Dominican Republic Day 4-Sunday

I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning. We had been invited to a house during milking time and I didn't want to miss it. (Thankfully milking time in DR is about 7 AM and not earlier :-) )

Dan, our dairy farmer and Roy milking a cow.

Normally they stimulate the cow to let down her milk with a calf, but sometimes they used an injection of oxytocin.That was a new one for me. 

These guys were Latino cowboys and used their horses and ropes to round up the cows and horses.

 Since we had church the night before, we didn't have a service on Sunday. We had invited people to come with their animals to be treated at 8 AM, and so by the time we got back there were owners of chickens, pigs, goats, horses all waiting patiently. First, I became a chicken doc.

Ethical dilemma of a vet. Treating a chicken that they use for cock fights. That was a first for me. While I don't agree with it, it was one way that these villagers made an income. Cock fighting is legal in the DR.

Then I went back to my Iowa roots and became a pig doc.

What's wrong with your pig?

Then I became a goat doc and treated this nasty ol' wound on this goat. We were happy to find that the leg didn't seem broken, and that the infection didn't go into the joint.

Meanwhile others were teaching on horse hoof care, and visiting dairy farms and advising on things like planting corn (It's best to put 1 seed per hole and not 5!).

Teaching about horse feet.

Overall, the animals seemed to be in pretty good shape. Those that seemed to be the worse off were the nursing mothers. We did a lot of teaching about the importance of feeding these mothers more to meet their nutritional needs. This pig was pretty run down. Here she's licking up her dewormer in a slurry of local soda.

The patient isn't quite recovered from surgery. Don't worry, that's what a motorcycle is for!

Took this photo for my nephews, Ben & Luke. The kids were having the time of their life pushing this motorcycle around with the motor off!

 

 That's the way our day went. Lots of animals! And then a night of sharing with our teammates & translators followed by sleeping on the church benches.