On November 29 I wrote my North American Veterinary Licensing Exam (NAVLE) – which by the way was horrible. Everyone I have talked to said it was horrible – in one way or another. So when people asked how it went, and I said “horrible”, people got really confused. I felt pretty secure in that answer though, knowing that despite that, people mostly pass (two months later, I got the news that I did in fact pass). The NAVLE is a 6+ hour exam done on a computer, that encompasses most everything we have learned (and many topics we hadn’t learned) in the past 3 years. No use worrying about it though, since I wasn’t about to start studying again until I was certain I needed to write it again. So I enjoyed my Christmas vacation picking up some technician shifts at work – and going on another veterinary mission trip to Mexico.

Our team was small – two veterinary students, one US veterinarian and one Mexican veterinarian, along with a whole team of support volunteers.

Jen and I wrote our NAVLE and hopped on a plane two weeks later to Mexico City – then travelled to Cuernavaca and finally to Taxco – a beautiful little colonial town built on the mountains. There we worked with A.P.A.T. A.C. Taxco – a non-profit working hard to provide veterinary services to low-income families with the goal of ultimately eliminating the pet overpopulation crisis (that most of Mexico is dealing with). Our accomodations were provided by the hotel owner who uses a large proportion of hotel profits to pay for stray dog veterinary care. During our two-day clinic, we provided 64 sterilization surgeries for the pets of low income families and stray animals.

Having this been the first time CVM and Yuma Free Clinic has worked alongside an organization in this area, we wanted to have a small clinic to establish our services. Our goal was to provide 5-10 surgeries – a pioneer clinic so to speak. This evolved quite a bit into the 64 surgeries that occured.

We used a better anesthesia protocol for the animals that previous – telozol, xylazine and tramadol, along with injectable meloxicam and oral rimadyl to go home. We will likely use this same protocol on our upcoming trip as it provides better pain control than our previous trip in May. We also purchased emergency drugs, an endotracheal tube and ambu-bag for CPR, as well as IV fluids and catheters.

In this upcoming trip in May, we will be spending one week in San Luis Rio Colorado and one week in Taxco. We will be providing these services with a slightly larger team –  Parker will also be joining us and helping out where possible.

I have really enjoyed planning these trips with CVM and Yuma Free Clinic – it gives me a greater understanding for the variation in medicine across borders and costs associated with providing these services. Most of all my soul is filled by providing this care to pets and their people. We will be fundraising for supplies as well as for our own costs associated with travel and accomodation. If you would like to help contribute to either of these, please see the following:

Option 1 – Donate to Parker and Brenna’s trip costs.

Click the following link. This will lead you to the CVM’s give to an individual page (we are sharing an account). The blanks at the top of the page should be pre-filled in with my name and account number. All donations greater than or equal to $25 are eligible for a tax receipt. You will NOT be added to CVM’s mailing list unless you explicitly request it. CVM will only use your address to send you a tax-receipt. Our individual account charges funds in Canadian currency.

Option 2 – Donate to the cost of surgical supplies.

Click the following link. Fill out the payment method (make sure you select Canadian Funds first, or our group will not show up at the next step). Select “Calgary Students” under the “Where do you want your gift to go?” drop down menu. All donations greater than or equal to $25 are eligible for a tax receipt. You will NOT be added to CVM’s mailing list unless you explicitly request it. CVM will only use your address to send you a tax-receipt.

Thank you for reading – I will be posting soon about my January rotations!