article written by visiting vet from Berkeley, California

Tropical Veterinary Medicine: Ambergris Caye, Belize

Ambergris Caye is a lovely Caribbean island off the coast of Belize, adjacent to the second largest barrier reef in the world. If you're wondering how to pronounce it, you have several choices: the French Am-ber-GREE, the Americanized Am-ber-GRIS, or the local Belizean Am-BER-gis. And 'caye' becomes 'kee.'
Fourteen thousand people live there, as well as plenty of visitors from the USA, Europe and Central America, and you might find a Bulgarian running an Italian restaurant in downtown San Pedro, or a Belizean family selling burritos and home-made key lime pie. There are dogs and cats everywhere, and there is only one veterinarian on the island to look after them.

Dr. Laurie Droke, a 1998 graduate of Texas A & M and (more recently) from the San Francisco Bay Area, has been working with the local humane society on Ambergris Caye for the last year, and now has opened her own practice adjacent to Pedro's Inn of San Pedro. The stray dog and cat populations used to be problematic, but now that so many of them have *ahem* donated their reproductive status to Dr.Droke's scalpel, populations of unwanted puppies and kittens are much fewer.

Animals in tropical locations like Ambergris Caye really suffer from parasitic diseases such as heartworms, leptospirosis, ehrlichiosis and babesiosis, as well as mange and other skin conditions. Dr. Droke treats sick pets for these problems and also helps pet owners to prevent the parasite infestations that transmit disease. Although the San Pedro Animal Hospital is new and small (one room with a operating table, oxygen, supplies and holding cages), it's stocked with the basics and Dr. Droke is set up for surgery, IV fluids and injectable anesthesia. There's even a TV-video in the lobby for kids, and an official greeter, "Jambo" the golden retriever.

Dr.Droke hopes to get the hospital set up for other procedures such as blood transfusions (commonly needed for animals suffering from ehrlichiosis, which destroys red blood cells), diagnostics with blood analysis machines, an inhalant anesthesia machine, and monitoring equipment, as well as X-ray equipment. She hopes to get a blood donor program set up, where healthy dogs and cats donate blood for sick pets, which sometimes makes all the difference in treating serious anemia. Dr. Droke is seeing young, apparently healthy dogs go into liver or kidney failure, possibly as a result of leptospirosis, a severe bacterial infection which can be transmitted to people, so getting a vaccination program going on the island will help.

Berkeley Dog and Cat's Dr. Meredith Kennedy met Dr.Droke while visiting Ambergris Caye over the New Year holidays, traveling with her mother and staying at Pedro's Inn. She was impressed that even with a small and very basic clinic Dr. Droke was able to provide excellent care for her patients, with IV fluid therapy during anesthesia and good broad-spectrum antibiotics. Dr. Kennedy may be returning to the San Pedro Animal Hospital to fill in for Dr. Droke while she visits the U.S. for a couple of weeks, and she's already making plans for the key lime pie, conch fritters and black bean soup with fresh tortillas. And, of course, bringing supplies,
medications and equipment for the new hospital which are difficult to get in Belize.
Living in the tropics isn't such a paradise for animals, but now that they have a full-time veterinarian the dogs and cats of Ambergris Caye can hope for a healthier, parasite-free life.