On Sunday, June 23, Amigos de los Animales held its second campaign of the month in La Sauceda, in a large vacant building located on the town’s main street. Sunday is market day, and the streets were crowded with stalls and shoppers. Fortunately, with the wet season finally upon Guanajuato, the much-needed rain had brought cooler weather.
Despite all the activity, when our team arrived there was already a line of people waiting with their pets. A covered area outside the building was designed for them, allowing for the flow of activities inside to be less crowded.
We managed to sterilize 90 animals that day—48 female dogs, 10 male dogs, 17 female cats, and 15 male cats. We would have had a total of 91 animals, but a kitten of 0.7 kg was deemed too small for the procedure and was not accepted. We hope it will be able to attend a future campaign.
The building provided well-lit, spacious areas for the various procedures. The large space was organized well, with designated areas for check-in, patient preparation, surgery, and recovery. The campaign ran smoothly and efficiently. Initially we had fewer volunteers than usual, but the number grew as the morning went on.
Two volunteers assisted Julia Salido, the campaign manager, in registering the animals. This entailed recording pets’ and owners’ details, weighing the animals, and attaching identification tags to them. We then had the people wait with their pets along the walls leading to the main area until the animals were called for sedation and surgery.
Our medical team for the day had seven members. Verónica Almaguer sedated the animals. Abril Hernández, Sandra Hernández (no relation), Ricardo Montes de Oca, and Arturo Rocha Bravo performed the surgeries. Karla Ahumada and I handled post-operative medicating and monitoring of animals in recovery with the assistance of several other volunteers.
As is customary, we designated separate recovery areas for cats and dogs. All the procedures and recoveries ran smoothly, except for one cat, who had been fed in the morning despite the advice to avoid feeding pets for 8 hours prior to arrival. The cat vomited during the procedure and upon waking up, but fortunately had no other complications.
People waited patiently for their pets to be ready for discharge from the recovery unit. They were given medications and oral and written instructions for post-operative care before taking the animals home. They were very grateful.
The day concluded at approximately 4 p.m., earlier than expected, given the new location and the large number of pets that were sterilized. As a visiting veterinary nurse participating in the two campaigns this month, I was astonished by the amount of work that Amigos de los Animales is doing and delighted to be a part of such a passionate team, making a difference to the health and wellbeing of animals in Guanajuato.