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Coming Soon! 2014 Volunteer Opportunities

Aug 12

Prospective World Vets volunteers as well as World Vets members can expect our 2014 project schedule to be released in the next few weeks. All such projects will have volunteer opportunities for veterinarians, technicians, students and assistants. As always you can look forward to some new and exciting locations as well as familiar ones that have ongoing service missions.

All upcoming projects that have volunteer opportunities are posted here on our website.

Once the 2014 project schedule has been finalized, World Vets members will receive a sneak peek of 2014 project locations as well as tentative dates via email. If you are not a World Vets member, read more about membership here

Attention Students! IVM Program: Winter 2013 Sessions Finalized

Jul 29

ATTENTION STUDENTS!

IVM Program sessions have been scheduled for Winter 2013. Dates have now been posted on the Upcoming Projects page. World Vets members will have the opportunity to register early for student positions. Following this, registration will open on World Vets website for general sign up. Please note that the full program fee amount will be due at the time of registration.

World Vets International Veterinary Medicine (IVM) Program is World Vets student program. Operating out of our Latin American Veterinary Training Center in Granada, Nicaragua, it provides international students with an opportunity to gain practical veterinary experience. Students read more here

DVM & LVT/RVT Instructors are also needed for this program. To qualify for an instructor position, you must either be a licensed veterinarian and/or technician and have a minimum of one year clinical experience. Previous teaching experience is not a prerequisite. This is a volunteer opportunity with limited expenses for you.

World Vets in the Marshall Islands as part of Pacific Partnership 2013

Jul 24

U.S. Army Spc. Martin Gonzalez and World Vets volunteer Dr. Amanda Hedman give two puppies a physical exam at a Pacific Partnership 2013 veterinary civic action project.

U.S. Army Spc. Martin Gonzalez and World Vets volunteer Amanda Hedman, LVT/RVT, give two puppies a physical exam.

Dr. Kristin Camp, a World Vets volunteer veterinarian, gives a cat named “Coffee” a pre-operation physical exam before being neutered at the free spay and neuter clinic held at the College of the Marshall Islands.

As part of Pacific Partnership 2013, a World Vets veterinary team provided a variety of services in the Marshall Islands alongside US Army personnel as well as host nation partners. Together we operated a free spay/neuter campaign, provided health consultations for small animals in addition to educational lectures on various veterinary topics such as basic animal first aid.

Pacific Partnership is a multinational mission of host nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and regional partners that include Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States that join together to improve maritime security, conduct humanitarian assistance and strengthen disaster response preparedness throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

World Vets volunteers travel on board a US Navy ship as part of this mission. World Vets team has currently traveled to Samoa, Tonga, Marshall Islands and Kiribati. See photos here from World Vets activities on this mission so far.

Photos and captions: Amanda Saavedra

Fostering Animal Wellness in Rural Nicaragua

Jul 19

Photo: Katie Horn/World Vets

Photo: Van Olsen Photography

Photo: Katie Horn/WorldVets

As World Vets team pulled up to the local school, which was to be our clinic site, piglets and chickens were busy foraging on the school grounds. Unafraid of our presence they continued about their daily routine. As we proceeded to set up our work stations we were greeted by a donkey that happened to preside over a family’s small agricultural plot next door. He provided constant reminders of his presence, “hee – haw”, that enticed many of us to go see him throughout the work day.

As veterinary services got underway, children and grown men dressed in their Sunday’s best began to form a line around the registration desk. Dogs were brought to us in handbags, on carts and wheelbarrows and cats surprisingly enough were carried in on string leashes or in cardboard boxes. Half came to us to receive spay/neuter surgery and the other half for health consultations

Until recently World Vets had not set up a direct veterinary service campaign in this particular community. Located 25 minutes or so outside of the main town of San Juan del Sur, the rural community of Escamequita is a world of its own. In contrast to town, houses are scattered over considerable distances and made from all kinds of materials; from wood to metal scrap and/or brick. All animals, including dogs, pigs, chickens and turkeys roam free, yet everyone knows which house they belong to. Furthermore, potable water may only be accessible from a well and during the rainy season the only road to and from Escamequita may be washed out, limiting contact with town and its subsequent products and services.

Even though World Vets had never visited the area before, the animals of Escamequita have quite a history with World Vets and the services we have provided in San Juan del Sur over the years. This has much to do with concerned and kind hearted expatriates who also live in the area. Without hesitation, they have rallied local households and loaded up their trucks with animals, accompanied by their owners, to receive our services, wherever they would be provided. The animals brought to us in their vehicles were always the ones that had the worse body conditions and needed the most TLC from our teams.

After years of their dedication and demand for veterinary care, it made perfect sense to bring our services directly to them. Our recent campaign in Escamequita has acted to harness this growing awareness of animal welfare and responsible pet ownership, especially amongst the young population. Many animals from the original “truck loads” were first brought to us to receive spay/neuter surgery. Now we happily welcome them back for follow up medical treatments. And wouldn’t you know it; they were some of the healthiest looking bunch during our recent campaign!

