This trip had been planned for a vet and a vet nurse but due to circumstances beyond her control the vet nurse who had kindly offered to go on the trip at short notice was unable to come. We discussed me not going but Lourdes was happy enough for me to go on on my own with the promise of another vet nurse on the way.
I flew to Faro airport, Portugal on the 29th October and was picked up by Lourdes who runs and owns the sanctuary. I wasn’t sure where I would be staying for the two weeks so had brought a sleeping bag. As it turns out Lourdes has some very kind friends, some of whom run a hotel in the local town Loule. They were kind enough to let me stay there for the two weeks and with lovely rooms, breakfasts and swimming pool so I wasn’t complaining!
I was very impressed generally with the facilities, housing and welfare standards at the sanctuary. Over the next week myself with Lourdes standing in as an amazing impromptu vet nurse started to spay and neuter the dogs and cats at the sanctuary. Lourdes some years ago had a surgery built with money from donations. This had fitted kitchen units,sink and recovery room. Most of the drugs and autoclave and equipment were donated by veterinary surgeries and other animal charities including WVS. I was impressed with the operating room, the only item we were missing was an anaesthetic machine although I believe negotiations may be under-way to receive one. This meant all dogs and cats were anaethetised using xylazine and ketamine. Metacam or Rimadyl used as analgesic and Clamoxyl La for antibiotic.
Leishmaniasis is a major problem in dogs in Portugal, especially wild dogs with no access to flea and fly repellants to discouage sandflies from biting them. The main clinical signs caused by leishmaniasis are due to the animal’s immune response to it often resulting in renal failure, skin and ocular lesions. We assessed each dog by clinically examining it looking for any indication of heart failure suggesting a severe Dirofilaria immitis infection, and performed a leishmaniasis antibody test using a blood sample. Most of the dogs were so well-behaved they gave me their paw and allowed me to take a blood sample without restraint.
The vet nurse arrived at the start of the second week but unfortunately she was only able to come to the sanctuary for two days due to circumstances beyond her control. We operated on a lot of animals over the two days and I really appreciated her help! It’s amazing how much it speeds the process up when there’s someone clipping and drawing up injections while I was operating! Over the two weeks we spayed 27 bitches, castrated 21 dogs, 21 cat spays and 16 cat castrates. Out of all the dogs we blood sampled ,5 unfortunately were leishmaniasis antibody positive and some had early clinical signs, scabs on head, ocular lesions. When dogs are privately owned often an attempt would be made to treat leishmaniasis in dogs. The dogs we were testing had been housed at Quintinha for at least a week and if no owner has come forward they are tested for leishman’s. All the dogs at Quintinha appear healthy and well and unfortunately to allow this to continue both financially and practically, those dogs with leishmaniasis antibody’s and often start of clinical signs are euthanised.
Lourdes receives lots of unwanted puppies and kittens as well as adult dogs and cats. Often the puppies have diarrhoea and are full of worms. Quintinha worms and carefully feeds these young animals until they are well enough to be neutered and re-homed. Each new batch of puppies is quarantined until well. Some of the more interesting surgical cases were a tail amputation due to an old injury of a wild cat captured to be castrated. A young female wild cat who’s breathing deteriorated after anaesthesia and on internal exam through the spay wound was found to have almost no diaphragm. We took the decision to euthanise the cat as from internal exam even if we’d had gaseous anaesthesia I did not think it suitable for repair. Post mortem afterwards confirmed this- there was almost no diaphragm at all, no sign of a tear and as the cat was very small presumed it was congenital.
Although it would have been great to spay or neuter larger numbers of animals what we achieved helps reduce the numbers of dogs on the streets. There are such a large number of homeless dogs and cats- some left behind after tourists leave after living in the Algarve for months or years, others thrown out for growing too big. The dogs and cats at Quintinha are so well-behaved and friendly I will miss them and the people there a lot and I thank Lourdes and all who help there for a lovely time!
