A VETERINARY team from Somerset West has made a significant impact on the health and welfare of pets from impoverished homes through an animal health training programme and mass spay clinic held in Nieu Bethesda.
The small Karoo town, best known for its Owl House museum, has a burgeoning pet population but no veterinary clinic. The closest veterinary services are 50km away in Graaff Reinet.
Last week the EberVet Petcare Group brought its 10-women team of a veterinarian, veterinary nurse and clinic aides to assist the Camdeboo Sterilisation Initiative (CSI) with a spayathon and to offer pet care training to residents of Pienaarsig township.
The seven residents, all passionate animal lovers, participated in two days of training including theory and in-the-field education led by veterinary nurse, Sr Hilda Mills.
“Our training programme has equipped these people to tend to animal wounds, prevent diseases like biliary, treat diseases like mange and identify more serious contagious diseases like distemper which can then be referred to CSI for further assistance.
“This will be of enormous benefit to a community which has a large and burgeoning pet population and no easy access to veterinary care,” Sr Mills said.
Graduate Naasly Swiers said his desire to learn more about animal health was deepened after the death of his own dog from distemper.
“Our animal knowledge is very poor in our town, so we are not able to take proper care of our pets.
“This course has taught me so much and if I can help people understand, for example, how diseases are spread this will help our community.”
Isak Jacobs was especially excited about the sterilisation programme because sterilisation not only limited litter numbers but also discouraged animals from roaming and fighting.
The graduates also learned how to take an animal’s temperature, administer medication, protect animals against parasites, handle animals correctly and look for signs of dehydration.
At the end of their training programme, the graduates assisted the EberVet team with its two-day spayathon at the local community hall, at which 84 animals were sterilised.
Veterinarian and EberVet CEO, Dr Hilldidge Beer, said it had been a privilege to be able to teach people like Naasly, Isak, Michaela Jacobs, Leeford Babers, Elverno Adams, Marchellino Williams and Marno Koopman.
“With the right mentorship, and by combining education with animal welfare, you can make a significant difference to an impoverished community,” Beer said.
Victoria Nance, who single-handedly runs CSI’s Nieu Bethesda animal welfare, said the presence of the EberVet team had already persuaded previously skeptical pet owners to have their pets sterilised at the spayathon.
“On day one, people were reluctant to bring their animals to the hall; that has changed in just 24 hours, and the numbers are growing.”
Nance said the new animal welfare assistants would help her organisation to cover a lot more ground.
“And very importantly they can help educate pet owners which will improve the lives of our animals, and their owners, enormously.”
EberVet CVC, which is based in Somerset West but does outreach across the Karoo, is hoping to return to Nieu Bethesda in Spring, to conduct a two-week clinic and spayathon in the town.
