Weeks 2, 3, and 4 : Surgery, Large Animal, and finishing

My second week at TOLFA, I was on the surgery rotation.  Most of the surgeries done are spays and castrations of street dogs, but there are a few other operations that are done as well. I saw mostly spays, but there was one limb amputation.  Since they don't have an X-ray or the resources to put in things like plates and screws to fix a severe fracture, the limb is just removed.  The dogs do just fine on 3 legs and don't seem to mind. 

The surgery suite is a room cooled only by a fan.  Since it needs to be as clean as possible, there is only the one door to go in an out and the window does not open.  Needless to say, it gets stiflingly hot in there, especially when the electricity goes out and the fan stops working. Sweat drips off of you and you start to wonder how sterile your procedure really is.  The latex gloves don't help, either.  My habds always look like I've been in the bath for too long after I take them off. It really makes you appreeciate our air-conditioned surgery rooms.  They are trying to get an air-conditioner, but they aren't cheap and neither is the electricity to run them. 

VET Reference:  They use TIVA since they don't have a gas anesthesia machine.  The only problem is that they don't have a CRI pump so you have to just go off physical signs and give a little more every time it looks like the animal is waking up, which means that sometimes they get a little light. They also do all flank spays, even on large dogs, which is sometimes very hard.  The viualization is basically nill with a flank spay, although it means that you can check the incision easily after surgery, which is good for the more aggressive dogs. We use the same drape, gloves, and pack for every surrgery because they simply don't have the resources to buy more. They also have a really old fashioned autoclave, though it gets the job done. END Vet Reference.

I got to do 3 spays and a castration while I was there, although most of what I learned how to do won't come in that handy for our surgery class at home since the technique is very different.  However, it was good to learn another way of doing things.  Overall I really liked my time on surgery.

My third week, I was placed on large animal treatments. It's amazing what they try to fix in cows.  At home, most of the things that we see at TOLFA would just be euthanized imediately because it wouldn't be worth the cost to fix it.  However, here they go so far as to amputate limbs from cows.  Apparently it buys them about anoher 8 months of life.  They also put casts on the cows, which isn't done at home, especially with some of the really serious fractures that we see here. 

One of the problems that I had on large animal was that animals that should have been euthanized were left alive for too long.  The problem is really that killing a cow just isn't done here, even if it would be better for the cow and it's going to die anyway.  If they do decide to euthanize a cow, they have to do it at night and most of the staff doesn't know that it happened. The men that work with the cows really seem to care about them, but just can't make the decision to put them down because it's so ingrained that it's wrong. 

The state of the cows in the streets here (yes there are really cows everywhere) is really pretty apalling.  No one really wants the responsibility of taking care of them, so they end up just wandering the streets and eating trash.  The problem comes when they eat plastic along with the trash and end up with literally kilos of plastic in their rumens.  Most of them are pretty sedate, but there are a few that are definitely not and will try to get you with their horns as you walk by. I was talking to a shop-keeper and he was complaining that children sometimes get hurt by the cows, but no one will do anything about it. At the same time, you have to ask yourself what they could possibly do.  If there isn't money to feed and house the cows, then there isn't any money.  He was saying that he wanted the government to do something about it, but there are so many cows it would take a fortune to round them all up and put them someplace.

For my last week, I was back on dog treatments and did some more surgery as well.  It was much harder to leave than I was anticipating and I can see how someone could come for one month and decide to stay for longer.  The people working at TOLFA are wonderful, friendly, and very helpful.  They are also incedibly funny once they sort of come out of their shells.  I will miss both the human and the animal friends that I made. 

Dad arrives tomorrow and then we start traveling around Rajasthan for 2 weeks.  Hopefully the rains will start so it colls off a bit.

Dogs, cats, cows, and goats

Before I begin, I think it is only fair to warn you that this post will contain some veterinary references that might make it rather boring in some parts.  Feel free to skip those as they will be clearly marked.

My day begins at 7:30am when I wake up, shower, get dressed, and meet the other two volunteers for breakfast.  There is a little restaurant right next to our hotel that serves a pretty decent breakfast, so we tend to trudge over there because it saves time in the morning.  After a breakfast of chai and something involving a banana (banana porridge, pancake, or toast with banana) we meet the volunteer coordinator, Radhe and one other person who drive us to TOLFA on the back of their motorbikes.  Weaving through the bazaar is sometimes more than a little nervewracking, but once we get out of town the bike is a great way to enjoy the scenery.  The hills all around are absolutely beautiful even though everything is a bit barren right now.  That should all change in about a week when the rains arrive and cool things off (hopefully). There is hardly anyone else around and we tend to see more goats than people on the road to the clinic.  

Once we arrive there is about a half hour of walking the dogs, then a chai break, and then down to the business of the day. My first week, I was assigned to dog treatments, which involves things like giving antibiotics, cleaning wounds, taking temperatures and generally just making sure that everyone is doing well. 

