R(D)SVS WELFARE VETERINARY NURSE, ASSISTS WITH DOGS TRUST PROJECT IN BOSNIA

Our Welfare Veterinary Nurse, Hayley Walters was delighted to be invited to join the Dogs Trust team in Sarajevo in February this year. The team were responsible for providing up-skilling to 6 Bosnian veterinary surgeons in the areas of anaesthesia, surgical skills and ‘trap, neuter and release’ work. The course took place at the only veterinary training school in Bosnia, the University of Sarajevo - veterinary faculty, over a five day period.  

Along with providing and demonstrating quality veterinary nursing management of the patients, Hayley was responsible for delivering intubation and anaesthesia tutorials, as well as demonstrating and promoting the use of alternative training methods for suturing and intravenous catheter placement, using animal ‘manikins’ and training models to enable students to develop and practise their skills.

“It was a privilege to be asked by Dogs Trust to join their team in Bosnia. I was really impressed by the wonderful hospitality shown by the Bosnian veterinarians being up-skilled, and especially pleased by their eagerness to learn more about best practice surgical skills, anaesthetic monitoring and pain relief”.

Sarajevo has a human population of 300,000 and a street dog population of between, 11,000 – 13,000. Shooting dogs for population management became illegal 5 years ago and since then, with no other management in place, dog numbers have grown dramatically with the resulting animal welfare and public health concerns’.

With more Dogs Trust led workshops planned throughout the year, the number of skilled, competent Bosnian vets placed around Sarajevo will increase thus ensuring the neutering campaign to be a humane, successful answer to the problem. In addition, the JMICAWE team hope to work together with Sarajevo University veterinary faculty to help provide more information for veterinary undergraduates on animal welfare science to help with creating a more sustainable approach to humanely managing dog and cat populations in the future.