Bahamas Spay & Neuter Program

Volunteer

We will be needing lots of help before, during and after Operation Potcake.

If you can donate any time at all please let us know. Areas that we’ll need help with are listed below

Prior to the Campaign:

1. Collecting Supplies: Attached is a list of items that we need, can you donate, start
collecting or borrow any of them? We need one of each item for each clinic site.

Do you work in the medical field? Can you donate any of the items from the Medical Supplies List? Let us know and we can send you the details.

2. Advertising: Do you work in advertising, graphic design, etc. Would you loan us your
skills and expertise?

3. Local Outreach: Are you involved with your local church, Boy Scouts or other
community organizations? Could you help spread the word in your local community?

4. Hospitality: Could you provide lunches, drinks, ice chests, coffee, gatorade, housing,
transport, or other items to the visiting team?

5. Survey Assistance: Helping to conduct the population survey this summer in your
community.

Please let Linda know if you can assist in these areas: potcake2013@gmail.com

During the Campaign:

6. Fostering: Would you like to help by fostering cats, dogs, kittens or puppies?

Take in puppies and kittens under 8 weeks of age. At 8 weeks they can go to BHS
for sterilization and adoption.
Take in dogs or cats that we find and are too sick for sterilization. Give them a
safe place to stay for a week or so until they are healthier and we can sterilize
them, before taking them back home/releasing them.

7. Trapping: Working with the local teams to locate, feed, trap and then transport the dogs
and cats to the clinic sites. Prior experience necessary.

8. Transport: Working with the local teams to transport captured animals to the clinic sites
and take them home afterwards. This can be as simple as driving the truck, or more
involved with the trapping and baiting of animals.

9. Feeding: Being responsible for feeding the dogs in target areas that will later be trapped
by the trapping team.

10.Community Transport Assistance: Helping local people get their animals to and from
the clinic sites by driving them in your truck/van/car.

Clinic –

1. Reception/Registration/Release. Stationed at the front entrance to the clinic you will
greet clients and register their information and their dogs/cats information. You will be
responsible for keeping the numbers of the animals with the numbers on the paperwork
and tracking the animals throughout the day. You will explain to people why they are
there and what services we will provide. You will ask them for a donation. You will
release the animals to the correct owners at night and give them recovery instructions.
You will work with the pick up/ drop off team and capture teams to maintain the flow of
animals coming in and out of the clinic.
Weighing – Registration. Stationed at the front entrance. You will ask the client to pick
up his/her animal and stand on the scale. You then weight the person and subtract the
weight. You write the weight on the registration sheet. We guess cat weights.
Need: A calm and organized person who can communicate effectively with the general
public and the clinic staff while at the same time keeping all the paperwork in order. This
is a high stress position with great responsibility.

2. Instrument Station. Stationed next to surgery area. You are responsible for cleaning
every surgical instrument in the vet’s packs. We use cold sterile solution and you will be
shown how to clean each instrument. Each vet has to have the same pack given back to
them. You have to keep pace with the vets so they always have clean instruments.
Need: Organized person who can handle touching blood, body parts etc. as they will
be cleaning surgical instruments. They must be able to effectively communicate with
the vets and techs so they know when they can remove the pack and have the next one
ready. Each vet will have 2 packs on the go all day long. This person is often asked to
help the techs with other tasks between cleaning instruments. This is a position in the
surgery area.

3. Recovery. Stationed in the recovery area, which is next to the surgery area. Once
the animals have been sterilized they are taken to recovery. You watch the animals
breathing, rotate them and talk to them gently as they recover from anesthesia. You
remove their tracheal tube, catheter, give any vaccinations, give internal and external
parasite medications, trim nails, cut mats, clean ears and treat any minor wounds
etc. Once the animal is awake you put them back in their crate with the correct
identification tags. You fill out the medical side of the registration sheet each time you
give a treatment. You immediately call a vet if the animal shows any sign of distress or
has problems. You will be trained in this.
Need: Technicians, vet students, human nurses, EMT’s, people with medical training or
experience. People who are calm, take direction well, disciplined and responsible and
can work with their recovery team members cohesively and have experience lifting and
handling cats and dogs.

If you can help in any way, please contact Linda at potcake2013@gmail.com.