The Animal House...

Dr. Patricia Lechten, Lisa, and Anita to Lyndford, approximately 45 minutes outside of Ocho Rios Jamaica. A non kill shelter hidden in the landscape of the mountains that was started by Maureen Sheridan in 2003. The shelter currently houses 141 friendly canines. A nearby location houses forty five felines. The shelter has two live in care takers, Orville Reynolds, and Patrick Smith. We started on our journey to the shelter by driving through Fern Gully and old dried up riverbed now a main road to travel through a tropical rainforest. Apparently the rainforest had been much more dense back in the 1980`s but due to traffic, pollution a lot of the plants have slowly died back near the roadways allowing more light to enter the dense terrain. Upon our arrival of the Animal House located near an old bauxite mine, we were greeted by many barking dogs, all coming to say hello. They were socialized well, in good condition, and happy!We unpacked our supplies, and got started at work, as we had many dogs to spay and 5 positive heartworm cases to treat. We sorted out who was fasted for surgery each morning. A surgical table consisting of a towel and rope, and surgical instruments were on the stove in a stainless steel dish, with boiling water acting as our autoclave. I sedated our first patient which was for a spay and mammary mass removal. I placed a intravenous indwelling catheter, and induced with propofol, and maintained on a propofol CRI. There was no electricity there, but a generator helped us. We had a pair of clippers, and clipped and prepped the surgical area, scrubbed and betadine, and were set to go. All I had was a stethoscope, and my senses to guide me through the monitoring process of anesthesia. At this point all were given an NSAID and injection of long acting antibiotic. We moved about our day recovering, and re anesthetizing patients until we completed 10 surgeries. At that point, all were recovered and then left for the evening. We met some truly unique pets there (all awaiting adoption) like Winston. He was a Jamaican Brown dog, (very common). He had previously been hit by a car and had a compound fracture of the tibia/fibula area, which had healed in a bend. Therefore making it very difficult for him to walk properly. He seemed like a very loyal dog, constantly beside me, nudging his head under my arm for a hug. Another dog that came to liking was shaggy. Shaggy had been found as a malnourished stray by a tourist at the Dunn`s River Falls. We gave her the nickname "Mother Hen", as she had to be in the same area of all the recovering patients to watch over them. She totally acted like she owned the house, she had lots of personality. So each day we made our journey up through the rainforest to our remote destination to help these animals. And each morning we were greeted by the care workers who was anxiously awaiting for us as they would have our surgical table made up for us, instruments already sterilized, and the first group of canines awaiting for sedation after being fasted. Most of the time the weather was warm but cloudy overcast skies, and rain showers off and on. It made for humid conditions. Each morning we also checked the incisions from the surgeries from the day before, there were a few dogs that liked to lick open their incisions overnight, luckily we had some Elizabethan collars on hand. The animal house does have a website if you would like to visit or experience what we did on your own, they can be reached at www.theanimalhousejamaica.org.

All in all to experience Jamaican culture was unique. We all have never traveled to this island before. Having the experience on hand with locals instead of the "tourist" feeling was different. They were all very welcoming and we seemed to fit right in. We ate very unique fruits like the Jamaican apple, and cuisine that was Jamaican favorites like festival, sardine fritters, oxtail soup and jerk. We stayed at the Blue House Bed and Breakfast (you can search the Blue House on trip advisor) and I have never stayed at a more welcoming place. Elise who runs the house was so helpful with our journey ensuring everything was organized, and Darryl the chef at the Blue House made us incredible dishes. Luckily while we were thee we enjoyed the sights of the Dunn`s River Falls and Reggae Beach, and sounds of Bob Marley ( It was Bob Marley`s Birthday on Feb 6th). They have a huge festival at nine mile in the rural countryside of where Bob Marley was born.
Back to the animal house, on our last day there, we said our goodbye`s to our newly found friends, canine and human. We will forever take this wonderful experience inside our hearts, and hope to keep in contact with "The Animal House of Jamaica". We wanted to say "Maureen, Orville Patrick and Ben" keep up the amazing work of caring and helping the abandoned animals.