Week 3 - let loose with a dart gun

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It's week 3 already and we have a new set of students with us, all from the states and all pre vet this time, quite different from the 3rd year kiwi vets that we started with. The number is down a little to 13, and it is just me on my own this week as Rick is in the UK sorting his visa out.

Monday was totally manic, but organised chaos. We returned to Gonoubie dogs to treat the mange outbreak, and today was the crossover day of new and old volunteers, so we had 25 students today to manage. I put the kiwis in charge of most of the cases, and gave them a new volunteer to show how to examine the dogs and the treatment for mange and fleas. These dogs are so bad they need dipping and injecting with ivermectin as the mange is severe. We worked super hard all day, and poor Kim was bitten by a dog we were trying to dip, who also had severe skin lesions. She was bitten on her leg and had deep puncture wounds, and needed to go to hospital to have the rabies injections and some strong antibiotics. So I was on my own in the township with 25 students and a lot of dogs! At lunch I took the students to the beach and managed to pile them all in 2 carloads, the most I have ever squeezed into a car! We saw a lot of disease, including a huge traumatic abdominal hernia, ataxia, mammary adenocarcinomas, leishmania, wounds, flea allergies...and a truck full of puppies who had the worst fleas I have ever seen on any animal. There are different species of fleas here and these puppies had chicken fleas in a concentrated patch all over their faces and between their toes. There were hundreds of them and the poor creature could barely see. To remove them I had to get a scalpel blade to scrape them off because they were so deeply imbedded, and even then we still left hundreds dead but imbedded. Kim and I found a dying puppy with parvovirus and had to euthanise it in the back of the van, as we couldn't find its owner. It couldnt even lift its head from dehydration. Tuesday we had a slightly less chaotic day and we dipped the "healthier" dogs in cintsa. We found even more disease here today, but the saddest was poor distemper dog. Distemper is a disease that we vaccinate against in the UK but here it kills litters of puppies, and those that survive can be left with permanent neurological damage and respiratory disease. If the dog gets adult onset distemper it can take months for them to die. Poor distemper dog had been treated for repeated bouts of pneumonia, and could barely walk because he had such severe tremors. He was emaciated, and today he looked the worst he had ever looked. He had pus pouring out of his mouth and was struggling to breathe, but he still summoned the energy to come and greet us. We finally found the owner and I convinced her to euthanase him, and we booked it for Saturday. In the meantime we left him with painkillers and antibiotics. Kim and I also treated a transmittable venereal tumour (TVT) using vincristine, a chemo drug. At home we would have lots of protective clothing, and Kim and I made do with double gloving and wearing sunglasses for eye protection. One small child put his arm around me whilst I was taking a photo and asked me for a selfie...he was over the moon to see his own photo! Wednesday we returned to the ranch for giraffe capture number 3, and on the way I had the horrible experience of seeing a dog get hit by a car in front of me. The guy who hit him didn't even stop, and I pulled over with the students to pick the dog up from the middle of the road. It had serious head trauma, with blood pouring from his mouth, the skin on his hindlimn had been ripped off and he was bleeding internally, a suspect splenic rupture. I put him on the back seat to take him back to the house to euthanise him, and as we had him on the back seat, the man who hit him came up to the car to take pictures, saying he needed them for insurance as the dog had dented his car. Poor creature died on the way, and I felt awful as we had to place his body at the side of the road for the vultures to eat. The giraffe capture however, was a happier affair. The young female giraffe ran to the top of the hill and we spend half an hour coaxing her down the hill with ropes around her neck and a sling around her bottom. I was pushing her from her rump and reality hit that I was touching a massive giraffe and pushing her down a hill! They are unbelievably beautiful and such gentle giants,it's like tempting a bandy legged horse down a ravine. We followed her to the release site and laughed at the general publics reaction as we drive through a town following a giraffe poking out of the top of a trailer, and stopped at traffic lights to see kids waving madly at the unusual passenger. we couldn't find its owner. It couldn't even lift its head from dehydration.
