C.E.L.A. Belize

I am both anxious and excited for my upcoming trip to Belize! I feel like there is so much to do and so much to pack, and so far I feel a little unprepared. I still have to buy some more scrubs, get myself a stethoscope, and make sure all my money and paperwork is in order. I will be taking the “Large Animal Veterinary Practices in the Tropics” course from June 9th to June 23rd. It still hasn’t sunk in that I get to spend two weeks abroad, learning hands on how to give examinations to large animals on farms and ranches, participate in a local animal health clinic, and assist in spays and neuters. I can’t wait to meet new people, see new places, and learn new things! While I will certainly miss my friends and family, I am excited to go on this journey and share my experiences with everyone. (:

I can’t believe it’s already the second week of classes! On May 21st, we were supposed to visit and work on a goat farm, but since today was the holiday Commonwealth Day, the farmer’s goat staff were not working today. Instead, we got another chance to work with sheep. It was a great time administering injections to the herd of about 30 sheep ranging in age. I again, really appreciated that those who I worked with did the lifting portion and I was able to just give the injection. We went down the road to another sheep farm where we castrated some older sheep. This was the most confident in castrating I had felt yet. The incision I made was clean and cut right to the testicle, I knew which ligaments to pull at, and how to clamp it all off at the end!

The next day, May 22nd, we had a stinky day ahead of us. We were visiting a pig farm where we were tasked with castrating five pigs and administering injections to about 30 pigs. In case you, the reader at home, has never come into contact with a pig farm, lemme just tell you straight up: It smells AWFUL. One girl in our group was amazing and managed to wrangle all of the pigs that were being castrated and held them down. I castrated a pig and again, I was super confident in my ability to make an accurate incision. After the five pigs were castrated, we walked into the stalls where the smell was even more overwhelming. In order to get the pig to administer an intramuscular injection, one person had to wrangle the pig by grabbing the pig by the ears, getting their legs over the pig so it was between their thighs, and hold on and try not to slip in the layer of pig poop that coated the stall floor. This was another experience that I’m super fortunate my partner took the lead on. After we finished the injections, we had to change out of our scrubs and boots and keep everything tied off in a plastic bag— the smell of pig farm wouldn’t leave the van for the rest of our trip if we didn’t. On our way back from the farm, we made a pit stop at a beautiful waterfall that was on the way back to Midas. I really love how after a long day of hard work at the farm, we are able to still enjoy the amazing natural beauties that Belize has to offer. That night, we went to this beautiful restaurant called Guava Limb that served super fresh dishes. It was a great way to end a tiring day.

To close out this post, the 23rd was cow day! We started off leaving Midas at 5am to go to Spanish Lookout, a town where there is a Mennonite dairy farm. We left so early so that we could watch the milking and feeding process. As soon as we got there, the first thing we were offered was the opportunity to milk a cow! It’s a lot harder than it seems, but I got the hang of it!

It was really cool seeing the difference between the farms run by Belizians vs. those who identify as Mennonites. The farm used a lot of technology, however the Mennonites culturally dress in a very traditional way— bonnets and all. The farm was run by a man who started his dairy farm by receiving one cow from his father. He now runs his farm with his wife, some workers, and his son comes and helps during the week as well. I’ve heard Belize described as a salad bowl of culture as opposed to a melting pot, and I’d have to agree.

After we got a tour of his farm, we drove back to Midas and had breakfast at 8am. By 9am we were back out and driving to the BAHA Complex where we were going to be palpating cows! Palpating is a super quick and easy way (if you know what you’re doing) to determine if a cow is pregnant. The way you palpate is you stick your arm (covered in a shoulder length glove) up the rectum of the cow and feel for the cervix. We each had an opportunity to feel what the cervix was like before being tested. My group went and had to identify whether or not the cow was pregnant or not. At first, when I inserted my hand, I had to take it out because the cow started to poop and my arm was a tad bit in the way of that. After that though, I got to feel around and I wasn’t able to find the cervix. I was nervous because I thought I just didn’t do a good job trying to find it, but I went with my gut and said that the cow was pregnant. When we were checked, it turns out she was!

