Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Aug 30 2007 | By: admin

I have spent three days in Nairobi to do some purchasing of equipments plus car repair (front and rear bumpers came off after driving hard in the bush, broke my side mirror, snapped the hand brake wire and messed my automatic window). The Narok road was dusty as ever and very uncomfortable as usual.

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Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Aug 29 2007 | By: admin

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Category: Maasai People | Date: Aug 29 2007 | By: admin

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 29 2007 | By: admin

Here is video footage from our vaccination campaign in the Kalenjin Land

Dog owners line up for vaccination card

Children waiting for vaccination card for their puppies

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Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock, Wildlife | Date: Aug 28 2007 | By: admin

WA-KURIA are the tribe notorious here in the Mara for wildlife poaching. Unfortunately for most people living along the escarpment, they are also known for being a serious cattle rustler. Up until couple of weeks ago, Wa-Kuria were harvesting their maize corn and both the wildlife reserve and Maasai were enjoying their short lived peace from these people. Well, no more peace now. This morning my worker heard people screaming in village quite a distant from my house. Wa-Kuria are back from their maize field. Before the Mara Conservancy came to the Mara Triangle, poaching and cattle rustling by Wa-Kuria were both out of control. Mara Conservancy rangers have caught 820 poachers (majority being Wa-Kuria) and retrieved hundreds of Maasai cattle stolen by Wa-Kuria. This morning was no exception. As I drove to our vaccination point with my assistant, we heard on the radio that rangers have located the stolen cattle near TZ border. It is bad luck for Maasai to not to slaughter a bull when someone returns their stolen cattle, so I hear that there will be nyama (meat) feast in the boma tomorrow.

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Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Aug 23 2007 | By: admin

My friend sent me a link to some incredible footage and I wanted to share with my fellow wildlifedirect readers!

Wow, I wish I could see some drama like this some day!

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 22 2007 | By: admin

Someone was determined to get his dogs vaccinated!

Although I have seen many Maasai guys carrying sheep or goat inside a carton on the bicycle, I was shocked when this guy drove into our vaccination point with his carton full of dogs. I have never seen anyone manage to restrain dogs in such style (my own dogs will not tolerate for sure). He heard about the dog vaccination going on in Angata and how people got their dogs vaccinated. Unfortunately for this man, Angata was quite far away from his home. So, today he decided that he would take his dogs for a ride. Well, these boxed dogs were surprisingly calm and they did not seem to care so much about the bicycle ride. I could see the small wagging tails inside the carton when I greeted them. In fact, it was much better than those dogs which gets chocked when forcefully dragged by chain.

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 21 2007 | By: admin

We have been vaccinating domestic dogs along the escarpment (wildlife reserve boundary) and today we are happy to announce that we now reached the Tanzanian border! Total number of dogs soared up to 1,250 as of today, too! We had extremely busy day yesterday when Kalenjin guys brought 200 dogs to the vaccination point. Most of the dogs are leashed using sisal rope, others with vine, wire, piece of cloth or bicycle chains.

Vaccination point in Angata town

On the first day of vaccination at Angata town, I raised my voice at the dog owner who strangled his dog by both hands, lifting a 20kg dog by its neck when it was gasping for air. I showed the crowd how to handle the dog gently without spooking so that it would not retaliate and bite. After being shown how to handle the dog gently, I was so happy to see that the guy who initially strangled his dog was trying to calm down his dog by petting and speaking to the dog! (and the dog was calming down too!) Now in Angata town, children who brought their puppy by grasping its neck (similar to how they carry chicken) are now bringing me the puppies by cuddling them.

Children cuddling their puppies

Puppies brought inside the cooking oil container

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 21 2007 | By: admin

Even with a recent outbreak of CDV on the other side of Maasai land, people were not willing to bring their healthy dogs for vaccination point. I was not a happy lady when I drove more than one hour on horrendous road on my day off and found no dogs were brought for vaccination. It was annoying to say the least. I had to drive to several boma, but only one guy took his time to lock up his dogs so that dogs are not running around the field. Most of the sick dogs were puppies and were dead by the time I arrived. Other healthy dogs were with cattle and guys insisted that I had to drive to find the cattle herd in the savannah so that I can vaccinate their dogs. After dealing with community where people took initiative to help in vaccination campaign, it was utterly disappointing when I returned to land where people cry out for help but do nothing when the help arrives. I fail to understand why I have to beg the Maasai to bring their dogs so dogs don’t die from CDV and people don’t get bitten by rabid dogs. My Maasai dog catcher insisted that I should announce that CDV gets transmitted to cattle so that ALL the Maasai will gather up their dogs for vaccination. He thinks that is the only way to make Maasai to assist us. Very smart, it should definitely force people to cooperate. I wish I could do that…

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 18 2007 | By: admin

It has been more than a month since the last distemper outbreak wiped out dog population in Kimintet (area 10km from wildlife reserve boundary). Today, I received a disturbing phone call from Maasai from the other side of the hill. Dogs are dying with symptoms similar to distemper and the disease is spreading fast amongst the neighboring village. Severe coughing, mucopurrulent ocular and nasal discharge, diarrhea and death. The guy who called me lost five out of his seven dogs in one week and others are dying in nearby village as well. Right now my operational cost only covers the escarpment facing Mara Triangle and I do not have manpower or vehicle to extend towards the area bordering Koiyaki Wildlife area where the new outbreak is reported. We successfully vaccinated dogs from area along the escarpment and now we are only 10km away from Tanzanian border. Our vaccination coverage in the Maasai land is between 95-100% since we have been doing house-to-house visits and insisted the owner that ALL dogs must be vaccinated. This coverage leaves little chance for virus to enter the area bordering Mara Triangle and so far no reports came from the area we covered. It is annoying that the outbreak erupted in the area near where we began the vaccination (just a river across), it is as though the virus knew area where we left untouched.

Dog carcass from last outbreak.

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