On Thursday I darted my first animal, and it was amazing, but also terrifying. I went out in the 4x4 to shoot a White blesbuck (type of antelope) and hit first time! It was an easy target but still a total adrenaline rush. Once he was asleep, we transported him on the back of the trailer with a blindfold over his eyes, and moved him into the trailer to be reversed, wormed and tranquilliser. The rest of the capture was less successful, with a very flighty blesbuck that was impossible to dart, and then Dennis darted an impala which then ran into the bush, so we spent an hour searching for it. In the end we concluded that the shot missed, but it was still fun to be running round the African bush in a game reserve. The last blesbuck we had to do a net capture in, because we couldn't get close enough to dart it, and net capture is a lot more stressful for the animal. It involves driving it into a funnel lined with nets, then running them through a race and catching them in the netting, before sedating them. This one, however, ran into a fence and got its leg caught and its face lacerated by barbed wire, and we had to rescue it and sedate it immediately. Such is the nature of this business, but I hope we can dart the majority of animals to reduce the stress. We released the two blesbuck into their new home, and they galloped off into the distance. Friday morning I took Zeus the dog for an early morning run to the beach, and what a beautiful morning! Then we returned to the snake park with this new group, and held ball pythons, monitor lizards, iguanas, corn snakes and water dragons with severe metabolic bone disease. I did a tutorial on reptile medicine, a whistle stop tour of husbandry related diseases to confuse the students. In the afternoon we returned to Gareth's farm, to PD some cattle, and we also had to replace the ewes vaginal prolapse again. The farmer asked if we could dehorn some cattle for him. Unfortunately our surgery box had been stolen and the local anaesthetic was in the box, and so I explained that we couldn't dehorn without local. The farmer replied that he normally de horns using an immobiliser prod up the cows rectum, a practice which is illegal in the rest of the world. I don't think a woman has ever stood up to this farmer but I point blank refused to do it without local or with the electrocution immobiliser, and considered suggesting to the farmer that we could test the efficacy of the Immobiliser as a humane and effective painkiller by using it on him whilst I sawed his ear off. I refrained however, and said we would get local next week. When PDing the cattle, for most of the students it was their first time up a cows bum, and for some the first time near a cow. And boy did they squeal when they got poo on them, or when they had to stand in mud, or when the cow moved at all. I'm not entirely sure all of this lot are cut out to be vets, but it's a good way to find out if it's what you want to do for a living! That night we went partying in East London, and halfway through the night the students pointed out I had cow pat on my elbow! At the weekend Kim and I went to euthanise distemper dog. Putting a catheter into an unclipped scabby dehydrated dogs leg makes you appreciate the facilities we have at home. Afterwards we came back to find a garden full of monkeys, and we fed them apples. Kim gave a baby a sour wiggly worm sweet and the money's had a lick before passing it on. They were amazing! So this weekend I moved into the other volunteer house, so we are all together, and I am currently on a sofa in the top room, but more than happy. There is no wifi in this house but we do have a let blind rat, Mr jangles who is the best rat in the world. We went to the beach with Zeus and chilled on Saturday, and on Sunday, Kim, Sunny (a volunteer) and I went to help build the clinic that is being set up to neuter the dogs of the townships. At the moment there is one shipping container with compartments in for the theatre, prep room and recover/kennels. We spent the day fixing windows, sanding and cleaning and knocking down a wall,preparing for the container to be sprayed. 3 women doing DIY to reggae music must have been a sight. Hopefully once the clinic is set up and approved, we will be able to order drugs and neuter the overpopulated dog communities, whilst teaching the students invaluable surgical skills.

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Photos

Buckets of puppies
(Rick the other vet, my friend from uni)

Chaotic dog dipping
25students, dozens of children, hundreds of dogs, a bite resulting in hospitalisation, and one vet!

Puppy with fleas burrowing into his face
We had to remove these with a scalpel blade

Comments

[sophieee]

miss you!!!
Nicola love love loving your blogs! Sounds like bloody hard work but absolutely incredible! Xxx