I hired a cook for this time period.  I have worked with him for many years on my jungle expeditions, and he will also be our cook for our jungle trip which begins tomorrow!  His name is Danilo and, luckily, he has much experience with foreign travelers.  This year has presented special challenges, and I report on this not as a complaint, but because I find the issue quite hilarious.

I won’t reveal names, but I will reveal everyone’s personal dietary needs.  Peruvians seem to eat and enjoy whatever they are served, so I will not comment on Sysy Silva’s diet (our Peruvian education volunteer).

Person A:  Eats meat but does not like fish that much.  Will sample it.  Loves beets.  Allergic to onions.

Person B:  Vegetarian.  Attitude towards fish is a little better than Person A.  Hates mushrooms (in Peru most people do not like mushrooms anyway).  Unresolved issues with eggs.  Hates runny eggs.  Loves beets.  Fondly remembers (from pre-vegetarian days) burgers with real piece of steak, pineapple, beets, egg, cheese, tomato, lettuce, onion and bacon if requested.  Percon C says “yuch.”

Person C:  Needs a high protein diet, especially red meat for iron content.  Lactose intolerant.  Doesn’t enjoy the various fruit juice combinations presented at many meals.  Doesn’t like eggs much, but will eat soft boiled or runny fried eggs.   Eats very small portions or will have trouble with digestion.  High quantities of sugar will make very ill and dizzy.  Hates beets.  Loves onions.  No alcohol.  Addicted to mango, hates papaya.

Person D:  Vegetarian.  Lactose intolerant.   Allergic to dairy, eggs.   Can eat fruits and veggies, however, citrus fruit can cause stomach problems.  Eats very small portions, and surprised everyone with her consumption of a large vegetarian burrito recently.   Can easily eat onions.

Anyway, I find the above challenges for Danilo to be quite funny, although he handles everything with ease and a great attitude.  Yesterday, however, Person C had to request red meat (and he prepared meat and fish!)

Doesn’t the above seem like one of those horrible SAT-type questions?  What is a meal that ALL people can eat together?  Ha Ha Ha.

OK:  Back to the work we are doing….

Report from Veterinarian Annie Cook:

My last report was several days behind, so let me see if I can catch everyone up.

Friday, June 15, 2007:  Belen market for a mobile neutering clinic

The markets are crowded and busy and there are all sorts of weird and wonderful things in the stalls. As we drove through the markets we passed vendors for fish, chickens, vegetables but the most eye opening was the reptile and guinea pig meat for sale. A trip to the darker parts of the market found us in the herbal remedy section, we didn’t have long to ponder the wares but the snakes heads in jars and jars marked oso (bear) were enough to give us an idea of the type of produce marketed in this part of Belen.

The boys (Ricardo and Harry) quickly caught us a number of dogs to start surgery and the day progressed well, although a rather adventurous lump removal by Annie turned into a very long surgery. Sysy a Peruvian volunteer from Chiclayo arrived on Friday evening to help Molly with the education aspects of our trip. Despite Molly’s ability to speak Spanish, children of the jungle can never understand her accent, as they speak a dialect mixed with words from their native tribal languages.  Sysy and the rest of us had a lot of fun and laughs communicating in Spanglish.   Unfortunately, Molly has been suffering from a nasty chest cold, and was in bed, but she could overhear our conversation, and frequently, through the wall of her bedroom, she would call out translations for us.  That was funny too, and Molly felt like the voice behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz! 

Saturday, June 16, 2007: Cabo Lopez for a mobile neutering clinic

On Saturday we were back at Cabo Lopez (where we live in the jungle) neutering dogs. Lots and lots of rain overnight delayed the start as most people chose to stay indoors and mud blocked the road. The boys had to walk quite a long way to collect stray dogs but once we got started the day progressed well and we have neutered over 50 animals already this trip. A very sad but interesting case we saw on Saturday was a 2 month old puppy that had not defecated since he was born. Being sceptical vets we assumed the puppy had defecated without the owners knowledge and suspected the puppy had constipation and “of course he has an anus”. Closer inspection revealed that the puppy in fact had a very rare congenital condition where his anus was not open. The lesson –always listen to the owner! Unfortunately we were not able to repair the defect and the puppy was humanely euthanized.

