Madeline Procopi

1/14/19

Well, it has been a few days since I was in Belize and I started to miss the rice and beans, so I used some of the seazonal I bought and made rice and beans with stewed chicken! I also used the two Marie Sharp’s sauces I bought (grapefruit habanero and “BEWARE”) to flavor my meal – it wasn’t like Belize, but it was pretty close!

I’m really excited to see some of the other CELA students when I go back to school in a few days. What I miss most about Belize is the amount of hands-on work I was able to do. I have been thinking about my summer plans a little bit, and I’m sad that I will be working in my hospital’s surgery department but won’t be able to help in the same ways that I did in Belize. I am still extremely grateful for this opportunity and I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

TIP OF THE DAY: **Take the message of the movie Up to heart: adventure is out there!**

1/11/20

We’re finally going home! This was an amazing two weeks and I am so grateful for all the people that I met and the experiences I had. I started missing my home in the United States two days ago, but as I am typing this on the airplane I am also starting to miss Belize. Dr. T and Reuben, their families, Dr. Stephanie, and Candice are all sweethearts and were genuinely proud of us for learning these veterinary skills and growing as people in this short time. I’ll also miss the other students in this program, and I have already made plans with some of the other Rutgers students to hang out together once we get back to school.

We woke up at 6:00am today, ordered breakfast to go from the hotel restaurant, and were on shuttles to the airport by 8:00am. We had about an hour to kill at the airport, so I went with a small group to get food and last-minute souvenirs. I bought a mug with a map of Belize and a colorful gecko keychain that says “Belize”. I also bought a few snacks to eat on the airplane. The plane ride went by pretty quickly, but going through customs took about an hour. I will definitely miss Belize and I may need to come back to visit some time.

TIP OF THE DAY: **Leave your dirty scrubs and boots behind! Any dirty clothes or shoes will be quarantined and you will never get them back. It is better to donate them in Belize (Dr. T, Reuben, and your TA will accept donations and distribute them) than to have them quarantined at the airport and never be used again.**

1/9/20

It was a very long day, but it was also our last day of classes! We started off at a dairy farm at 5:30am, where we were given a small tour and everyone had the opportunity to hand milk a cow. I have milked dairy goats before, and I was surprised at how easy it was to milk the dairy cow compared to the goat. This farm had mostly Holsteins mixed with Jerseys. They also showed us how they perform mastitis tests and do disbudding (a corrosive cream is placed on the horn buds). Both were simple procedures, but the disbudding cream was much different to the surgical procedures used in the United States.

We arrived back at Midas at 7:30am for about half an hour for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The second stop of the day was another dairy farm to do artificial insemination. We each learned how to palpate the reproductive tract through the rectum, and used this knowledge to feel the cervix and determine whether or not the cow was pregnant. I’ve seen rectal palpation performed multiple times at Rutgers, but I have never had the opportunity to palpate in the United States, so this was a very beneficial experience for me.

We stopped back at Midas around 12:00pm for lunch, and I ate some leftovers I had in the fridge from Hana’s. Last but not least, we went to a swine farm where we castrated pigs. The procedure itself was not difficult, but I found the pig screams unsettling, especially when the larger pigs were given injections. I was a little nervous when performing the castration, since we were creating the incisions for the first time, but in the end creating the incision was simple, and the only challenging part was being able to pull out the testicle, epididymis, and vas deferens in one clean pull.

 

To finish off the day, we went to a waterfall to wash off (since you WILL get very dirty at the pig farm), then went to an Italian restaurant that was a short drive from Midas. I highly recommend the Hawaiian calzone!

Our TA (Candice) had a review session for the final exam from 10:30pm-11:30pm, which felt pretty thorough and helpful, as it covered the most talked about topics from the last two weeks.

TIP OF THE DAY: **When palpating the cow’s rectum to determine if she is pregnant, if the cervix is horizontal or can be manipulated while it is vertical, the cow is open, and if the cervix is vertical and cannot be moved/manipulated, the cow is pregnant.**

 

1/10/20

Today’s the day we’ve been preparing for: exam day. We started off the day doing our presentations on any topic we wanted to research that related to Belize. My partner and I researched suturing techniques and spay/neuter clinics and how they differed between the United States and Belize, while other groups focused on topics including particular diseases we talked about in lecture, anesthesia, and how to diagnose diseases.

