Veterinarian near Lake Worth, WPB for Bahamian trip

[F15EWSO]

Pushing to Bahamas next week, need a vet in WPB, Lake worth area who can help with health certificates for cats. All paperwork is done with the Bahamian officials, need vector for last piece. Any recommendations?

[witzgall]

If you are going down the ICW, and can stop/have not left Vero Beach, there are vets that can be reached using the free bus system. We took our two kitty boys (in carrier) last year on the bus, without problems.

Chris

[Astrid]

You might try Dr. Jean Oberg. She has a mobile veterinary service (she comes to you rather than you taking your pet to her). She is in Wellington and serves Lake Worth, WPB and others, and she does health certificates.
Her number is 561-254-8471

[onestepcsy37]

second that about vero beach, but i'm not sure you can take cats on the free bus.

we went to a lot of trouble and expense to get our cats papers. when we checked in at cat cay (yes, CAT cay) they could care less. don't think the bahamians are as concerned about cats - which usually never leave the boat - as they are dogs, which are usually walked ashore. our two cats spent several months on the boat and never seemed to miss land.

we had a good spot in the head for their litter box. bring along extra kitty litter, as it's not available everywhere. don't even think about using beach sand; don't want to bring sand fleas and other critters aboard...

[High Heels]

Agreed with the kitty litter...this is not a time to try some new type either...go with whatever is your cat's tried and true litter...

[Waterway Guide]

We took our 2 cats to Prosperity Animal Clinic, which is less than a one-mile walk from the dinghy landing at the top of North Lake Worth (on PGA...better check to make sure it's still there). We explained about the problem with dating the form, but they said they had to date it. I figured I'd doctor the date if we needed to due to the 24-hr requirement by the Bahamas, but when I checked the document while crossing the gulf stream (and we waited almost a month before we crossed), I saw that they "forgot" to date it! We found a good ink match and filled it in. And on the kitty litter: I thought I carefully figured out how much clumping litter we'd need for three months in the Bahamas, but I miscalculated. We used sand from beaches for the last couple weeks...BAD IDEA! We had plenty of fine sand all over the boat, and the organisms in the sand made the litter box stink to high heaven! You will probably not find clumping litter even in Nassau or Freeport, and you'd find regular clay litter probably only in Nassau and Freeport. If you do run out, find newspapers and shred them for litter.

[High Heels]

We had enough kitty litter, but just enough. Chris was convinced we could move the cats to those crystals and possibly wash them and reuse them...this was actually the biggest debate we had before we left...We took a majority of crystal litter, but decided we were taking two big bags of the 'Worlds Best' and I am glad we did...Our one cat went to jump in his box with the crystals and literally all fours were stretched in all directions and he hung his head down, and looked back at us, like 'no way, no how...Armageddon just occurred in my litter box, it is like an aqua moonscape...for-get it!"

So back to the other litter. Boy cats are susceptible to blockages of their urinary tracts that can kill them in as little as 24 hours...so while cruising you want to make sure that they are going on a regular basis...

That put an end to the kitty litter debate...

[High Heels]

Someone did tell me that if you 'harvest the sand' from under the water there will be less chance for sand fleas...but tracking would not be good aboard as you said Waterway...

[onestepcsy37]

we gave up storage space for cat food/cat litter, knowing that it's much easier to find 'people' food in the bahamas then cat food. there seemed to be a lot of dog food in the stores but not as much cat food - sometimes none.

as far as harvesting sand from the sea, i'd have to guess that, while it may not have sand fleas, it may have sand worms.... probably just as many little 'organisms' in the sea as on land.

but i did have this thought. you could have a bbq on the beach, burning logs right on the sand. would probably kill or chase away any organisms in the sand and then you could use that. and the litter box would have a nice 'smoky' smell for a few days....

[Astrid]

But would kitty go near it if it had a smokey smell following the BBQ?

[onestepcsy37]

oh, we did find good kitty litter/cat food at maxwells, the big super market in marsh harbor.

[Vasco]

We stopped using clumping kitty litter. The cat would walk on the wet deck in the morning and then into the litter box resulting in four clumps of litter on the four paws.