Dr Mariam Chkhikvishvili
April 2009
Dr Chkhikvishvili is a veterinary surgeon from Tbilisi, Georgia. She graduated in 2002 and has been voluntarily offering her services to the Animal Rights Committee (ARC) Georgia, an organisation which is specifically trying to improve animal welfare work in her country. Together with the organisation which she has established called Homeless Pets Help Organisation they aim to educate the local welfare groups on enhanced sterilisation techniques.
Mariam commented on the animal welfare problem in Georgia:
The situation in Georgia with homeless dogs and cats is very complicated. I think you know about this from all the communication that you have with the animal welfare organisations in Tbilisi. Nobody supervises the population; also there is no identification method. After your training programme I'm planning to show everything to my colleagues and students in our University, the aim is to make our vets knowledge better than it is now. I want to and I’m sure I'll use this knowledge to make the situation in Georgia better in this case. Together with ARC Georgia, we pl
an spay programmes last year for 2009. So I think your programme will really help us in our work we want to achieve.
During the three weeks which she spent here in April she was able to learn about the use of gas anaesthesia, intubation and more efficient sterilisation techniques.
Ursula Goetz, Chief Veterinary Officer, commented on her visit:
Mariam was a fine candidate for the IVTP because she was very keen to learn and attentive to all that we taught her. Her general handling skills of the animals was good and her level of experience at general surgery was competent. Her main concerns were that she had little knowledge of modern anaesthetic protocols and that she had not had much surgical experience during her training in Georgia. She did improve extensively during the three weeks she was here and should be able to enhance these skills further when she returns to her country. The most important thing that she learnt was flank spay technique and her opportunity to witness modern surgery in a working clinic and post operative care will be priceless to her in the future.
Mariam gave the following feedback at the conclusion of the course:
The programme was very important for me and for every country like mine. It will help us to make changes to the infrastructure of veterinary standards in the country, which will hopefully have a huge impact on the way we do things. It will almost certainly improve the situation of stray animals and infectious disease. Mayhew International has allowed me to do this programme and I will be forever grateful since it has allowed me to learn so many new things in the veterinary field. You have the greatest staff in the world! I would be delighted if I am ever able to come back to the UK in the future. Thank you so much for this fabulous opportunity.
Since her return to Georgia, she has managed to implement some changes to the clinic where she works. She has made some boxes for needles (which were otherwise disposed of improperly), designed a cover sheet for veterinary operations (which is not used in general surgery in Georgia) and has ordered sterile gloves and operating masks for all the personnel there. She also intends to make a regular order of disinfectant solutions for the operating theatre which was previously cleaned with inappropriate materials.
Below is a video clip of how the cat flank spay approach can be successful and well implemented. This cat was spayed by Mariam in Tbilisi.