We bring you back to last year to present you the details of a neutering action.
This particular project take a week and we neuter and spay 393 animals. As always, we also provide veterinary care to dogs and cats in need.

We start our campaign at the shelter of Little Paws of Nevrokop. (Nevrokop was the old name of Gotze Delchev town.) 
The organization is a young one and so far, they have had just a small team. They were set up with the drive to provide shelter for unwanted cats and dogs in the region and to that end, they opened in the autumn of 2023.

After six months, there are already 50 inhabitants in the shelter. The conditions are not ideal, the money is never enough, but the local activists don’t give up on their project and persist in their attempts to look after their charges’ wellbeing better and better, step by step.

No one has ever been turned down; every single puppy is welcome and the shelter tries hard to find a forever home for their dogs. Alas, the incoming traffic is far heavier than the outgoing one.

We then start the actual campaign. We catch the animals and transport them to our clinic, where they are neutered and vaccinated. Once they have recovered sufficiently, we return them to their territory.

Every day our volunteer Lyubka travels anything between ten and a hundred miles in the region between Sandanski and Gotze Delchev towns. Her car defies the laws of Physics and its relatively small space always manages to stretch in order to accommodate all the animals that she brings to our clinic for neutering.

Our team takes calls and crisscrosses the area around Gotze Delchev.

People from all over the region bring over animals. Some encounters are quite nice and fill us with optimism. The family has found and brought to us three dogs to be neutered. The youngest member of the human family is a future vet, still in med school, who finds inspiration in our work. We invite him to stop by whenever he has time so he could watch us and learn more about the work that we do. Putting power of the local community to address the problem with the dog and cat population is key for a better future.

Not just neutering…
As always, we come across plenty of opportunities to help some animals who need veterinary care.

Wounded

A big, mature male dog was taken in by the Little Paws of Nevrokop shelter on the request from the local municipality that the dog was bothering people. He showed up in town recently – probably an old and deemed useless ex-guard dog. The wound on the side of his chest is definitely not a sight for sore eyes.

We clean up and drain the wound, treating it to make sure the old giant has no discomfort and a good chance to live the rest of his life well. We neuter him too. Unfortunately, such big, mature dogs are virtually impossible to be adopted. But at least our new friend can stay in the shelter.

Cherry Eye

We have two patients with ophthalmological problems this time around. The first one has ‘cherry eye’ – that’s the common name, while the actual condition is the popping out of the third eyelid gland. (Dogs have a third eyelid located inside the lower eyelid, whose purpose is to protect the eye additionally.) If left untreated, cherry eye may lead to complications, infections, and tissue damage.

Everything goes well and our post-operative patient will soon return to his territory.

Inverted eyelid

Our second case suffers from an inverted eyelid. That means the hair on the eyelid is rolled inward and continuously aggravates the eye through rubbing against it. Consequently, the cornea gets irritated, may develop ulcers or perforations, which affects vision. In the worst case scenario an infection might lead to the loss of the eye. 

The treatment in this case, as with the ‘cherry eye’ condition is a surgical intervention.

Homeless animal grooming session

While some of members of our team work on medical issues, others offer a procedure that brings huge relief for the animal even if it doesn’t actually treat a health problem – simple grooming.

A bichon mix that shows signs she used to be someone’s pet has lived a miserable life on the street. Its hair is out of control and the lack of grooming as well as sleeping rough has brought about a host of problems: entangled balls of hair, flea nests, etc. It is bad as it is, but summer would make it unbearable for the dog, not to mention life-threatening if a heat wave descends on the town. Skin conditions would be soon to follow for sure.

Hernia

Our last patient has a hernia too that we remove while the dog is under anesthesia for its neutering. It is always worth the extra hours and effort when we know that we can send back a dog that hasn’t just been neutered but treated too. We make these decisions on the spot as it says right there in our name: Vets in Action.