That night we had the most amazing experience of going to a restaurant that was only in its fifth day of being open. We got to this adorable indoor seating area and the owner was immediately running around trying to accommodate us. I got chicken fingers for dinner and they were literally the greatest chicken fingers I had ever had in my entire life. The chicken was so fresh and the breading was delicious. The owner’s name was Shirlet, and I got to talking with her about fry jacks and how she makes them. She gave me the run down of her recipe and had me take pictures of the products that she uses. I ended up going to the supermarket to buy the brand of baking powder she suggested! She said whenever she tries to make fry jacks in the states, they never turn out the same, so hopefully, with her tips and some Belizian products, I’ll be able to do my best to replicate them. I really appreciate the hospitality and generosity of everyone that I have met so far while in Belize. I can’t believe there are only a few more days left to the large animal course! :^)

This weekend was jam-packed with things to do! Friday we got up bright and early at 4:30 in the morning to drive three hours to Placencia. We got into the back of the van and started the trek! While everyone slept in the van, my roomie and I talked for the ride. We stopped at the Maya Beach Hotel’s Bistro for breakfast and lemme tell ya– you aren’t going to believe this view. Imagine a tranquil paradise and then multiply that by 10.

I ate a beautiful breakfast of pancakes and eggs with my roomie Sidney and we enjoyed the view. Once we finished eating, we hit the ground running. We arrived at the Placencia Humane Society with the goal to help them out with a free clinic day. Dr. T was kind enough to offer his services for free in exchange for the Humane Society arranging us to have housing for the night and allowing us to shadow and help out. That day, we saw 20-30 dogs that day and were there from 9am until 6pm. I was in a group that worked on the first surgery of the day, a neuter on a puppy named Skippy. Skippy stole my heart from the beginning, and it was amazing getting to spend the first part of the day with him. The surgery went well, and by this point, I was confident enough that I did the reverse simple interrupted knot so that his sutures wouldn’t be as visible. After his surgery, some pals Kayla, Sidney and I were in charge of Skippy’s recovery. He took almost an hour to wake up which was a little nerve-wracking, but we monitored his heart rate and respiratory rate the whole time. Once he woke up, I sat with him until he was back to his normal and playful self!

The next dog I helped with was named Chica, a five-month-old Chihuahua whose owner brought her in to be spayed. Since we were offering free spay and neuter, that was predominantly what we saw that day. Suturing Chica was a lot more difficult than any other suture I had done yet, but I managed to get it done. I sat with Chica and Chica’s owner while she recovered. After Chica, a lot of the day was helping out with dogs that were coming in with the Outreach Program that the Placencia Humane Society does with the local town of Seine Bight. They go to specific homes where they know dogs don’t have great care, and on days where they provide free services, they drive around and pick up the dogs so that they receive the care they need. We gave a lot of baths, removed a lot of ticks, trimmed nails, and administered vaccinations. We also spayed and neutered any dogs that came in whose owners gave the okay. The most difficult moment of the day for me was when I went out on a run where we drove into Seine Bight with the dogs to drop off with the intention to pick up some more. I had one dog named China on my lap, who is picked up by the PHS once a month for “a good bath and some socialization.” One thing I have learned here while in Belize is that they view the role of dogs differently than we do in the States. These dogs, while owned by families, roam free and are not the same as how we view our pets in the States. So, when I dropped China back at her home, all I did was walk to a shack on the edge of the beach, put her down on the sand in this enclosed area, and walked away. The other really difficult part of that day was we had one dog named Delilah sitting around with us the whole day. On the run I was on, we dropped Delilah off at the area where her home was, but when we drove away in the truck, she ran after us up the street. It was heartbreaking, but it taught me to appreciate the good that we did provide the dogs we helped that day, even if we aren’t able to take away all of their problems.

