Veterinarian practices: An essential service

Words ANIMAL WELLNESS

Veterinarian practices are still considered essential services. While some of our vets are immune-compromised, so have decided to stay home, our reduced Team Animal Wellness is working hard to keep the patients healthy.

We are seeing a great increase in owners preparing nutritious food for their pets, and they are able to obtain a consultation with our veterinary nutritionist online.

We hope and pray that you are all looking after your own nutrition, taking extra vitamin D, getting some exercise in the sun for a few minutes a day, and eating lots of fresh veggies and some fruit. We have made hand sanitisers with essential oils, glycerine and alcohol and are giving these away to our clients. Make sure you come in and get some, we are in East Brisbane, on the corner of Edgar and Stanley Streets.

Our vet friends around the world are also doing it tough, working as essential services while trying to stay healthy in a reduced economic environment. So we thought we would help some by donating some of the sales of our books (we have a children’s book on pet loss and grief), hand sanitisers and liposomal Vitamin C to the fund to ‘build a vet clinic on a remote island in Indonesia’. This is to support the lovely man Dr Elaine helped through Bali Veterinary University several years ago. His name is Dr Kadek Widada, and he is the only local veterinarian in the remote island of Nusa Penida.

Dr Widada has limited resources to help his people and their animals. He services three very low socioeconomic islands: Nusa Ceningen, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida. He provides medical and surgical skills for both large animals and small animal work, including desexing, calving, retained placenta, foreign body obstruction and vaccinations. He is doing fantastic work – there have been no rabies cases since 2010, in part due to his great work with the Rabies Eradication Vaccination Program. Often he is literally only paid in bananas and fish – whatever the farmer can afford. Dr Kadek is happy to help his people, but conditions are wanting. Here is a video showing how he works in the field: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=38OjjRQed3w&t=106s

He really needs premises to set up a clinic. He has obtained some land but now needs financial help to fund the building. As costs continue to increase, he is looking at around AU$60,000. It is impossible to raise this sort of money on his low income as a newly graduated veterinary surgeon in the economy in which he works. There would be infinite satisfaction for you in helping: https:// www.gofundme.com/f/balidogs?utm_ medium=wdgt

We are so proud to know Dr Kadek and help him through his journey. As well as doing veterinary work, he has been making antiviral disinfectants for local shopkeepers and all the families on the island. What a great guy!

www.animalwellness.com.au