REPORT FOR THE KISMET ACCOUNT/APAFF FERAL CAT NEUTERING PROJECT IN FIGUIERA DA FOZ, PORTUGAL, FEBRUARY 2008
From Feb 1st to 10th 2008 a feral cat TNR (trap neuter release) project was arranged by The Kismet Account charity with local animal welfare group assistance in Figueira da Foz, NW Portugal. This was to be a preliminary trip to the area with the intention of planning a larger scale visit in November. I was fortunate to be one of the two vets working on the project and having never taken part in such work before was uncertain but excited about what to expect. Having recently started working as a locum vet after seven years in mixed then small animal practice I now found myself in the ideal situation to be able to take time off to experience different aspects of vet work that I wouldn’t normally get in the UK.After WVS had arranged my initial placement my first contact with The Kismet Account was through their organiser Ian Macfarlaine. I flew out from Bristol to arrive at Porto airport on Friday 1st February where I met up with both Ian and his fellow cat trapper Harry Eckman. We collected our hire car and followed Ian in his, which turned out to be the same car hired on a previous trip (the company must have got wise when it was returned smelling somewhat feline last time). The journey to Figueira da Foz was an easy drive through the sunny hills of northern Portugal. Figueira itself is a well developed large coastal town halfway between Porto & Lisbon and at this time of year was holiday-maker free.
Since the rest of the team were not arriving until the Saturday our job was to set up the clinic and for Harry and Ian to liase with the local contacts and assess their potential trapping sites. With his system now perfected after many trips Ian explained how it would all work and pretty soon a fully working and well-equipped surgery was ours to fill with feral cats. The site itself was the municipal stray dog kennels which had plenty of space to convert kennels and offices into separate transfer, knock-out and recovery rooms, prep room and theatre. The few ‘residents’ had kindly been moved to another dogs’ home outside town, run by local animal welfare group APAFF (Associacao de Proteccao Animal da Figuiera da Foz). The co-coordinator of APAFF, Florbela Brisida Castanheira, was our main point of contact and she had clearly done a great deal of much-appreciated planning prior to our arrival.
Over the next day or so the rest of the team arrived, fellow vet Sonia Ferre Jordan and our nurses Bekky Hobbs, Sarah Winstone and Sharon Kelly. We settled into our accommodation which was a flat in a tower block with an interesting view of the neighbouring gypsy camp.
With a provisional list of sites Ian and Harry started trapping on the Saturday night for us to begin work on Sunday. The cats were all trapped using manual traps and those caught overnight were the first to be neutered the following morning. At the clinic they were transferred from traps to crush cages if not already in one. The next step was to sedate using the triple combination of domitor, torbugesic and ketamine injected intra-muscularly where possible, though many times it was more realistically intra-cat. Towards the end of the week, due to the numbers being neutered, supplies of domitor ran out so GA was switched to xylazine and ketamine. Cages were then covered and left for 10 minutes, if needed top-ups of domitor/xylazine and ketamine were given.
Once asleep cats were transferred to the prep room table and sexed for neutering. All cats had injections of metacam for peri-operative analgesia and lamoxyl LA antibiosis. Male cats were clipped/plucked and castrated routinely. Females were clipped and prepared for flank spaying. All were spayed via the flank approach including several heavily pregnant queens and a few with fairly large pyometras. There was a good supply of suture material and the majority was vicryl for both ligatures and closure. All had the skin closed using a combination of intra-dermal sutures and if necessary super-glue. Following neutering all cats were ear tipped for future identification. There were enough surgical kits to keep a good continuous flow of cats and as the week progressed the whole team got considerably quicker, mostly down to the excellent nurses who had us all going like clockwork. Ian brought along an autoclave from previous trips so all kits were properly sterilized prior to use.
Cats were then transferred back to their cages for recovery. There was a limited supply of antisedan which was used for those operated on near the end of the day or for emergencies (none of which we had fortunately). Cats were generally allowed to recover overnight, being provided with water, for release the following morning.
Florbela was a constant help throughout the week working tirelessly and providing us with extra supplies (cotton wool, spirit, gloves etc) as needed and more importantly lunch on several days. She also introduced us to the food hall in the nearby shopping centre where despite the options of local salt cod dishes we found the MacDonald’s served us well more than once.
The local authorities took great interest in the project with the head municipal vet, Romano, stopping by on several occasions. We had a steady stream of very keen Portugese vet students observing. In Portugal neutering cats is not that commonplace so they took particular interest in the flank spay technique and most seemed converted. On one day midweek we had extra help from local vet, Cristiane Lima, which was much appreciated by myself and Sonia.
We operated through to the Friday and by the end of the week we had neutered an impressive 216 cats. The breakdown was approximately 55:45 males:females. None were lost under GA and only two had to be euthanased, one with an open fly-struck leg fracture and another with a large pyometra and free pus in the abdomen. Along with the cats trapped by Ian and Harry a large number of feral cats bought in by locals who had become aware of the project were neutered.
At the end of operating on Friday the clinic was cleaned up and packed away. Florbela then took us to visit the other dogs’ home that her charity ran. That night we were treated to a meal rather oddly at the local casino by Romano and Florbela. The highlight, however, had to be the show after the meal. I think I can honestly say that none of us really expected to enjoy a modern ballet entitled ‘Aquarium’ with dancers performing to the soundtrack of Jaws quite as much as we did.
Saturday was a free day and since we hadn’t really had much time to get out of the clinic we opted to visit the beach. This was a great way to finish off what appeared to have been a highly successful trip, though most of us were like zombies at our 5am start on Sunday morning to get back to Porto airport. The hire car was returned with its new delightful aroma and goodbyes/see-you-agains were made. I’m looking forward to my next trip back to Figueira, hopefully later this year and strongly recommend this type of project to anyone wanting to do something other than routine vet work.