 

At the end of the day at the clinic, we thanked everyone and were brought over to a beautiful beach-front condo complex where the Placencia Humane Society had arranged for us to stay. Let me tell you, I had never seen such luxury before. The room that we stayed in was gorgeous and the bathroom was huge. For dinner, we went to the Barefoot Bar and Restaurant right on the beach. I had a moment where a bunch of us went to the shore and stood at the edge of the water. It was late at night, so looking out was super dark. I had a moment where I just was overcome with gratitude for the opportunity to be standing on that beach at that moment. After dinner, we got back to our beautiful condo for the night and for the first time while in Belize, when I looked up I could actually see the stars. Of course, no picture could capture what I saw that night, but it was truly breathtaking.

The next day, we got up early to grab breakfast at a cute restaurant by the beach. Then we were back at the clinic for day two! Saturday was a lot slower of a day due to the fact that it was a reduced-cost clinic, not a free clinic day. We were at the clinic on Saturday from about 9am until 2pm. That day we saw about 9 dogs on Saturday. We only really administered vaccinations and we trimmed nails all day. I really enjoyed getting to see the difference between the fast-paced free-clinic day as compared to the slower reduced price clinic day. After helping clean up at the Humane Society, we thanked them and said our goodbyes and made our way to a hostel!

I’m not going to lie, we had a less than great experience with the hostel. Aside from there being blood on the sheets and the mattresses being a sheet of foam, you get what you pay for and we only paid twenty bucks for the night. We had to take a boat across a little canal to get to the hostel so it was super secure, and we hung out at the pool that the hostel had for its guests. That night, we went back to the Barefoot Bar and Restaurant where we danced on a dance floor where a dog laid at our feet the whole time. (Yes, it was heaven.)

After a rough night at the hostel (snoring dorm mates tend to do that), we woke up bright and early for a full day of snorkeling on Sunday, May 20^th. We drove to the bottom of Placencia where we got breakfast at this cute restaurant on the beach. You’ll never guess who ALSO at the restaurant that morning. If you guessed SKIPPY than you’d be right because while we were waiting for our food, a little mouth started playing with our toes.

After breakfast, we got onto a boat that took us 30 minutes to Laughing Bird Caye. Laughing Bird is a national park off the coast of Placencia and it even has a little gift shop! My jaw dropped when I saw where we were going to be spending our entire Sunday. After having the opportunity to take the gorgeousness of the island in, we were taken out on our first round of snorkeling. We saw some cool fish, parts of the coral reef and a school of squid all lined up. We were out for about an hour, and when we got back to shore the men who took us out on the boat prepared a delicious lunch for us. After our meal and the time to relax and digest, we went out for one more snorkeling trip and saw some more cool fish. We spent all day on the island: 9am to 4pm. On the boat ride back, we got drenched in water from how uneven the water was. But we got back safely and had the three-hour drive back to San Ignacio ahead of us.

All in all, while the weekend in Placencia was an AMAZING experience and I really enjoyed the opportunities I had, it was super difficult constantly being on the move and living out of my backpack for the weekend. Going into this next week of classes after having such a busy week is going to be difficult, and I hope that I’ll be able to keep it up. I guess time will tell!! :^)

 

 

On the last few days of the trip, I had many early mornings and lots of interesting experiences. We visited a Mennonite dairy farm, palpated cows to determine whether or not they were pregnant, worked on a pig farm (giving injections and castrating) and created a presentation for the class on a topic of our choice. The pig farm stood out the most to me. The animals were kept in conditions that would have a farm shut down immediately in the states. The pens (if that’s what you’d like to call them) were caked with feces, seeming as if they hadn’t been cleaned properly in months. The pigs had hot drinking water, which is far from optimal. Each pig was caked with feces and far too many were packed into a pen. We learned that this is common practice within most developing countries, including Belize. It was definitely shocking.

Palpating the cows was also an extremely interesting experience. I’d learned a lot about the process in my practicum and reproduction classes, but I was never given the opportunity to try it for myself. Although it was admittedly pretty gross, it was amazing feeling the cervix of the animal and physically being able to “feel” their pregnancy.

Visiting the Mennonite farm was a breath of fresh air. The animals were well cared for and genuinely seemed to be very happy. There were some eye lesions and infections, but they were likely due to the vast space of land the cows were given to graze on. The man who owned the farm was absolutely adorable and so eager to talk to us. It was obvious that animal welfare was extremely important to him.