Mia

For those of you who know me pretty well, it won’t come as much surprise to know that it didn’t take long for me to go from excited/nervous about our new surroundings… to bored with sitting around doing nothing while Todd works. Who me? Really?

While I’m willing to cook, shop, plan weekend activities… and occasionally clean… That’s not enough for me. I’m a very active person who needs to be doing something valuable with my time in order to having any self worth. I’m also a veterinary technician, who, unfortunately, can’t have a paying job in Chile because Todd is here on a diplomatic visa. Arrggh!

But that doesn’t mean I can’t use my skills in a voluntary capacity…

When we first got connected with the What’s App expats group back in late January, someone mentioned a friend, Sofia, who runs an NGO for rescuing pets (Fundación Gaucho, IV Región). Last week, I decided I needed to somehow get back into veterinary medicine, so I sent her a message and introduced myself. I got an immediate response from Sofia saying that she desperately needed someone with my veterinary skills to temporarily medically foster a dog that had recently had both back legs amputated.

Mia was a street dog that had been fed by locals for months but was too timid to catch and spay. One day in February, one of her feeders found her in a ditch with both of her back legs badly fractured and infected. She was very underweight, had an infection in both of her back paws, and was anemic with chronic liver disease. The veterinarian thinks that the legs were probably fractured intentionally. Aren’t people great? Unfortunately, her legs couldn’t be saved, so the vet removed them on February 27.

At the point that I called, Mia was one week out of surgery. She was still in poor physical condition with unhealing open wounds. She would need twice daily intravenous antibiotics as well as other medications three times a day, plus wound cleaning & bandage changing/diaper replacement at least three times a day.

I must admit, my initial response was “No, I won’t foster her.” I told Sofia that I was willing to help provide medical care for Mia at someone else’s home, but I wasn’t willing to take her into my home. I had many reasons for this: I wasn’t sure how my cat, Smudge, would react to another animal or how that animal would react to him; I didn’t want to impose on Todd with such a time-consuming (and weekend-plan altering) endeavor; I wasn’t sure how either of us would feel having another dog in the house so soon after Kola died; and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to make the 24-7 commitment that fostering this dog would require. Sofia agreed that I could help with the medical care once they found someone to foster Mia.

Of course, it only took me about 24 hours to change my mind. Sofia was putting out pleas for someone to foster Mia by the next Monday (only 3 days away) because she couldn’t continue to stay at the veterinarian’s office. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was actually the perfect person to foster her. She would need full-time care. I don’t have a job, so I have the time available. Plus, she would need a trained veterinary professional to be able to give the appropriate treatments and to monitor her condition. Well, I’m trained to do just that.

So, I asked Todd if he would mind if I fostered her. Happily, he was fine with it. He knows me well enough to realize that my happiness depends on being useful and needed. He agreed that this task was perfect for me. He also pointed out that since we’re living here instead of just visiting, we have plenty of time for exploring later. We don’t need to go somewhere new every weekend because we should have lots of opportunities for that in the future. Plus, since Mia already had a permanent home lined up for when she was medically released, neither of us were going to treat her as a “replacement” for Kola. (This permanent home has seen fallen through, but apparently there are several other people who’ve expressed interest in taking her once she has recovered.

As for the issue with the cat, one of the videos that the veterinary clinic had posted of Mia showed two cats walking in front of Mia and she didn’t react to them at all. Plus, since Smudge had lived with a dog his entire life, I decided to assume (correctly) that he would be okay with Mia.

On Monday,we met Sofia; her mother, Carol (our translator); and the veterinarian, Carolina, at Cliníca Veterinaria Amancay, which happens to be less than half a mile from my house. Doctora Carolina showed me how to clean Mia’s wounds, place her bandages and put on her diaper. She also gave me all of her medications and their dosages as well as enough supplies to get started. Sofia would send out a call to her supporters for additional supplies.

That all was great and fine. However, it’s one thing to watch and another to do. As soon as we got her home, with the help of Sofia & Carol – and Todd lifted her out of the car, she defecated. So we got to put everything into practice immediately! We did okay, but in the two days since then we’ve definitely gotten better at the whole process. Including prepping lots of diapers and padding ahead of time!

We’ve also developed a great relationship with Mia. She may be very timid, but she certainly wants human interaction. The first night, we tried to sleep upstairs with her alone downstairs. She whined and crawled around downstairs for most of the night, ending up laying at the bottom of the stairs. The second night, after a couple of hours repeating the behaviors of the previous night, we moved our mattress into the spare bedroom on the first floor and moved Mia’s bed in beside us. Much better! For the most part, she rested peacefully and quietly once we were nearby.

In two days, I’ll bring her back to the clinic where they’ll attempt, once again, to suture her wounds closed. So far they’ve tried this once or twice since her amputation but the sutures won’t hold. Hopefully, as she gets over the infection and continues to eat well, her overall health will improve and the wounds will start to heal over.

More on Mia later!