The presentations were from 9:00am-12:00pm, and then we had lunch at Hode’s Place (I ate the rice and beans again and a banana milkshake that was surprisingly delicious) before the alumni meeting. After this meeting, we took the final exam. It was harder than I expected, but if you go to the review session and study a little bit you should be fine. After the exam, a few of my friends and I went to Guava Limb to get cheesecake to celebrate. They still did not have the oreo cheesecake, but I got the coconut cheesecake instead which was still amazing. We also stopped by Hode’s Place because we discovered during lunch that we could buy the Marie Sharp’s hot sauces here, so I bought the grapefruit and “BEWARE” hot sauces. I’m really excited to use them.

To end the day, we went to Dr. T’s home for dinner. He had a beautiful patio with lights and stairs leading down to the river. He made us tamales, potato salad, and chicken, which were all really flavorful. Our TA made a slideshow to show the highlights from the last two weeks, and we all watched it together which was a really cute moment.

TIP OF THE DAY: **PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE THE PRESENTATION OR STUDYING UNTIL THE LAST NIGHT. The wifi is pretty unreliable at Midas. My roommate and I had been doing a small amount of the presentation and studying each night while we were in Belize, but when it came time to submit the presentation I waited an hour for it to attach to the email. It will take longer than it should because of the wifi, so to save yourself from that frustration, make sure you do even one slide per day to stay on top of it.**

1/6/20

For breakfast, I had the waffles again.

In the morning, we practiced performing general exams on horses. I personally like the method of going from nose to tail when performing a physical exam, so I started by looking at the respiration rate (from afar before touching the animal to avoid a higher rate due to stress), eyes, nose, mouth, ears, throat, skin, pulse rate, body condition score, and temperature. After obtaining the animal’s history from the owner and deeming the animal healthy, we weighed the horse and measured the horse’s height using special measuring tapes. At the very end, we gave the horses an oral dewormer and an intramuscular tetanus vaccine. When giving the injection, we pinched the skin right next to the injection site to distract the horse, and injected the vaccine in the V-shaped area of flesh on the neck. Once the horses were taken care of, we dewormed the dogs, as well. Then, we went to a small creek on the property and swam for a little while, which was honestly one of my highlights from this trip! We also found soursop fruits, which are a common ingredient in desserts and drinks in Belize.

Dr. T also taught me and my partner how to age a horse. The first tooth is 2 years, and if the tooth next to it is half the size of the first tooth, this adds an additional year to the horse’s life, making it 3 years old, for example. I found this particularly interesting, as I’ve wanted to learn how to age horses for several years but never had the opportunity to work with horses before.

Once we left the horse farm, we returned to Midas briefly and had lunch at Hode’s Place. My roommate and I both ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich, which ended up being pieces of fried chicken smothered in barbecue sauce, which wasn’t even spicy. I will stick to the rice and beans at Hode’s from now on.

After eating we went to Dr. T’s sheep farm to vaccinate and deworm his sheep. I like vaccinating, so the time really flew by on his farm. The only breed he had that I was easily able to identify was the Barbados Blackbelly.

For dinner, we went to Authentic Flavors. I got the coconut breaded chicken with rice and beans. It came with a Mayan chocolate dipping sauce, and I was surprised that it actually was a good combination. We stopped by Crave before we left town, and I got a “Pineapple Smoozie” without milk (essentially a pineapple slushy) which was INSANELY good. You need to try it if you come to San Ignacio.

TIP OF THE DAY: **When working with the horses, talk to them as you approach them, and keep a hand on them at all times, especially as you are moving from the head to the rump. If you were to walk toward the horse and suddenly put your hand on their back, you could accidentally startle the horse and the horse could kick you, so please be careful around them!**

 

1/7/20

Today was extremely interesting! We started off our morning at a beef cattle farm giving the cattle an injectable dewormer and a vaccine (clostridium perfringens types C and D). These injections were given in the rump on either side, and since the skin is so tough, we had to inject cows quickly with a little force before pushing the plunger. I found that the cows were easy to work with, since they are in a chute and really can’t move around. Most of the time I don’t even think they felt the needle.

If my camera roll has taught me anything, it’s that I really REALLY love German Shepherd mutts. Is it just me?

For lunch, we went back to Hana’s and I got a cheeseburger and fries with a chocolate milkshake, which were both delicious!

