Volunteer vets back on board

Volunteer vets and vet nurses will be on Waiben from this Saturday until Wednesday next week.

Thursday Island Animal Support Group (TIASG)

President Sonia Einersen said seven people from Vets Beyond Borders and the Animal Welfare League of Queensland would be on board.

“We have volunteers on TI who help as well,” she said.

“The clinic is open to everyone who wants to come in, we do ask for a donation, but if people can’t afford it, it’s free, we don’t demand anyone pays anything.”

She said desexing, vaccinations, heartworm testing and an annual heartworm injection were all on the ‘menu’.

“And we also have a new thing, it’s a little implant for male dogs that is a temporary sterilisation,” she said.

“So, if people aren’t sure about this desexing their male dogs, they can go for this option, which lasts for six to 12 months.

“Desexing is really important because we’re seeing so many litters around the island and it doesn’t take long for two dogs – they have puppies, and six, seven, eight months later, those ones can breed, so you can see that the problem spreads rather quickly if it’s left unchecked.

“We’re quite happy, if anyone wants to come and talk to the vets or anything like that directly and see, they can talk about desexing and make sure.”

She said heartworm was also a big thing.

“We’re really, really pushing heartworm testing and the annual injection, so that will prevent heartworm,” she said.

“Even if dogs have heartworm already, they can still get that injection, which means that, although it won’t kill the heartworm that is there already, it will stop them passing it onto other dogs.

“So that’s something that we think is really important because we see it’s such a common occurrence up here.

“And being on an island, if we get lots of dogs treated, we could potentially get rid of it in a few years, if we worked really hard and everybody came in and did it.

“It is a fatal thing and it’s a terrible way to die.”

She said making an appointment was as simple as calling or texting 0477 271 958 or emailing gmail.com

“If anyone needs a hand, they don’t have transport or something like that, just give us call, and we’re quite happy to arrange what we can,” she said.

“We’ll come and pick up cats or dogs or anything like that because we think it’s really important to make sure that people have this access.”

She said shout out to Patrick Bin Juda, who had been with the group since it was formed.

“He was a founder of the TIASG, and thanks to him we are still going,” she said.