A couple of days ago I noticed Buffy had more discharge than usual coming out of her eye. She has always had occasional eye goop that I just wipe with a tissue, but I found myself wiping her eyes a couple of times daily. I assumed that, like me, she was experiencing some minor allergy symptoms from being in a new place. Today when we woke up I looked at her eye and it was grotesque--swollen like crazy, bright red, with green discharge trickling down the side of her face. It was one eye, not both, so not allergy related.
Up until recently there were no veterinary services of any kind available in Nunavut. (Not just the city of Iqaluit, but the entire territory.) Occasionally a vet student school group, or a non-profit outreach service, would come up to perform spay/neuter surgeries. Its shocking and sad to think that a town with a large dog population had no access to medical care for them. There are dogs EVERYWHERE: tied or chained to houses, in pens outside of houses, running the street, etc. JJ (who is a pediatrician) has heard from local family doctors that they used to do emergency vet care on occasion if they were in the right place at the right time (with supplies on hand). A moving guide from about 10 years ago I ran across online recommended going to your local veterinarian and purchasing antibiotics, pain control medications, etc. to have on hand before you moved up.
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| The local veterinarian started out in this little "mobile clinic". |
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| Now the clinic has evolved into a larger facility with more equipment. |
Thankfully, there is now a vet in town. See the website here: http://www.nunavet.ca/about-us/ . Dr. Cunningham at Nunavet was born and raised in Iqaluit, went away to school in Saskatoon, and came back to practice. She has two young children (age 4 and 6), so she isn't available all the time. She works Monday to Friday, regular office hours, and takes vacations. When she isn't available her voicemail message gives out the number to a vet clinic in Ottawa who will give advice to people in Iqaluit over the phone. If a vet emergency happens at night or on the weekend.........well, let's just say I don't really want to think about that.
Thankfully, today was a day the clinic happened to be open. We took Buffy in and were told we could come back for an appointment later. In the meantime, they gave us a cone to keep Buffy from damaging her eye any more.
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| I love my cone...... |
We went back in later that morning for our appointment and Dr. Cunningham used a stain to determine there are no ulcers present in Buffy's eye. She was out of anti-inflammatory eye drops, so she faxed a prescription into one of the local pharmacies (there are two). Because the pharmacy is so busy it took us another 3 hours to get the medication. It was the last bottle of eye drops in stock, and it expires at the end of the month. (I'm very glad I picked up enough asthma meds to last the year before we left Thunder Bay.)
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| Get this cone off my head so I can scratch my eye. |
I'm very grateful Dr. Cunningham returned to Iqaluit to practice in what has to be a challenging setting. With the poverty rate, and the stunning number of loose and aggressive dogs running around, she has her work cut out for her. The people of Iqaluit are very lucky to have her.
Send lots of good thoughts Buffy's way! We have a follow-up appointment on Monday and I'll update when we have news.
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