9/15/05 Now We're Official (Again)

I have been a delinquent blogger lately. I’ve been keeping busy seeing patients at the GSPCA, performing surgeries, and playing Ultimate Frisbee at SGU with some students. I’ll give a quick recap of the past couple of weeks.

At the end of August my friend Brooke and I were able to get out and explore different parts of the island. One day we went up the coast in search of Dragon Bay which I was told had some good snorkeling. We didn’t find that bay but instead went a little too far north into Flamingo Bay which was still a nice bay and I think has some good snorkeling potential. This was her first time snorkeling so I showed her what to do and then I started out into the bay. I wasn’t out there for long when I realized that there was a rather large layer of floating things in the water as I got further from shore. It wasn’t until I got a few sharp stings on my shoulder and arm that I realized that I was swimming through a patch of jelly fish! But the ones I saw looked like comb jellies which don’t sting so I don’t know what was going on. I tried to swim around the edge of the jelly fish by going close to shore but every time I went a little further out I got a little sting so I took that as a sign and gave up for the day.

The next day we borrowed some kayaks from the University Club (where some of the SGU visiting professors stay) and paddled around Prickly Bay. Fortunately there were no jelly fish here.







On another day we went up into the “rainforest” to see Grand Etang Lake and Annondale Falls. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed to see that much of the rainforest was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan last year. I have been told by several people that it actually could get quite cold and dark up in the forest pre-Ivan. Hopefully in the coming years the forest will be able to make a comeback. We also saw one of a large group of monkeys that live up on the mountain. Apparently some of the original Spanish explorers brought over a few monkeys and they have managed to do well in Grenada.

Ever since I arrived at the GSPCA I’ve looked out my bedroom window to see the jungle growing over the retaining wall and climbing on to the roof. The vines had been growing up the wires to the upper roof and started to choke some of the air-conditioning units. So on a slow day at the clinic I sharpened up a cutlass and jumped up onto the roof. It’s a good thing that nobody was within 20 feet because who knows where this huge sharp knife could have flown! But I managed to clear an unbelievable amount of brush off the roof and keep all my appendages intact!

It turns out that I was merely keeping all of my fingers intact to give one of my patients the next week his choice of fingers to chew on. I haven’t been bitten in the 3 years since graduation and I often wondered what I would say and do when that day came. Would I scream like a little girl? Run around the room? Well, it turns out that when this little 8 pound pompek started to eat my right thumb I yelled (not screamed), started shaking my hand subsequently pulling him all around the table before he let go, ran my hand under some cold water, apologized to the owner for yelling obscenities to which she replied “I probably would have said more,” put a rubber glove to keep all the blood in, and finished the exam and vaccines (after placing a muzzle on this lovely dog). Upon closer inspection, I had a nice 1.5 cm laceration just next to my right thumb nail and some scrapes on my thumb closer to my hand. Fortunately, I was able to keep it clean and it did not become infected.

The next day we fielded a call from a woman who said her dog had been harpooned in his right hind leg. She was from a fishing village so that comment wasn’t too outrageous. Once the dog finally made it to the clinic and was sedated and cleaned up, I noticed a few other puncture wounds. Oddly enough (yeah, right) these punctures were in just the right configuration to be from another dog’s canine teeth. So I later tried to explain to the lady that he probably wasn’t harpooned but was bit in the rear end as he was fleeing from a fight with another dog. The resulting abscess had probably just broken through the skin when she finally noticed the problem. Despite my best efforts, she remained convinced that he had been harpooned. Why does every dog owner believe that somebody else did something to their dog? They always think that somebody poisoned, stabbed, or hit their dog. For as large as the hole was in this dog’s leg, I was able to get most of the wound closed, place a drain, and start him on antibiotics. He also continued to walk on the leg and didn’t miss any meals while he was in the hospital! I have some more graphic close-up shots of the crater in this guy's leg but I know that I have a mixed audience (mostly non-vets reading this) and I don't want to gross out too many people!













And finally, Jorge continues to be a man of many talents; anesthetist, handyman, sign maker. Today he delivered a sign to the GSPCA that he made from discarded mahogony boards. Since Hurricane Ivan last September the GSPCA has been unmarked. So we are now officially official again!