Photo: Van Olsen Photography

Our visit to Escamequita has also served to further promote the concept of animal wellness, specifically for new pet owners who had not previously sought out our services either due to distance and/or logistics. In consultations we saw one young boy who brought his puppy for a check up and to receive preventative health treatments. This is the first step we explained, to being a responsible pet owner, and his father proudly agreed.

More than anything our veterinary services in rural communities such as Escamequita provide the means for individuals to care for and be responsible pet owners. It is a huge misconception that people in foreign countries simply do not care for their animals. They do! This young boy is but one example.

All of World Vets veterinary services are provided free of charge

Story write up: Katie Horn, World Vets International Programs Manager

Making the Impossible, Possible

Apr 16

“Pecas”, a 13 year old female dog, arrived at our most recent spay/neuter and animal outreach clinic held last month in San Andres Island. Overall she was in good shape and generally well looked after. However, over her lifetime she had had countless litters and was still cycling in her old age. For fear that she would accidentally become pregnant again, her owner wanted to have “Pecas” spayed. While this was not an uncommon scenario, what made this case especially unique was that “Pecas” had recently been diagnosed heartworm positive by a local veterinarian. She was also discovered to have a fast heart rate and murmur. It was claimed that because of this condition she would not likely survive the surgery.

Our team spoke at length to the owner and advised on the ideal way to get “Pecas” spayed – with gas anesthesia and more monitoring equipment – luxuries that were not present at our field condition clinic. Unfortunately this was not a viable option either as such equipment did not exist on the island for animals and the owner could not afford to fly “Pecas” to the Colombian mainland for the procedure.

After much consideration and being made aware of the risks involved, “Pecas” owner elected to have the surgery done as he believed it was in her best interest. Even though we did not have a fancy surgical suite, we did have on hand an AliveCor heart monitor to run an EKG as well as monitor “Pecas” heart rate. World Vets veteran Dr. Michelle Ward monitored “Pecas” with the AliveCor while Dr. Barry Nichols performed the surgery. Upon her return to the United States, Dr. Ward had the EKG analyzed, which confirmed that there were no EKG abnormalities. We would like to thank Antech for donating their services in the EKG analysis.

We are happy to report that “Pecas” recovered very smoothly from the anesthesia and had been doing great following her discharge from the clinic. In the end, the owner was very happy that he had decided to do the surgery and that World Vets had come to the island making her surgery impossible to possible.

An Outstanding Effort in Ecuador

Apr 03

During the month of March World Vets sent a veterinary team to the Otavalo region of Ecuador in support of our small animal project. We have been working in this region for the past four years with local animal welfare group PAE Ibarra to control the street as well as owned small animal population. We thank Fondation Brigitte Bardot for their continual support of this project as well as our volunteers that put forth an outstanding effort which resulted in 229 free spay/neuter surgeries being performed.

Join us on our next campaign (July 17 -24, 2013)! Read more

A Successful Veterinary Campaign in Roatan

Apr 03

We have just completed a successful veterinary campaign Roatan, Honduras. Our veterinary team provided not only free spay/neuter services but an animal outreach clinic which provided free health consultations and preventative health treatments to small animals. During our visit, we performed 160 surgeries and treated over 350 animals. One of our patients was a dog that jumped off a roof but was lucky enough to receive special emergency surgery from our outstanding volunteers.

We would like to thank Fondation Brigitte Bardot, our volunteers on Team Roatan, Sandra & Al Zeilstra and all of the local contributors that continue to support our efforts on the island.

Working Hard in Arusha, Tanzania

Mar 18

We have just completed a two week veterinary campaign in Arusha, Tanzania. During this campaign, our teams operated mobile donkey welfare clinics in multiple areas which resulted in close to 1000 donkeys receiving free veterinary services. Following donkey work, we also operated a vaccination campaign where 400 dogs were vaccinated for rabies.

We’d like to thank the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPA) as well as our Team Arusha volunteers for such a successful outcome.

Re-posted! Volunteer Opportunity to Nicaragua (August 2013)

Mar 18

Join our veterinary team going to Nicaragua this summer! We have just re-posted our August 3 – 10, 2013 project scheduled for San Juan del Sur; a charming little beach town located on the Pacific coast right by the Costa Rican border. Aside from veterinary work, there are many things to see and do during leisure time such as surfing, zip lining, nature trails and wildlife watching as well as rappelling and fishing.

Veterinary work will consist of a large scale field condition clinic where free spay/neuter services, preventative health treatments along with health consultations will be provided to small animals. We also anticipate many diverse cases as we will be working in the rural community and treat animals that do not have access to regular veterinary care. For those interested, there also exists the possibility of treating more than just dogs and cats. Read more here

World Vets in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Mar 13

With support from Fondation Brigitte Bardot, World Vets has been able to provide free spay/neuter services in the town of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua for the past 3 years. During the month of March 2013 we are providing such free services for community owned animals. Enjoy our photo album on Facebook – more pictures to be posted soon!

We have 1 volunteer position left on our small animal project to San Juan del Sur in July 2013: check it out and join our team!

World Vets