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| The Esther Honey Foundation clinic building. |
SAT relocated briefly and blissfully to the outrageously beautiful Cook Islands last week to meet the team of veterinary volunteers running the Esther Honey Foundation. (And if you're tempted to volunteer, let me just show you what is across the road).
Michelle is one of a team of remarkable vets who give up their time to look after animals. And though it might seem like all azure water and coconuts, staffing the only veterinary clinic in the country is hard (but definitey rewarding) work. SAT pulled up a crate and interviewed Michelle whilst she was performing surgery one morning.
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| Dr Michelle Gray with patient at the Esther Honey Foundation. |
When did you graduate
and how did you find yourself working on the Cook Islands?
I graduated from Sydney University in 2006. My first job was
in mixed practice in Wauchope, I loved it. I would have stayed longer except I
got itchy feet and wanted to travel. I planned to travel for 6-12 months and
settle back down with another permanent position, that was three and a half
years ago.
How did you hear about
the Esther Honey Foundation?
I heard about it when I was going through uni and thought I
would come over when I graduated but then I was offered my first job and
thought I would come over when I had a bit more experience. One of my friends from
uni volunteered here and loved it, gave really good feedback about the organisation
and island and said she had a great time. I always wanted to do volunteer work.
The first time I came was October 2010, I meant to stay for
two months and ended up staying for four because I loved it. Then I came back
as the then Director had to attend a wedding overseas and I filled in for him.
Since then I’ve been coming and going, and have been here for a total of two
years of the last three-and-a-half years. When I go home to Australia I do
locum work.
Earlier this year the clinic director had to leave the
island for health reasons. I knew how things worked and took over the role on a
temporary basis so the US management could find a new person. Happily Amy, an
American vet who graduated about ten years ago, was going to stay for six
months but she’s interested in taking over the managerial role now. At the
moment we’re doing a sort of hand over.
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| Michelle performs surgery. |
What does the Esther
Honey Clinic do?
The mission is to improve the health and welfare of animals
by humane population control and education, and to provide low cost veterinary
services for the animals of the Cook Islands.
We also run vet treks where we travel to the outer islands
and do spey/neuter programs to help control populations. There are no clinics
out there so you do surgeries on picnic tables [using total intravenous
anaesthesia] and verandahs and you get whole school groups coming down to
watch.
We also do education programs in the schools on basic animal
care – the five freedoms, when to get veterinary care. The kids love it as we
take a few kittens and they get to see animals.
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| The sign outside the EHF. |
What species do you
treat?
The focus is cats and dogs but being the only vet clinic in
the country, when we get injured pigs or goats or wild birds we do try and look
after them as well. At the moment we have three goats in residence. The main
reasons we see goats are dog attack or tether injuries. We castrated 6 pigs the
other day.
What sort of cases do
you see?
We see a lot of dogs and cats hit by cars, dogs more than
cats. All the dogs are free roaming and not all of them have road sense. A lot
of motor vehicle accidents happen in the driveway. Also, animals will run out
towards the scooters which is a problem for tourists who aren’t used to
controlling scooters. We’re planning on running an education campaign to get
people to tether their dogs, especially at dawn and dusk as that is when most
accidents happen.
We see a lot of broken legs, abrasions, pulmonary contusions
and hips popping out.
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| An orthopaedic patient wearing an external fixator recovers (NB the cage behind is not his cage - it just happened to be near). |
We also see fish-poisoning cases (due to ciaguatera). I had
never heard of it before I came here. It’s only in the Pacific Islands and the
Carribean. We see around 15-20 per year.
We see a lot of skin cases. Fleas are a huge problem on the
island. We’re always trying to get donations of flea treatments and we do end
up buying some in. Flea treatment is one of the only things we charge for at
the clinic as we can’t afford to give it away for free.
The island is meant to be free of ticks. In 2011 we found
the first ever ticks on the island, on a litter of pups in Arorangi and two
other dogs had them. We don’t know where they came from. We sent them off to
the Ministry of Agriculture and they identified them and have been keeping an
eye out ever since. We treated all those dogs and puppies. They weren’t from
the same area so it was a bit weird.
How does the EHF
charge for veterinary services?
We offer veterinary services free to locals, and request
they make a donation if it’s within their means to do so to help cover the
costs. Some people are really generous, they might pay us by donating a giant
bag of dog food and $200; others perhaps don’t consider the costs of providing
veterinary services. We try to educate them about the costs of drugs and
surgery.
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| Michelle and Francesca prepare to take radiographs of a dog. |
You also do
after-hours.
Technically our work finishes at 5pm, we try to encourage
people to leave the clinic and see the beach. Because we live on site the
locals know that and tend to turn up when it suits them. One of the vets will
always have an on-call mobile with them and people can reach that for
emergencies. It is really variable how many emergencies we see.
So just to clarify,
the EHF is staffed by volunteers including yourself. That’s really interesting
given that a lot of vets are concerned about low salaries.
I get paid a living allowance and accommodation is provided,
I have enough money for food and living. Compared to other professions the
veterinary profession is underpaid, but I find the work here so rewarding that
as long as we have enough to live on I don’t really care. I do the work for the
animals.
Is it all vet work or
do volunteers work in other areas?
Probably one thing people need to realise when coming to
volunteer here, because we are a hospital and a shelter as well, there is a lot
of feeding and cleaning and general nursing type work. Most people who come
here are more than willing to do whatever is needed for the animals but we want
to make sure they have realistic expectations.
How can veterinarians
and vet students help?
There are a whole bunch of ways. Obviously coming over and
volunteering is fantastic. [Volunteers pay their own flights and expenses].
Veterinarians and veterinary nurses can collect out of date
supplies and talk to reps about donating supplies. There is a whole list of
things we always need: bandages, flea treatments, suture material, basic
day-to-day supplies. We can’t accept controlled drugs except when we order
them, but we do ask people get in touch and let us know what is coming and we
let customs know. We’re in the process of trying to formalise a VAT exemption
so we don’t get charged tax. On the website we have a needs list that we update
each month.
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| A dog on the beach near the EHF. (When the EHF patients need hydrotherapy, they visit the lagoon for a swim! It is without doubt the world's most stunning hydrotherapy facility. Complete with tropical fish). |
How can pet owners
help?
Donations can be made via the website and spreading the word
helps. You can follow us on Facebook.
Even people coming here on holidays can get in touch with us
if they are willing to transport supplies (especially if they are from
Australia, New Zealand or even America) we can even arrange having things sent
to them to bring over, as shipping is one of our biggest costs. If people can
bring stuff in their luggage allowance it saves us money – and we’re close to
the airport.
What sort of skills
have you developed in this job?
I have learned to use just about every drug combination
known to mankind. It changes from month to month what we have donated and what
we have a lot of. So you learn to use different combinations and improvise with
what we have got.
The best thing about the vet profession is that you can
email people and send photos and get advice from uni friends and lecturers. There
is a lot of independent learning and study for cases you haven’t seen before.
One thing I’ve had to get a lot better at is teaching other
people. We have a lot of new graduates and vet students coming over and we
teach them about surgery and about fish poisoning…it has been really good, I
really enjoy it. And I love meeting all the vets from around the world, I’ve
picked up a lot of tips and tricks and ways of doing things.
Thank you Michelle and to to all the volunteers at the EHF who do such a fantastic job.
