DAY 8, Monday July 16, 2007

Today we did several surgeries, including a stray male dog which has been given the name “First”, an owned dog named “Seven” (who had been fed a large amount of fish for breakfast and as we predicted, vomited it all up once we had given him his sedative. As a result the clinic smelled quite foul for awhile. We also spayed a small female named “Darcy” this morning. “First” was quite challenging to catch, but we managed to lure him to us with food and much patience. He is slightly lame and has bite wounds under his front left elbow. We also saw “Buddy” again, a dog we neutered last week who has come back in with a laceration on his paw which we shaved and cleaned thoroughly. A lady arrived in the afternoon with a beagle-cross named “Bob”, about three months of age, who had a nail torn off on one of his front paws. We vaccinated and dewormed Bob, as well as gave him Metacam for pain and an antibiotic injection. Bob is coming back tomorrow for his neuter.
We were told today that we would be on local radio tonight at 9 pm. After dinner, Brigitte, Uschi and Donna made their way over to the radio station building. The Hamlet Office had arranged for an Interpreter to meet them there to do the translating from English into Inuktitut. After speaking briefly about several topics such as the importance of vaccinating, deworming and spaying and neutering, we mentioned that people could phone in with any questions they might have. The phones rang nearly non-stop for the next thirty minutes or so. One elderly woman phone in and expressed her concern that the elderly people were not being given enough or proper medical treatment in this community, so why should the dogs be? Another gentleman asked if we were experimenting with our vaccines on the dogs of Igloolik and using them as “guinea pigs, or if they have been tested on other dogs in the “south” before. There were a few calls about their dog’s health issues and also about safety around dogs. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear the concerns some of the people in Igloolik have and gave us the opportunity to address these concerns.
As Brigitte, Uschi and Donna were walking to the radio station, a young couple stopped them and asked if they were with the veterinary team. They told us that they were here for a week running a science camp for the children and asked if we would like to come and speak to the children tomorrow. We immediately agreed on times and said we would be there.
We all took a walk and sat and ate popcorn for an hour or so and then called it a night. Hard to believe it’s night though, while the sun is still so high in the sky.