By Hector Pereira

A litter of five puppies has to go home from a veterinarian’s office without getting the necessary vaccinations, because now pets in Venezuela suffer from the same shortage of medicines as people do as a result of the country’s economic crisis.

Briceida Niño, a mom in Caracas, took her five pups to one of the veterinarian centers assigned to the “Nevado Mission,” a Venezuelan government program created in 2014 chiefly to care for cats and dogs living on the street or with poor families.

The woman went with two of her children, the litter and the two parent dogs to this veterinary office on the west side of the Venezuelan capital for a medical checkup for the whole canine family.

“They couldn’t give the sextuple vaccination (to the puppies) because it’s not available…they told me I’d have to look for it,” Niño told EFE.

The required dose, whose annual shot is so necessary for dogs’ health, has not been available through the Nevado Mission since last November, the president of the program, Maigualida Vargas, told EFE.

“Vaccines are imported into the country at costs probably affordable for private-sector veterinarians and for certain individuals, but not for buying in bulk, nor for animal shelters, nor for giving free shots,” Vargas said, adding that the Nevado Mission hopes to resume giving free vaccinations by the end of the year.

The availability of the sextuple vaccine fluctuates – like most medications in this oil-rich country – according to Bartolome Marin, president of Venezuela’s College of Veterinarians.

As a result, he believes that diseases in pets and infections transmitted from animals to humans have “undoubtedly” increased.

He also said that “a lot of the medicine available can be purchased only at resale, which has made prices shoot up in the most alarming way,” Marin said.

Venezuelans who have pets at home also have to face the high price of food, which has undergone a similarly punishing hike during the present crisis. EFE

Caracas, Aug 6 (EFE)