Guatemala | Gaby Flacke | Class of 2003

June 15-30, 2000, I traveled with a group of veterinary students from across the United States and with four veterinarians to the remote village of Macanche, in the Peten region of northern Guatemala. We were a group of volunteers with Remote Area Veterinary Services (RAVS), a Program of HSUS, who provide medical care to people across the globe who would ordinarily not have access to such resources. The services provided range from human medical care to dentistry to veterinary medicine, and our group stayed for two weeks at a mission in Macanche as veterinary volunteers.

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Our daily activities involved traveling in a large yellow school bus from Union County, Tennessee, to several villages in the region to provide routine veterinary services. We would rise at the early hour of 5 am each day, eat a hearty breakfast of toast, jelly, and Tang juice, and load up the bus with the supplies for a day's work in the field. Upon arriving at a particular village, we were always greeted by a group of excited Guatemalans who were more than eager to see what we were up to and to watch our activities throughout the day.

We would vaccinate all the local dog for rabies, distemper virus, and parvo virus, and deworm them for internal parasites. We also spayed and neutered many dogs, with the owners' permission, of course.

Cats were also vaccinated with rabies and feline corona virus vaccines, and spayed or neutered, but we found pet cats to be much more scarce than pet dogs.

Other routine services were provided as well, and we attempted to educate the pet owners about better health and nutrition for their animals.

Horses were treated with rabies and tetanus vaccine, dewormed, and castrated at their owners request. We also treated many horses for infections of the withers, which resulted from carrying heavy loads day after day.

Bat bites and lamenesses were also examined, and foot trimming and teeth floating were routine activities.

Furthermore, there were several days when we visited cattle ranches, roping, vaccinating and deworming cattle, and occasionally castrating a bull.

These activities were made much more interesting by the lack of actual cattle chutes on most of the farms we visited.

In the evenings, we would return to the village of Macanche, enjoy a home cooked meal of rice and beans and guacamole made from fresh avocados. A late, cold shower in the dark would top off the night before heading off to our cots for a deep sleep to prepare for the next day of activities.

The local people were extremely friendly, warm, and helpful, and in general made the experience more enjoyable and meaningful. This trip was a wonderful opportunity to learn not only about the local culture and the country of Guatemala, but also to practice veterinary medicine in a real world setting.

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