Day 3 Lax Kw’alaams
Day three was a quieter but steady pace in our field clinic. Throughout the day we had lots of visitors swing in to say hi and check out what we were up to. We even had some really delicious treats dropped off to us by a volunteer. We will never refuse a sweet treat!
Our day saw many cats for spays and neuters, as well as some tiny wee kittens who were too tiny to castrate. Those little guys went home vaccinated and with a prescription for eye medication. Unfortunately two out of the litter of four had really crusty eyes that needed some care. It sounds like they’ll be able to spend some time indoors until those eyes heal up, or maybe even until they are re-homed from the outdoors. It’s a tough life for a kitten, there are outdoor dogs, big tough tom cats, and of course wildlife looming around every corner. For the little ones, a home can make all the difference to their life. We did see a number of adult feral cats which were castrated and released back into their colony. Spaying, neutering, and vaccinations are key components involved in caring for feral cat colonies. With those aspects in place, they can in fact live a decent life outdoors within their communities.
Eye Infection – we can assist with that
Day three was our last day of course. We worked throughout the day and planned to travel into the evening to get back home. Our day ended with 94 patients spayed and neutered over 3 days, and 108 patients seen all together. We were able to provide vaccines to dogs and cats, health exams, and surgery as needed. We even had the opportunity to assist with a bald eagle who was down in the village. You never really know what can arise on a CAAT trip.
Later in the day we had to start packing up our clinic to make our way back to Prince Rupert and south to Vancouver, west to the Island, east inland, and far east to Ontario. We all travel from different places across Canada with the same goals in mind – providing animal care for communities who would otherwise not have access. Looking back on the clinic success isn’t judged solely by the number of patients we’ve seen in a community. We consider whether or not we offered the community what they asked of us, and whether the community felt it beneficial to have us there. We won’t know all of those answers quite yet, but we can emphasize the fact that we all felt very welcomed and appreciated in this community. Lax Kw’alaams was a community that not only supported us being there, but dedicated their community members to take part in the action and lend a helping hand to us. It was something pretty special.
