Vets: Aoife and Nicola
Nurses: Emma, Vicky and Faye
Vet Student: Tom
Recovery room: Debra and Liz
Catchers: Antonio, Natalie, Mirjam, Mary, Suzanna, Keith, Linda, Leanne and Suza
Project Co-ordinator: Jenny Billimore
Aoife’s account:
This was my third Twinkle Trust trip in association with WVS. Arriving in the airport in Fuerteventura was almost akin to a home-coming. Several familiar faces were there to greet me and we had a catch up chat while sorting out our car rental. This year we got a Renault Clio (with a free tank of petrol), and again, I took the driving seat. I had the same bunny hopping, gear crunching shame as last year but embarrassing driving on the wrong side of the road was not noted this time. We stayed in a different hotel to last year – the main advantage being that all of the Twinklers were next to each other, which accounted for frequent muffled meows and the odd late night drink.
Tremendous advances have taken place with the facility at Los Estancos. Two extra rooms have been built to establish an adjoining knockdown room and ops room. This was fantastic as it encouraged teamwork and created a great camaraderie between everyone. The recovery room remains separate, which allows the cats to come round from anaesthetic in a quiet and peaceful area.
Isolation has also improved with a proper door and tiled floor. It really feels like a vet clinic now, compared with a few years ago. This reflects the constant advances this charity makes to improve facilities for their patients.
The triple combination of domitor/torbugesic/ketamine remains the mainstay of the anaesthetic protocol but a gaseous anaesthetic machine has arrived and now all that needs to be sourced is oxygen and gas! This will be particularly helpful in cases that are higher risk or require longer anaesthetics. Oxygen will also be invaluable in emergency situations.
All the cats were treated for worms and fleas as well as being given a multivitamin injection. Cats that required ear cleaning were tended to and all the cats that were sterilised had their left ears tipped.
This year we treated about 230 cats. This was less than previous trips due to problems sourcing cats on the last operating day- this may be suggestive that the project has now successfully controlled some areas although lots of new areas need to be explored. We sterilised about 200 cats, performed two enucleations, numerous ear croppings, two dentals (Nicola is the dental queen!). Sadly several cats were euthanised due to being clinically infected with FeLV and/or FIV. One cat also succumbed to anaesthesia and despite our best efforts made her way to the great kitty basket in the sky.
This year, we decided to be tourists on our quiet afternoon and toured the island. It was great fun apart from a strange Renault tail gating episode. Our last night was fantastic- our team mascots Twinkle (bizarre battery operated toy cat with flashing eyes) and Lizzie (even more bizarre white toy rabbit with unnerving vocals) provided the entertainment. Sangria flowed and a great night was had by all. The sore heads the next morning were cured by a fry-up breakfast before making our way to the airport.
This is a fantastic trip for anyone interested in charity work, as it is well organised and there is a great support network available, if needed.
I would like to thank Bayer for their invaluable donation of Drontal, Droncit and Profender.
Finally, I would like to thank WVS for help towards flights and for help with the organisation of this trip.
Tom’s account:
From a student’s point of view this was a fantastic experience. Counting as a week of EMS it was a great chance to do something different to the standard Easter experience of watching TB-tests on wet and wind-swept farms (not that I don’t like that side of things!). I got to see what charity work was all about and to try to lend an inexperienced hand.
Obviously the basic principles of treatment and surgery are the same but under totally contrasting conditions; speed was of the essence, resources were stretched, cats were often wild and, importantly, it was sunny and in a foreign country.
The anaesthetic issue and the numbers being brought through the clinic meant that I couldn’t do many spays but I was able to do a massive number of castrates and generally get hands on experience taking bloods, etc.
A great bunch of people, a well-organised enterprise, good food and accommodation make this a highly recommendable taster of voluntary work, and one that any student will gain a lot from (if they beat me to next year’s trip!).
Nicola’s account:
This was my second Twinkle Trust Trip to Fuerteventura and it was great to be back. We had a lot of the same crew from last year, which enabled everyone to slot back into their same roles, this meant that we could work as a team right from day 1.
The new prep room, adjoining the op theatre, and update to the hospital area are great and definitely improved communication between the op and prep rooms.
We seemed to get more free time this year, which was a combination of less cats being caught and Aoife being super quick at neutering!
Twinkle are doing a great job and must have made a huge impact on the cat population of the island. They have good standards of hygiene and care for the cats. For every spay, surgical gloves are worn and sterile drapes are used and the operating kits are autoclaved between cats. Any cats that need further medicating / care are kept in the hospital area for the week, this means that some cats can receive a full course of antibiotics if necessary. The donated anaesthetic machine will be very useful for longer ops or for higher risk cases. Hopefully, this will be up and running by the next trip.