After lunch, we went to two house calls with Dr. T. The first call was for a bull with a swollen prescapular lymph node on the right side, and a swollen front right shoulder and leg. The cow’s temperature was 102.9˚F, and the normal range for cattle is 100˚F to 103˚F, so this temperature fell at the upper range of normal (no fever). Dr. T determined that this was not arthritis, since more joints would be affected, and it could be blackleg, but there was no fever and more joints would be swollen. Therefore, Dr. T gave the bull a penicillin injection to fight the likely infection.

The second house call was a dog with a large wart on his right hind leg. Dr. T performed a local removal, and each student had a role. I held the light, while other students performed tasks from gauzing the incision site to clearing away garbage to suturing the incision. Once the surgery had ended, Dr. T gave the dog penicillin to prevent infection, vitamin K to prevent excessive bleeding, a pain medication, and an antiinflammatory medication. Dr. T believed that the wart was likely turning into a tumor and that it would return, but he did not tell the owners this because he did not want them to worry. I found that interesting, as I know in human medicine in the United States, I believe there is a law that states you must tell your patient this kind of information. However, I agreed that Dr. T should not have told them, since there is no guarantee that the tumor will come back, or that the wart was a tumor since the owners did not want to biopsy it, so only time will tell.

For dinner, we went to D’Sky Bistro. I ordered the crispy chicken basket, which was a bit disappointing. The salad was amazing, but the chicken was dry. However, I ordered the strawberry cheesecake, which was the best piece of cheesecake I’ve ever had, so I highly recommend getting a salad and the cheesecake if you come here.

TIP OF THE DAY: **The cows enter a chute before you give them injections, so they cannot kick you or move too much. However, they still are able to move a little or potentially jump, so you’ll want to inject the cows as quickly as possible. Practice quickly pushing the plunger on the other animals when giving injections to prepare for working with the cows.**

 

1/8/20

Today we went to a horse farm, practiced some more physical exams, and gave the horses injections (the rabies vaccine and vitamin B complex) and dewormers. Since we have already performed physical exams on horses once before, this was second-nature to me. My partner’s and my horse’s vitals were all normal, and the only issue was that she had a lot of ticks in her ears, as did every other horse. Other than that, her hair was shiny and soft, her body condition score was a 7, and she was quiet, alert, and reactive. Once we performed all of these tasks on the horses, we were able to ride the horses through the jungle on a horseback riding trail. I’ve only ridden a horse one other time and this was honestly my favorite activity throughout the entire trip. For those of us who had very little experience on horses, we walked and trotted, while those with more experience also cantered. We were taught about all kinds of plants and animals while riding through the rainforest, and I went from not liking horses at the beginning of the day to wanting to own my own some day. The owners of the farm were very sweet and helpful, too, and after riding, they made us all chicken soup and brownies for lunch. We were also able to watch two stallions get castrated.

  

After lunch, we had the option of either going ziplining or cave canoeing. I went cave canoeing, which was so much fun. Some of the highlights were that we saw fruit bats, we learned about ancient rituals (I believe these rituals were Mayan) including sacrifices, and there was even a human skull on top of one of the sacrificial areas.

For dinner, we went to Guava Limb again, and I got the fettuccine alfredo and carrot cake, which were both amazing! There were raisins and pineapple chunks in the carrot cake, which both added a nice flavor to the cake. Guava Limb is one of my favorite restaurants in San Ignacio, so if you come to Belize you must try it.

TIP OF THE DAY: **If your horse is like mine and wants to pass all the other horses when riding, try to keep it from getting too close to the rumps of the other horses. My horse suddenly sped up when I wasn’t paying attention and ran right into the rump of the horse in front of her, and she ended up being kicked by that horse.**

1/3/20

This was a long but amazing day! My roommate and I slept through our alarms and woke up at 4:32am – we needed to be at the front of the hotel at 4:50am in order to drive to Placencia from San Ignacio (about 3 hours). We ran out of bed and luckily made it to the front by 4:50am. I ate a granola bar in the car, since we were not able to get breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant this early. Today was the first day at the spay/neuter clinic. We were in a large, open concrete building. When we arrived, there were already people lined up with their dogs waiting for general exams and surgery. Our large group of 20 students was divided into two groups of 10. One group was in pre-op and surgery while the other group was in physical exams and post-op. Today I was in surgery, and we performed procedures on 36 dogs! Six additional animals had TVT, which stands for transmissible venereal tumors – this is an STD in canines spread through blood. While TVT can be cured, the treatment takes a long time and is expensive, making it difficult for owners to treat their animals, so many of these TVT-positive animals were euthanized.

