After waving goodbye to Vet Peach we were flying high and fully motivated. Kim extended her stay and we made exciting plans for community service work that we have been largely unable to do since Covid.
Educational sessions were hosted in the afternoon to make sure our team knew the ins and outs of vaccines and are able to effectively communicate with neighbours and clients. We also talked about recognising dog behaviour, and hygiene procedures, both general and specialised for infectious dogs.
Our first event planned was a rabies vaccination day. We ordered 100 rabies vaccines and pledged to administer them for free to anyone in the community that brought their dog or cat. We handed leaflets around town and received praise from the local government for our efforts. The event was a small success, and while we didn’t quite reach 100 dogs through the door, we received many thanks from Sangkhlaburi’s residents.
The rest of the vaccines followed on our next adventure as we embarked into the jungle. Sangkhlaburi has dozens of villages in its surrounding jungle and the people living in these remote areas rarely come into the town. We packed ice boxes with vaccines, tick and flea treatment, and other commonly used medicines and set out. many animals were vaccinated, and minor health ailments were also treated. It was true ‘travelling’ to ride in the back of the truck through rural Thailand, to be welcomed into the traditional bamboo houses, and see how large families live together alongside the animals here.
We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of love seen between the people and these semi-wild animals, with plates of rice being shared, puppies playing chase with toddlers, and how easily the local people could catch the dogs and cats that were already wary of us as newcomers. It felt great to be back out doing outreach work; in total Kim and the team went on 4 trips and vaccinated over 90 animals. |
