the team moved onto Iloilo. Here they had the benefit of air conditioning in the building which was used as a pop up veterinary clinic. At the end of a second long day, 82 cats and dogs were spayed and 2 were neutered.
The gratitude of the pet owners at these events is always very humbling and the hospitality from the municipal offices who host them is much appreciated by our hardworking team. Most of our team are volunteers and / or students and trainees. However, even our salaried staff go above and beyond their duties.
Please share with us in thanking them all:
- Suzanne
- Doc Roland
- Doc Arris
- Doc Marc
- Doc Alfred
- Kennelmate Mark
- Hearty
- Nelson
- Christian
- Odi
The cost of organising an outreach clinic such as this (which includes flights, transport, accommodation, expenses, let alone all the medical equipment) is over £3,500.
This might seem like a lot but based on the numbers of pets we treated, it works out at just over £25 per pet. We are sure you would agree that this is great value, especially how important this work is. Remote islands such as Guimaras and Iloilo have even less access to free and low cost vet care than our base in Concepcion. Therefore we need to serve these areas to help control the dog population and prevent the inclination to seek barbaric forms of malpractice procedures such as banding as an alternative to clinical castration.
You can make a donation to our outreach clinics here.
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