Well I have been remiss on my daily blogging, so I will explain, or make excuses, depending on how critical you are. There is always the time factor, working in the villages until no more animals show up, packing up the supplies and heading home, which may take 15 min at the shortest, and over 2 hours on the longest. When we get back there is dinner and devotions and some time to relax and talk with the team in small groups or play games. I’m not big on playing most games, but it is a hoot watching the students play cards and get feisty and funny. Then it’s bedtime and we’re always more tired here than home, so we don’t have to say anything to the students, they are just as tired as us old guys. We also only have wifi while we are in the cabins, and even then it is slow, so trying to upload pictures or download anything takes too long usually so I will attach pictures when we get state side. But the main reason for my tardiness is a little more sinister. Have you ever seen that show called “monsters inside of us”? It’s about all sorts of nasty bugs and mites and worms and microbes that infest people and cause all kinds of gross stuff. Well I met one of them down here. And they are not nice. My personal bad boy was of the respiratory variety, with all sorts of coughing and stuffiness and soreness all over, very tired and no energy. Yesterday, after I finished a big German Shepherd dog spay with my student Lena, who did most of the work anyway, I layed down in the van at 2:00 and pretty much slept for 16hours until this morning. Thankfully we are on a veterinary mission trip so we have all sorts of medicine to pick from, so I bypassed the chewable chicken flavored ones and picked Azithromycin, a “Z-pack” and started that. Now I don’t want to hear anything from any medical people who say you should go to your Dr and not self medicate, especially when they always treat their pets first with whatever medicine they have left over and only bring the pet in if it’s not better. Besides the medical care of these vets is better than many human ones anyway. I’m not sure what other goodies I will take but we will see if any other symptoms develope and then I can decide if I need some of the big gun dewormers. I hope not. I have a long flight home and layover tomorrow, so I don’t want anymore uninvited guests.

Well the veterinary work has proceeded very well, with lots of people showing up with all sorts of animals; Dr Justin has floated lots of horses teeth, which is something they don’t normally do down here, but he did some fund raising and was able to get everything you need, including power floats so you don’t have to do them by hand, and his equine team has been busy with that. Basically the edges of the horses teeth do not wear evenly, so over time they develope sharp edges that can cause lots of problems in the mouth. The power float grinds them down so the edges are flat and even so they can chew better. They have never done that before, but they will see a big difference and their horses will be healthier. Dr Mark has done lots of cattle work and kept the students safe and the cattle healthy with vaccines and deworming mostly. The small animal work with Dr Wayne and myself has been very steady, with lots of spays and neuters, that the students do under the supervision of the vets, one on one for each surgery. This is often the first time they have done surgeries, but they are very quick learners, and are quick to pick things up. There is also a lot of small animals to deworm and apply flea and tick medicine, including dogs, cats, chickens, turkey’s, duck (just one), and rabbits. We keep it simple and give them all the same medicine, mostly ivermectin for deworming, and whatever topical treatment for fleas and ticks we have.

The food has been very good, plain and simple, very nutritious with beans and rice and fruit, and some chicken usually also. The weather has been very nice, sunny and mid eighties if you like that kind of thing. Personally I can’t wait to get back home and take Sam and Lexi for a walk in the snow, but I guess I am the exception, putting it nicely, which I know you would do anyway. Tomorrow morning we are headed home, and we need to leave at 3:30 am, so I will have one more blog left, just warning you. It has been a very good time, other than my unintended guest, but hopefully I will cough up a big lougie and leave it all down here. Sorry to be gross but what do you expect from a vet?

Well so long from Nicaragua

Many Blessings.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Dr Mike