Our equine clinic on October 31 was a huge success! Ninety-seven hardworking, cart pulling equine (horse, donkey, mule) received free veterinary care at our mobile veterinary clinic. Thanks to your support and for the support of our amazing partners who were our hands on-ground doing the work in Nicaragua so our projects can continue during the pandemic. #teamwork
The clinic took place in La Laguna, a vulnerable community where our clients work 365 days a year. This community has no running water and these working animals that attended our clinic yesterday provide an essential service to the community and are the livelihoods of their owners. The equine in this community travel over 3 miles, often daily, to retrieve water from the city well so they can provide their community with water. They work many hours and miles a day carrying hundreds of pounds of water to provide families with water who have no alternate mode of transportation. These horses are critical to daily life here. If these equine fall ill, the families with go without earnings, community members without water and our four-legged friends will likely suffer or worse.
The Clinic
It’s a testament to the trust that Dr Lester has built with working animal owners, within the city where his veterinary practice resides, that this clinic was so successful. Nearly 100% of the clients he reached during the census attended the clinic. The proof was evident by this and the commitment these owners show in the health and care towards their horses. Dr. Lester has been teaching others how to humanely care for their animals, coming from a place of trust where they can easily understand and act upon.
Our animal welfare partner Elisa of Fundacion ADAN was not only there to represent NicaLove, capturing with beautiful images, what we couldn’t be there to do, but also assisting in anyway needed.
We are told that the majority of our equine attendees were in “decent health.” Our clinic mostly tended to wound care, parasites and tick treatment. Thanks to Dr Lester and his team at Aprovet for his time commitment offering affordable or free veterinary care and equine welfare to those in need in his country. Lester’s commitment to these communities is beginning to prove to be positive and lasting.
In addition to the equine clients were were able to provide 15 dogs and cats in need with veterinarian attention.
This clinic was the first of three in a series that we hope to be able to offer during COVID. Our veterinary partner came to us asking for assistance. He sees the struggles of these families first hand. He offers free veterinarian care as he is able but the number in need is far greater they he can possibly support on his own.