VET REFERENCE:  One really interesting thing here is that they have a lot of TVT.  I've seen at least 6 in the time that I have been here.  It is really amazing how locally invasive they are and yet how well they respond to treatment.  It was funny to see so many since it was something that was just kind of brushed over in class as something that we would probably never see.  The other thing is that Dr. Holt would be less than pleased with the clinic's use of "debride and lavage" although most things seem to heal rather well.  I'm constantly thinking that we need to be cutting back tissue that looks dead, but an almost always told that it's not necessary. Also, nearly everything heals by second intention but is left open while healing because they don't have the bandage equipment necessary to make a proper bandage.  The only things that we have are cotton and gauze. END VET REFERENCE

When I was told that working at TOLFA would not be like working at home, I greatly underestimated the lack of resources that they have. I assumed that there would be no imaging, but I had no idea that there wouldn't even be a microscope.  It makes it very difficult to diagnose even the most simplest of diseases like ear mites or mange, so every time they treat an animal they have to treat every potential thing that could be causing the disease. A woman is coming in a few months to help them set up a kind of field laboratory, which will be immensely helpful.

One thing that I noticed while doing dog treatments was that most of the men who work at TOLFA were absolutely petrified of the few cats that we have.  It turns out that most people in India don't keep cats as pets, so they aren't really taught anything about them in vet school and they rarely have to handle them.  Luckily I was able to prove to the guys that the cats at TOLFA are actually very nice, so they are receiving treatments a little more gently. The other problem is that cat food is very expensive, so there isn't a whole lot of it. This means that the cats are fed other things that really aren't normally part of a cat diet. Most of them are slightly anemic because of it.  We have been trying to get them some meat, but so far have met with no success. 

My hour is up, so I will have to continue some other time. 

Diving in head first

This is the first time that I am able to update because every other time that I have tried, the electricity has gone out.  Just as a warning, this would be a very long post if I wrote about everything that has happened so far, so this is going to just be about my arrival and later posts will have different topics.

Arrival

As I was boarding the plane in NJ I noticed two other people from my class getting on the plane as well.  They were heading to Nepal, but were flying through Delhi.  They weren't allowed to leave the airport because they didn't have an Indian visa, so we planned to all spend the night in the airport together.  However, when it came time for me to board the plane it turned out that all of the overhead space was taken, so I had to check my bag.  Baggage claim was through the passport check in the international airport and I couldn't get back in because my ticket for the next morning was for a domestic flight. I ended up grabbing a prepaid taxi to a hotel that was mentioned online as a good place to stay called the Delhi Airport Inn Hotel.  The room was small, but clean. I didn't see much of Delhi because I went straight to the hotel and then left early the next morning.


My flight arrived in Jaipur at about 8am and I took a taxi fro the airport to the train station. Up until this point I had been in places where there were a lot of foreigners, but I drew quite a few looks as I entered the train station as a single white woman traveling alone with a massive backpack.

I went to sit outside on the platform to wait for my train. As I had quite awhile to wait I decided to get out my cards and play some solitaire. Apparently that is quite a novelty as I soon attracted a crowd of about 10 people all wanting to learn how to play. Most of them were very interested to know where I was from and what I was doing in India.

The train arrived (only 10 minutes late) and I boarded with a few other people.  The train, at least the car I was on, was fairly empty, but there was a very nice family with a few kids who were learning English, so I helped them with their English and they helped me with my Hindi.

I got off the train at Ajmer station, which was incredible crowded and where I got my first real taste of the poverty here.  There were people sleeping on the platform who looked like they hadn't eaten in weeks. As you exti the train station,. you cross a bridge and go down some steps. At the bottom of the steps were about 30 autorickshaw wallahs who all start yelling various destinations and prices.  I finally negotiated a price to the bus station with one of them and we took off.  On my ride I was able to figure out the traffic law in India, which seems to be...We drive on the left, sometimes, and if we aren't going to we honk.  Another person told me that there are 3 things that you need to drive in India: good brakes, a good horn, and good luck.  That does really seem to be the case. 

I was dropped off at the bus station and everything there was in Devanagari (the Indian script), which thank god I took the time to learn before coming here. It meant that I was able to locate the sign for the counter for tickets for the bus to Pushkar, which was my final destination. Unfortunately, the bus leaving right then was full, so I was going to have to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.  That wouldn't have been such a problem, but it was really hot and there was nowhere to sit.  About 5 minutes later someone shouted something about Pushkar, but it was all in Hindi, so all I could understand was the place name.  I must have looked very confused because a man came up to me and told me that the bus that had just pulled in was going to Pushkar and that I could buy my ticket on board for Rs 10 (about 20 cents). I got on and sat down, which was a relief, and then we set off about 5 minutes later.

