August 23, 2012

Although we expected to see fewer horses on our third and last day working in the town of Mollepata, we in fact saw over 100 horses again today. The day began with a difficult dentistry case in which our patient, a mule, decided s

he didn’t care to receive this service and left the worksite while slightly sedated. A bit more sedation and the procedure was completed without problems.

We saw our first pair of Shetland ponies today – a mare and a stallion with a lot of attitude.

A six-month-old foal presented with a severe skin ectoparasite or fungus covering the entire body and face. The hair and skin were peeling with a greasy residue. We bathed the cooperative (and appreciative) foal in a betadine wash and instructed the owner of how to repeat this again. The foal was also dewormed today and sent home with an additional dose

of ivermectin for several weeks later.

The kids today loved playing

a “memoria” (memory) game about horse care – and a few adults even joined in.

After dinner we set to work re-packing our supplies for the trek beginning tomorrow. It is important that we carry as light a weight of supplies as possible because our supplies and personal luggage will be traveling via mules up to 15,300 feet, across the Salkantay Pass, and to our next worksite, Huayrac. We also limited our personal luggage to 6kg per person to provide for the easiest load possible for the pack animals, although we were also warned to bring plenty of layers up into the mountains with us! Tomorrow begins the real adventure…

Angie Gebhart and Dave Turoff