Ghana - Clinic

The 30th July, my first day in clinic. I saw a number of different cases being brought in throughout the day. As they don't hand out appointments like they do in England, the clinic could go from being very quiet to being very busy quickly. The owners would just turn up when it suited them.

The first patients that were brought in were a group of puppies that looked very dehydrated. They were also extremely dirty and smelly, and it appeared that they were not that well looked after. They were given their booster vaccinations and dewormed.

Soon after a dog was brought in that seemed dead, however, after a little while I noticed that it was breathing very slightly. It turns out that dog had had a lot of diarrhoea and to make things worse, it had had its since yesterday, meaning that the owner didn't care enough to bring the dog in before it got even worse. The dog was put up onto the table and there is just led still. After preforming a clinical examination, the vet noticed that the dog had injection marks on its arm, which meant that they man had lied that the dog had not received any treatment. The vet couldn't treat the dog as any other injections could kill the dog. In the end there was nothing that the vet could do but make the man leave and take the dog back to the place where it had first been treated.

A well looked after dog was the next patient through the door. It looked to be in good condition - the coat was clean with no sign of ticks or fleas. The owner said that the dog had not been eating, but that it had also not been sick. The vets were about to treat the dog when I saw the same problem that I have seen so many time in England - the owners can't afford to pay for the treatment or they are not willing to pay so nothing gets done to help the sick dog. The dog soon left after receiving no treatment at all.

During the slow times of the clinic, usually around lunch time, everyone occupied themselves by reading, eating or even sleeping.

After a very quiet period at the clinic the well looked after dog returned with more owners. This time the owner brought some deworming tablets and some vitamins before taking the dog back home. It seemed that the owners were going to treat the dog themselves when they got home as it was cheaper that way.

Another puppy was brought in as it was vomiting. it was given antibiotics, vitamins, promethazine and oxy. Soon after another dog that was not eating was brought it. This dog was given Dexa, Penstrip and vitamins. This dog had been vomiting yesterday so it was coming in today as they have to come in for 3 days of treatment.

Just as in England, the table is cleaned between patients, however, unlike England, every dog is made to wear a muzzle. There are also a lot more people in the consulting room as it doubles up as an office. At times it could get very squashed.

A tiny puppy of only a few weeks old was brought in by the owner in the hope of getting it vaccinated. However, the dog was too young so instead they dewormed it and sent it on its way.

A dog with an ear ache was brought in soon afterwards. The owner had tried to help the dog by pouring palm nut oil into its ear and giving it antibiotics. When the vet heard this she burst out laughing. After looking into the dogs ears, she got some cotton wool and dabbed up the rest of the palm oil - thankfully there wasn't too much left! The dog was then given antibiotics and vitamins. As the dog was so scared due to the amount of people in the room at the time, he emptied his bowels everywhere and he growled and wiggled a lot in an attempt to get free.

It seemed that the clinic was busy in the morning and after lunch, which is the same as the clinics in England that I have been to. The only difference is that they are no scheduled operations. During my month stay I didn't see one operation take place at the vet clinic, and neither had many of the other volunteers.

Another puppy was brought in for a check up on a wound it had on its front paw. The wound didn't look infected so it was cleaned and antibacterial spray was sprayed on the wound. It was then given injections before heading home. Soon after a dog came in with scar marks down its back. It was just coming in for a check up and it seemed that the burns were healing well. The owner was hoping to use the dog as a security dog so the vet told his how to go about doing this. She said that you had to limit playtime and its contact with people.

All in all, today had been a rather busy day at the clinic. It was a lot busier than I was expecting after I had heard the others complain at how slow it was.