Monday, October 22, 2007

Cristina's flat became a surgery clinic for the afternoon and we rounded up a few strays as well as some other dogs/cats in need of spay/neuter services. One of the dogs had yet another tragic story...she was raped by some kids and the person who rescued her found her tied to a cross like she was crucified. And, such a sweet little girl. A man brought a young pup who was quite hypothermic and dehydrated and incredibly skinny. She is still here tonight, but is improving. We have given her some SQ fluids, some antibiotics and some B12 at an acupuncture point.  Oh yes, maybe the hot water bottle helped a bit, too.

So, I am packed for the most part. The dumpster suitcase that I brought from Alaska, stuffed with veterinary supplies, is now returning with items from Romania. There are two liters of very special homebrews given to me by villagers. Also some beautiful glasses from here. If all of these items survive the baggage handling, I invite you all to drop in on Wednesday to meet the two new immigrants....Danny and Nancy. I will be arriving in Fairbanks about 8 pm Tuesday evening. well, I will take a quick nap now as we plan to leave for Bucharest about 1 am. What a lot of good things have happened this time. I will try to forward the memo that I sent to the mayor of Buzau country at a later time.

--Dr. Jeanne Olson

Sunday, October 21, 2007

I will be returning to Alaska in a few days and I will continue to be in touch with [FPCC], if that's okay. Of course, I will also be nipping at the mayor's heels even while in America. Fortunately, the media here is totally behind this effort in Buzau. I met the reporters from ProTV who broke the story about the cat torture here last month. The local TV show host wants to film our meeting with the mayor tomorrow and get on film his "promises" to the animals. The radio announcer also wants to keep the issue in the news.

So, thanks for the suggestions. I will brief the mayor tomorrow. I totally agree about the shelters although everyone in Romania thinks they are the answer to their problems. I told them that they are expensive, and they just fill up, no matter how big you make them or how much money you can spend on them.

I am so glad that we found some key people in Buzau that we can rely on. They are still learning, but I will share your web site and I will stay in touch with them. The best part is that a young veterinarian is already helping us and has good connections with the government officials as he is the regional veterinarian for four villages. I like your idea of going to villages, too. I spent two days in one small village and the methods are so similar to working in the villages in Alaska. I felt quite at home except for all the local brews that I was offered in exchange for my assistance.

More later.

--Dr. Jeanne Olson

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Dear Nancy,

Galati's program is going well and Dr. Ileana is running a successful spay/neuter program now. We planned to stay there for 5 days, but only stayed 2 days. We are now in Buzau which has about 110,000 people in the city. It is much more modern than Galati, has fewer street dogs and maybe more infrastructure. Today, we were interviewed on a live local TV show for 30 minutes. Audrey, a veterinarian from Bucharest, is now here to help as well, and she served as my interpreter for the show. The best question presented to me was the final question of the show..."If you could meet with our mayor, what would you tell him?" My response was this, "That Americans don't like to see animals suffering nor being beaten. Even though Romania has little money to develop their infrastructure, it doesn't cost anything to care and show compassion for the animals. This demonstration of animal concern will bring tourism to Romania, which in turn will create jobs, and money to help everyone, including the animals."

On the other hand, we were asked to visit the rural mayor who presides over 4 villages. The care of his dogs was pathetic! His house and property demonstrated his wealth, though. But, his dogs were very skinny, full of fleas (and consequently tapeworms) and some had mange. He wants us to spay his two female dogs. He has 9 puppies about 12 weeks of age that might weigh 3 kg but should weigh 6 kg. He has lots of influence and power, so we will help him and hope to educate him. I asked him what he feeds his dogs. "Bread, only bread," was his response. So, it is not money but education that he needs.

We have spayed quite a few dogs here. I have lost count now, but will count the blades when I am finished here. It has been a bit of work to convince them to neuter the males, but we have now neutered 2 (one had either brucellosis or a testicular tumor). Most of the resistance comes from the men. But, they are softening and tomorrow we have permission to neuter as many as possible at a local private shelter.

Yesterday, I was invited to a local vet clinic to remove a tumor on a leg of a 12-year-old dog. The vet was afraid to anesthetize the dog. They had Dormitor which I used with a Ketamine combo and all was well. The tumor was probably a fatty/muscle tumor that was invading the leg muscle but hopefully it will be slow to return.

Well, tomorrow we will be doing some surgeries outside and the weather is supposed to be good enough for a pleasant day. I just found out that our project in Buftea has been cancelled.… It means that we can stay here and focus on developing their program more. I have shown 2 more vets the wonderful Miller's knot.

Okay, time to close and sterilize some packs. Dr. Ileana called today to get instructions on how to use a pressure cooker to sterilize instruments. Her old autoclave is dead, and I showed her the old pressure cooker that I packed in my suitcase to use over here...

Write if you can. I am wondering how everyone is doing. I hear that Loving Companions will be the International SPCA's shelter of the week in December. That is wonderful! Hearing of this news and being able to help the animals here means a lot to me. Thank you, everyone, for supporting the animals and especially thanks to those of you who have offered your support so that I can spend time here in Romania.

--Jeanne

Friday, October 12, 2007

We are here at Geo's home and things are really fine here. It will be warm and comfy and just fine. This is better than a hotel because it will indirectly help the animals by supporting Geo and her boyfriend, Vioriel. they both hand out flyers to recruit patients for Dr. Ileana.

About Dr. Ileana's progress since I left a year and one half ago: Lots and lots of physical improvements in the facility itself. I see there are also many more pieces of equipment, too. She has a dry heat autoclave that holds quite a few instruments so I don't understand about the need for a new autoclave. I gave her two Rochester Calmalts and a very nice needle holder/scissor combination to help her better and more safely spay dogs.

There are lots of cages to hold dogs. Today, she said she had already done 10 cats and was finishing 2 dog spays. I took over and neutered two dogs and spayed a dog. Plus, there are two veterinary students here who are learning from her. I am teaching all of them the Miller's knot and a quicker way to neuter a cat. Those two things are the common knowledge that seems to be lacking from all of Romanian veterinary minds. All have accepted the new techniques although the rate of acceptance has varied between enthusiastic and pessimistic until they see how much easier surgeries can be. I have been asked by the local Cluj vets and also the veterinary university vets to return to teach an acupuncture class, perhaps next year? More about that later.

Now, I am inquiring to you about my overall purpose here. I think that I am to spread the knowledge and new skills to as many surgeons' minds as possible within each town. Also, to evaluate Dr. Ileana's progress and to assist her for several days. With this purpose, I was able to teach and then observe Cluj vets actually performing the surgeries in a better manner. Even the vet students were doing the surgeries on Tuesday! We have indeed reached out to reveal new perspectives in some dozen minds. This is good!

I think that Galati's program is going well so far as I can tell. We'll do more surgeries tomorrow and then want to help Mr. Cherac on Sunday but that is quite a story in itself. If all goes as planned, we should have our obligations done by Sunday night and I was thinking it might be more important to spend more time in Buzau and help Christina and Maria set up program that might be more fruitful overall. Anyway, Dr. Ileana is doing just fine and it doesn't appear that she really needs my help nearly as much as Buzau.

If this sounds good to you, please write back and we will inform the Galati and Buzau groups of the change of plans. Christina wants me to speak with the press and meet with the authorities since she says that they will believe a foreigner rather than a Romanian. Doing well, much better than the last visit here.

--Dr. Jeanne Olson