04/30/2024
I participated in a mission trip to a cree reservation south of Edmonton, this group was focused around offering free vaccines, dworming and health exams. This group of Christians who are all part of Christian veterinary mission (CVM) made up of vets, vet students, a technician (me), and some helpers, stayed at a church on a native (cree) reservation from Friday to Monday. We ran a vaccine clinic for dogs and cats out of the church and a large animal group did equine dental floats, vaccines and deworming at a barn with an indoor arena. The second day I was at the barn with the horses. It went so well! I hadn't done an IV injection since 2005 and I did 5, I was shown once, the vet supervised once and I was asked to check and sedate a horse on my own! I succeeded, with the owner holding! I had no problems, I checked the horsee and gave the IV injection. I was paired up with a vet student who was also amazing and we worked together really well, she was very appreciative of my skills and my help holding the horse's head and the tongue. I truly felt appreciated, respected and trusted. The day helping with small animals was great too. I was told they missed my organisation and help as the first day I was basically helping restrain, I did an ear clean, and drawing vaccine and dewormer for vets. The coolest thing was I was actually offering my opinion/experience on dosage and administration of dewormer, nail trims and treatments, and they were listening! Even vets were listening and appreciated my advice! I can't describe how incredible the weekend was or the people I made connections with. We went to a cree church the last day before we left, different then the building we were using as we needed a service in the afternoon since we were vaccinating in the morning. We talked to people in the community, everyone was so appreciative, it was like family. The first day the small animal helped 87 patients, I think 120 over both days. I don't how many horses were helped the first day but the second day we helped 13 horses and ended at 1. The first day they ended at 5:30 so I would estimate about 40-50 between the 2 days. All drugs and vaccines were donated and services provided by volunteers, everyone excited and happy to be there helping. The vet kind of overseeing everything was Irish. He and his wife immigrated with their kids, really nice guy (Irish accents are kinda cool to). He and his wife were the ones in charge. This is their third year working in this community and the amount of animals coming in that were fully vaccinated and properly cared for because of the services donated (free spay and neuter task force also comes every year) was amazing. The stories of people in the community taking in stray dogs and cats was also mirrored by people taking in kids who needed help. Over the weekend we gave out over 30 bibles, people were asking specifically for bibles.