There were three tables set up for surgeries, and Reuben went around to each table performing pre-operation tasks, including putting the patients under anesthesia, shaving, and scrubbing. Dr. T went around to each table afterward and spayed or neutered the animal, then left the students to suture the dogs, with supervision from our TA and a few other volunteering vets. During the surgeries, I liked monitoring the animals for their pulse rate and respiration rate, but I also helped hold instruments and cut tissues for Dr. T. We were at the clinic from about 9:00am-3:00pm.

When we finished at the spay/neuter clinic, we all went to our hotel. Since we were such a large group, we unfortunately had to split up the group in different hotels. I stayed with five other girls at the Mariposa resort, which was a pretty nice and quiet hotel. We had dinner at 7:00pm and I had a cheeseburger.

TIP OF THE DAY: **Bring lots of snacks with you to Belize. There will be a few days where you will be waking up very early like today, such as when you have to be at the dairy cattle farm at 5:30am (when the cows get milked). These snacks are also nice to have for the plane ride and on days where you’re awake late at night and get a little hungry.**

 

1/4/20

For breakfast, my roommates and I paid 10 Belize and the owner of the hotel had laid out a small breakfast buffet of muffins, bagels, yogurt, fruit, and a few other options for us to have, which was really thoughtful. Today we went to a new spay/neuter clinic with Placencia Humane Society. We had fewer patients than yesterday, but I liked the amount of hands on work I was able to do. Since there were less patients, the day went a little slower, but half of the patients I worked with were puppies so I really enjoyed my time. I worked in recovery and physical exams. Some of my responsibilities of the day were to diagnose any possible illnesses (ring worm, intestinal parasites, etc.), obtain vitals, trim nails, clean ears, remove ticks, and give vaccines and dewormers.

The physical exams were pretty simple, but it was difficult to answer the clients’ questions, both because of the language barrier and because I didn’t know what medications we had available for the patients. Overall, this was a really educational experience and I had a lot of fun. In the future, if I take part in a spay/neuter clinic again, I will try to learn more about the medications and vaccinations available so that I am more prepared to answer owners’ questions.

 

So this is Chase, also known as Junior. If you can’t tell, I was absolutely in love with this puppy. He came in for his neuter, but he was too young so we removed his ticks, cleaned his ears, trimmed his nails, and gave him a vaccine. He was a good boy throughout all of his treatments. He was my favorite patient on this trip by a landslide <3

We were at this clinic from about 8:00am-4:00pm. For lunch, the Placencia Humane Society volunteers made us burritos. Between the clinic and dinner, my friends and I decided to go in the ocean for a little bit, even though it was already cold and dark (it was about 5:30pm and it is winter in Belize). For dinner we went to Tipsy Tuna, and I had the buffalo chicken sandwich which was really good and not very expensive. We were all exhausted from this clinic, so we didn’t do anything after dinner.

TIP OF THE DAY: **It may help to look up common illnesses in puppies before doing general exams. I worked as a foster for an animal shelter for about 7 years, and I had seen ringworm and roundworm (an internal parasite) in cats. I was able to recognize ringworm in a puppy I was examining, but I missed the intestinal parasite symptoms until a vet came over and asked me why the puppy’s stomach was so distended.**

 

1/5/20

This was our second and last free day! I had a bagel with cream cheese at the Mariposa resort while sitting near the ocean. Most of the group went snorkeling off of an island in Belize. My roommate and I did not really want to go snorkeling, as well as a few other students, so we had lunch with our TA, walked around town, and went to the beach. In the afternoon, we drove back to San Ignacio (another 3 hour drive). I went to Hode’s Place for a quick dinner when we returned to San Ignacio around 8:30pm.

TIP OF THE DAY: **If you do not go snorkeling on this free day, it would be a good idea to work on your presentation or studying for the exam, even for an hour. My roommate and I worked on our presentation for about an hour before spending time with our TA and friends, but even this one short hour was helpful in the long run.**