The way to Pushkar is through the hills up and then back down a very winding road, which I was amazed the bus could navigate. When we reached Pushkar it turned out that the bus that I had gotten on went to the wrong bus stand.  There are two in town. One is in the north of town and the other is in the east, which is closer to the hotel where I am staying. Luckily the town isn't very big, so I was just planning to walk to my hotel.  However, the man who had been sitting next to me on the bus told me to wait and he would arrange a ride to the hotel.  Little did I know that that would mean that he would come back with a motor bike 2 minutes later and have me ride side-saddle on the back. I accepted the offer since it was a very hot day (easily over 100 degrees).  There isn't a lot of traffic on the roads that go around the edges of Pushkar, so there was little chance of an accident and he was an excellent driver. When he dropped me off I offered to pay him, but he wouldn't accept anything.  I have never been so happy to get to a hotel in my life.  I was absolutely exhausted.

Next time...the clinic.

Ready to go

I spent yesterday afternoon and last night finishing up things that had gotten pushed to the back burner by finals. Mostly cleaning and making copies of documents and things like that.

I managed to fit everything that I'm taking into my pack (it's a hiking pack, so larger than a normal school bag), though the dog collars and leashes did pose somewhat of a problem.  Donna, the woman in charge of donations, sent 7 leashes, 12 collars, and a harness. All of that takes up a lot of space and weight, but I'm sure will be greatly appreciated. I just hope that they let me carry my pack on. I've seen people carry on rolling bags that were much larger than what I have, but you never know. 

It still hasn't completely sunk in yet that I am actually getting on a plane in 5 hours and traveling to a country that is so different from the one that I am most familiar with.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Success!

I finally got the itinerary all planned out.  I ended up having to leave out Bundi and Mt Abu. However, I was able to add in Ranakpur, which has beautiful Jain temples, and Fatehpur Sikri, which is close to Agra. So now our itinerary looks like this:

Ajmer ->Pushkar -> Chittaurgarh -> Udaipur ->Ranakpur -> Jodhpur ->Jaisalmer ->Delhi -> Agra -> Fatehpur Sikri ->Jaipur

All in 14 days.  Quite a feat of planning if I do say so myself.  There is still a possibility that we won't get to see everything if the trains run very late, but we'll just have to go with it.

Another success that I have had is with getting donations.  I have gotten a significant discount on a Steri-Pen (a UV light used to disinfect water) and have also gotten Up Country to donate dog collars and harnesses! I am waiting to hear back from others about whether they are able to make a donation.

Getting things ready

I've been attempting to organize an itinerary, but am having serious problems.  The main issue is that there are simply too many things that I want to see and too little time.  Right now the itinerary looks something like this:

Ajmer, Pushkar, Bundi, Chittor, Udaipur, Mt Abu, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur

which is simply too many cities in too few days, while still missing out on the Golden Temple and Fatehpur Sikri.  I'm working with Dad to try to figure out what we want to cut out.  I've already cut out seeing tigers at Ranthambore, but we're going to be there in the monsoon season, so that might not have been much fun anyway.

I've also finally got the whole visa thing sorted out.  There was some confusion about my being able to volunteer with just a tourist visa, but the consulate has assured me that I will be fine. There are just a few extra letters that I have to make sure that I have.  Additionally I have to send them my passport so that they can affix the visa to the inside, something that makes me nervous since getting a new passport could potentially be a pain.

Speaking of pain, I went to the travel clinic this past week to get malaria prophylaxis and all of the vaccines that I need.  Turns out I needed 4, one of which has 3 doses.  Luckily one is oral, so no stick in the arm for that one.  I'll also be taking along 2 courses of antibiotics in case I develop a case of Delhi Belly while there.

I have also been trying to get donations from companies for things like scrubs and shoes for both me and the other clinic workers, but so far no luck.  Hopefully I'll have more luck in the next few weeks.

India!

I'm finally going to India! I've been thinking about going for awhile now, but never looked into it seriously until this year.  This is the last real summer that I will have since there is no break between 3rd and 4th year of vet school.   I decided that I didn't want to waste it and that I wanted to get some traveling in while I still can.  I started looking at international veterinary opportunities and stumbled across Tree of Life for Animals.  They are a British organization that has set up a veterinary clinic in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India.  The main focus of the clinic is rabies eradication and animal sterilization, but they also operate a rescue van and care for some of the working animals in the area.

It was very easy to set up my trip to volunteer with their clinic.  I e-mailed the lovely volunteer coordinator, Kym, gave her my dates, and we were all set.  I'll be there for all of June, staying in the town of Pushkar and commuting daily (about a half hour) to Ajmer.  Pushkar is one of the holiest cities in India with many temples and the only Brahma temple in existence.  I'm looking forward to exploring its streets on my days off.  Ajmer is a very holy Muslim city where pilgrims come every year. 

I decided to set up this blog to keep everyone posted as to what I am doing and learning while I am there.  My dad is also coming for the first two weeks in July and we will be traveling all around Rajasthan (with possible stops in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to see the Golden Temple and Taj). I don't leave for another month and a half, but I am already itching to get on a plane!