MORE NOTES FROM MOLLY

Saturday, June 16:  Mobile Clinic in Cabo Lopez.

I always feel guilty during our veterinary clinics, as I do not know much about veterinary medicine.  I have adjusted to the surgery aspects (blood, etc), but my heart will never acclimate to the number of dogs and cats that arrive in need of treatment in addition to spay/neuter surgery.  We have been treating strays and owned animals, and some people just don’t seem to care for their animals.  Actually, that sounds judgmental, and that is why much of our time is spent on education about responsible pet ownership and the needs of domestic animals.

I spent much of the day nursing a 2 month old puppy.  The owner claimed he had not had a bowel movement during his entire life.  The vets did not believe it would be possible for a puppy to survive that long without emptying his bowels.  The owner claimed the puppy was born without an anus.  However, the puppy DID have an opening where his anus should be, or so we thought.

The puppy was traumatized; I am sure, by our efforts to administer an enema.  We even tried herbal tea with senna!  All day long I followed the puppy around the yard, convinced he would finally succeed at his task.  And boy did he try.  He crouched and strained to use the bathroom for hours.  I spent hours massaging his bloated stomach to try to break up any blockage.  His stomach bloat was so bad as to give him the appearance of a TeleTubby. 

The vets agreed that the puppy had survived 2 months on the mother’s milk, and, with the introduction of food he was having trouble adjusting.   Eventually the puppy fell asleep, and I held him in a reclining chair overlooking my Sydney’s gravesite.  I prayed to Sidney.  Sydney’s early and sudden death still confounds and hurts me, and I had tried to adjust to the idea that she would be a sort of Guardian Angel over me and all the animals I tried to save.  I couldn’t understand why this helpless, precious puppy should suffer in such a way.

My mother is a wonderful source of comfort to me, and I called her to tell her how I was feeling.  Bless her heart . . . she got on the phone to find a veterinarian to consult.  I had wondered about giving a small dose of human laxative to the puppy.  Annie and Liz were vehemently against this idea, saying that if it was any kind of recommended treatment they would be aware of it.  After 8 hours we all were beginning to accept that this little fellow would not survive, and was suffering.  I stated that if the choice was euthanasia or a human laxative, why not try the laxative.  Annie and Liz responded that it was the difference between putting an animal out of its misery and allowing the animal to die a very painful death, as they were afraid the puppy’s bowels were in danger of exploding. 

During our attempts to examine the puppy (who I had not named for fear of becoming too attached), we had had little success inserting the tiniest tube up his rectum.  It seemed to be completely blocked at ¼ inch in.  We assumed he was severely impacted.  Annie and Liz had seen cases of animals born without ANY rectal opening, but this puppy did appear to have an anus.  Yet their final conclusion was that the anus was not fully formed and not connected to his intestines.

My mother called to tell me she had located a veterinarian at an emergency hospital, but that he refused to give her any advice over the phone.   I felt uneasy, as it seemed I was second-guessing Annie and Liz, but my mother was just trying to help.  When I first told her that I didn’t feel the need to call the American veterinarian as Annie and Liz were competent in their diagnosis, my mother asked me to please call, as he was staying at work late awaiting our call.

I called him to introduce myself, and then gave Annie the phone to speak to Dr. Peterson.  Dr. Peterson had treated a piglet with similar symptoms, and this piglet actually lived to three months of age!  Despite my misgivings and embarrassment, Annie was actually glad for the extra opinion.  She and Liz agreed that at least they could diagnose the puppy and not always wonder if they had been right or wrong.  We all knew what was best for the animal, and I agreed that he should be euthanized.  These decisions are always hard ones, and we all tried to make him as comfortable as possible, loving on him following the first injection to help him go to sleep.  [ii]

MORE REPORTING FROM MASTER VETERINARIAN ANNIE COOK

Tina a veterinary technician from the UK was due to arrive on Saturday but unfortunately due to a change of flight details we missed her at the airport and spent Saturday night wondering where she was. Molly had the worst night fretting about where she might be and was up at 6am calling all the hotels in Iquitos looking for a “gringo” female called Tina. We took the boat to Iquitos on Sunday morning and joined the search party for Tina who had settled in to a nice new hotel (not in the phone book) and had already bought supplies to wait for us to find her.

SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2007

·         Note from Molly:  After locating Tina, who was amazingly calm, cool and collected (despite the frantic email from Hannah at WVS indicating a very different state of mind for Tina)

Back to Annie:  We visited the butterfly farm and animal orphanage on Sunday and were very impressed with the work done by Gudrun Sperrer, an Austrian woman who has lived in the jungle for 25 years. Gudrun established the butterfly farm many years ago but is always receiving injured or orphaned wildlife to take care of. She currently has a tapir, a jaguar, a giant anteater and numerous monkeys as well as caimans many birds as well as other wildlife.  All the animals have extensive enclosures with natural environments and she tries to rehabilitate as many as she can. We were all very impressed with her facilities. On Sunday we also got to see the Amazon River. We are living and travelling on a tributary called Rio Itaya. It is certainly dwarfed by the Amazon which is bigger than we imagined and flows a lot faster than we had expected.

Monday, June 18 –Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Monday and Tuesday we were back at Belen markets and had the opportunity to watch the boys catching dogs in the market. It is very difficult work and the boys often walk quite a long way. Although there are many dogs in the market a lot of them are owned and the owners are not keen to neuter them and the stray dogs can be very aggressive and difficult to catch. It is not an easy job for Ricardo and Harry in the narrow market pathways to catch these vicious dogs.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

On Wednesday we examined all the shelter dogs and house dogs and gave their yearly vaccinations. It was great to see them all and appreciate the difference Molly and Amazon Cares have made for these animals.

FROM MOLLY:

Wednesday, June 20 was a great day for me to learn more about the animals living inside our shelter, as well as my person house pets, and the pets of Vladimir and Marlene (the Guardian and  housekeeper that both live on property with their children).  In the morning, Tina, Liz, Annie and I took the boat to Iquitos and worked a little on the Internet.  Liz and Annie are preparing a presentation for local vets, as one of the goals of Amazon CARES is to improve the level of veterinary knowledge throughout the region.  Annie and Liz are very dedicated, and are both putting on detailed presentations of information that is not available to local vets.  Iquitos is so remote that seminars are never held here (plus there are only 8 vets here), and travel to classes or seminars is cost-prohibitive.

Despite being at an Internet café where the connection is 100mhs instead of the 33mhz I normally use at the office, the Internet is still slow and cumbersome.  I try my best to respond to emails.  Believe it or not, I get over 1500 spam emails a day, and changing my email address would be a challenge since it is the official Amazon CARES address.[iii]

After a delicious lunch at the “Yellow Rose of Texas,” we returned to Cabo Lopez where Annie, Liz and Tina evaluated the 19 dogs living on property.  I learned SO MUCH, and so did my employees Wilfredo and Ricardo, who now know how they can care for the dogs individual needs more properly.  One dog, Lola, is blind in one eye.  But the vets determined that it was a matter of scar tissue, due to some sort of trauma.  We are now applying steroid drops three times a day, and I pray her sight is able to improve.  Wouldn’t that be a wonderful success story?!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

On Thursday we had a mobile clinic in Bellavista Nanay on the Rio Nanay. another tributary of the Amazon. We were in the bottom level of a house near the river. It was very small but we still managed to neuter a number of dogs and cats and had a captive audience of residents the entire day. Annie’s surgery table was closest to the window and she was a little shocked when one spectator started taking photos of the dog she was spaying.

So far the trip has gone well. We have neutered approximately 80 animals. We are looking to the boat trip which starts on Saturday and hope we will have a lot more exciting stories to tell you when we get back next week.

FROM MOLLY

Mobile Clinic in a suburb of Iquitos, the port town of BellaVista Nanay.  All of us traveled early to the site of the mobile clinic, which was disappointingly tiny.  Sysy and I had work to do in-town, plus I needed to begin translations on Annie and Liz’s presentations (a much harder task than I anticipated!).   Due to the space constraints’, Sysy and I returned to Iquitos to complete some of our work.  Sysy and I had already chosen lesson plans for the small villages in the jungle.  One topic we are focusing on is the difference between wildlife and domestic animals, as many people trap baby animal wildlife to keep as pets, which is a sad life for these wild animals.  Today we purchased coloring pencils and folders and began to organize the lessons.