The Traveling Vet Girl

In my third year of vet school, I went to a seminar during lunch. There was free food, and if you know any student, especially a vet student, then you know free food cannot be passed up. Anyway, it was a group of students giving a PowerPoint presentation on their volunteer experiences with World Vets. I was immediately intrigued. Hot off my veterinary trip to South Africa, I was just itching to travel somewhere new on my next semester break. Insert World Vets. What could be better than gaining surgical experience in an exotic location while helping local animals? I thought, “Sign me up!”

World Vets is an organization that sets up clinics worldwide to provide free veterinary care to those in need. They even have disaster relief teams to assist animals in natural disasters! Per their website, their programs “help not only animals, but also people and the communities in which they live.”

Their projects are perfect for both veterinarians and students alike.  You can even assist if you have little veterinary background.  Most projects are around 1 week long and can easily be completed during a semester break or vacation. Their clinic in Nicaragua is a training center for students to learn spay/neuter technique, and is routinely offered throughout the year. However, they also have various field service projects in different locations in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Asia.

I chose a field service trip to Cusco, Peru not only because it fit perfectly into my 2-week semester break, but also because it gave me the perfect opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, somewhere I had been dreaming of visiting for years. Most trips not only give you the opportunity to physically help animals and their owners in a specific region, but they give you an opportunity to experience the culture as well.

The conditions in most of these regions are not ideal for surgery. Our group set up shop next door to a school, in a room with only 3 walls and minimal electricity. The number of surgeries was limited by daylight, but we performed dozens of spays and neuters per day.

There were a few stations in our makeshift clinic. The entrance tent was the intake station, where locals lined up with their pets and gave us their information.

Station 2, surgery prep, was where I mostly worked as a vet student. I placed dozens of IV catheters and gave the dogs and cats their anesthetic medication under the direction of a doctor.

The next station was of course surgery. Our team had around 4-5 doctors performing surgery at a time. They wore headlamps for better lighting and worked quickly to keep their fingers warm in the unusually cold late August weather (because, you guessed it, there was no heating in the 3-walled building).

The last station was recovery. A tent was erected with blankets and sleeping bags spread throughout. The one heater we were given was placed in here to keep the animals warm as they awoke from surgery. It’s a testament to all veterinarians and animal lovers out there that this one luxury we had, a heater, was selflessly used for one purpose – the dogs and cats we were caring for.

We had 3 jam-packed days of surgery during our time in Cusco. We even had help from some local Peruvian vets, who were a pleasure to work with. Our group had one day off during the week, and we were able to drive around the area and do some sightseeing. I was also able to extend my trip a few days and visit Machu Picchu. But by far my favorite part of the trip was being able to help so many animals and educate owners on the importance of spaying and neutering their pets. I honestly can’t wait to go on another trip with World Vets, this time as a veterinarian!