07/03/2025
Hazel, one of our qualified nurses has recently returned from a trip volunteering as a veterinary nurse at Carriacou Animal Hospital on the small island of Carriacou, just off Grenada in the West Indies. 🏝️🐾
Cariacou lies to the north of Grenada and is undeveloped and unspoilt. It has a population of approximately 8000. The climate is tropical so it is hot throughout the year. Water is collected rain water, and the electricity sometimes goes off for hours. There are plenty of mosquitoes and a variety of 'creepy crawlies' (I frightened everyone one evening by calmly pointing out Terry the tarantula climbing up the outside of the window). It is scenically beautiful - white sands, and turquoise seas. It is a small tight community where everyone knows everyone else. The local people, known as Kayaks, are proud, friendly and welcoming. Sometimes a little too friendly if you are young and pretty, as my companions found out.
Carriacou Animal Hospital was founded in 2012, and is an independent, non profit organisation that provides preventative and basic health care for cats and dogs, and a spay/neuter program to encourage population control. It is entirely run by volunteers.
Up until last July the clinic was housed in a bungalow virtually on the beach, but this was blown down by a hurricane, so it is now running from the basement of the Director's house. The equipment is fairly basic, with no x ray or blood machines, so vets rely more on their own skills than over here. Our days started at 6am walking the 2 house dogs, Belle and Cody, feeding the house cat, Red, who was very demanding and tending to any in-patients. Both dogs had arthritis so did not walk very far, but the hill from the house was very steep. Monday and Friday were home visit days. We would tour the island with one of the permanent volunteers. Erlichia (tick fever) and heart worm are a big problem on Carriacou, so we were mostly dispensing medication to treat these. Wednesday was spay/neuter day. Most of the dogs were owned, but were often free roaming or chained in a yard,and by our standards, not well cared for. Anaesthetic protocol was similar to here, but using slightly different dose rates of sedative and different anaesthetic agents, Also there was less monitoring equipment, but I was reasonably happy with my stethoscope plugged into my ears. Instead of oxygen cylinders they had an atmospheric oxygen concentrator. We also had to treat any emergencies that were brought in. These tended to be either road traffic accidents, or cases of deliberate poisoning. When I arrived there was a puppy, Oakley, that had been involved in an RTA and had 2 broken hind legs and wounds to his paws. He had been having dressings for 3 weeks already and was healing well, but still needed regular anaesthetics for dressing changes. One day we were called out to what we thought was a deliberate poisoning, but the dog turned out to have been licking a cane toad and was fine.
Between the work there was plenty of time for leisure. The white sand and azure sea beckoned, as did the cocktails at Paradise Beach Club. We were warned about the local rum, Jack Iron, which is 69% alcohol, so has quite a kick to it. We took several trips on small boats to idyllic islands, and feasted on local food. We also went on a snorkelling trip and swam with turtles.
All in all it was a worthwhile and enjoyable trip, and now I am back at Brookmead, it is rapidly becoming a distant memory.
Independent, friendly veterinary surgery. 
