Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Old Dog Encephalitis

Category: Dogs | Date: Sep 26 2007 | By: admin

Although most of the Canine Distemper case observed during outbreaks here in the Trans Mara showed mainly respiratory signs (severe coughing), we came across one dog showing neurological signs. It was 5 year old dog and it miraculously recovered after bout of seizures while other dogs died from severe respiratory symptom. Unfortunately, it now has chronic distemper encephalitis often referred to as ‘old dog encephalitis’ characterized by ataxia, compulsive movements, etc. This particular male has compulsive clamping of the jaws at the interval of 2 seconds. Apparently this condition lasted for over 8 months and poor creature has been clamping continuously all these time…

2 responses so far

Enkaputi

Category: Maasai People | Date: Sep 26 2007 | By: admin

My dog handler is called Lesingo. He has helped me vaccinate 2,500 dogs and he is known locally as ‘dog boy’ nowadays (not a great thing for Maasai, but he says he likes working with dogs and do not care what other people say). This week, Lesingo went to his first Enkaputi (engagement) with 5 cattle and plenty of shuka (red cloth) to please his future wife. Lesingo is 27 and new wife to be is 18. He is very nervous since it is his first wife. I asked him how many wives he would want to wed in the future, and he tells me that he is still thinking and that it all depends on number of cattle he gets in the future. My next door neighbor got 5 wives, but nowadays it seems like having 2 wives is much more common rather than having numerous wives!

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Carrying Capacity for Dogs

Category: Dogs | Date: Sep 19 2007 | By: admin

I have mentioned in the past entry about the reproductive state for the bitch (female dog off course!) here in the Trans Mara. I said that most of the bitches are in chronic malnutritional state due to constant breeding. Most of the Maasai dog owners have no idea how old their dog is and initially it was hard for me to gather data during my vaccination. ‘Why do you always ask for dog’s age? No one knows how old the dog is, just ask them how many times it has given birth!’ My dog owner looks at my face like I was dumb. Since all the bitch in Trans Mara is breed every year, it is easier for me to ask how many times it has given birth. If the bitch has given birth twice, it is most likely in the range of 2 year old and then if it gives birth 3 times it is 3 years old, etc.

During my vaccination we got the sex ratio and age ratio of the dog population. After looking at the record, I am not so sure if reproductive control of dog is a necessity anymore. Majority of dogs are in age group between 1-5 years old, followed by dog population less than one year old and very few are over 5 years of age. There is definite element of population control for dogs. The wild predators! Leopards are No.1 dog killer and they are responsible for most of the dog deaths. Maasai guys tell me that dogs of boma next to the wildlife reserve and Dupoto forest do not sleep at night. If they sleep, they become leopard snack. Leopards have a bizarre fondness for dog meat. They are notorious for taking dog lives and usually there are several leopard victims per year in each boma. Dogs over 5 years old gets preyed upon by this vicious cat, reason being ‘uzee’(old age) and lack of strength to fight off the leopard (not so sure if dogs have any chance against leopard).

Another one of leopard’s favorite.

Maasai dogs seems to pass their prime after age 4. You will not believe how the dog looks after age 5 and to find a dog over age 7 is almost impossible. Five year old Maasai dog basically looks like 10 year old pet dog. Yes, there is no pet treat and fluffy beds for these dogs. Life is tough and dogs age fast.

Five year old Maasai dog, eyes torn out by baboon.

Then there is baboon, the No.2 killer of dogs. Dogs in age group 1-5 often fall victim to baboon attack, mainly because younger dogs tend to chase baboons and get hurt/killed in return. Dogs are almost like wildlife in this area, I am not sure anymore if human intervention (birth control) is necessary since the natural element is already keeping the population in control here in the Maasai land… I fear that combo of spay, castration, leopard and baboon can possibly wipe out the dog population.

P.S. I DO NOT currently do birth control for dogs (only spay/castration of feral cats inside the wildlife reserve).

4 responses so far

Dupoto Forest, the Elephant Haven

Category: Maasai People, Wildlife | Date: Sep 18 2007 | By: admin

Right now we are doing dog vaccination around forest called Dupoto. People are busy surviving in the Trans Mara. All the forest I have been in the past had signs of human activities (cutting of wood for house building, firewood, charcoal), but this particular forest is beautiful untouched forest. It is a forest reserve started by Maasai elders in the early 90’s and now it has passed onto younger generation. The forest is so deep, you can walk for two days and reach the Trans Mara capital town of Kilgoris without seeing a break in the forest. I took a walk with my friend couple of weeks ago in Dupoto. Elephant tracks were all over the place (dung, feeding marks on tree trunks, place where they rested). The Maasai guy tells me that this is one of the most important breeding ground for the elephants. Excellent bird life too. We saw so many birds, even rare birds like Ross Turaco. Although this place is an absolute beauty here in Trans Mara, the young Maasai are crying out for more publicity to attract tourists so they can generate income from the forest. Yes, not many tourists visits here. Perhaps, no one knows that this forest exists since it is almost 25km from the reserve. Unfortunately, something which does not generate income tend to disappear in real life and I really hope that younger generation Maasai would not lose interest in protecting this precious forest for price for farming and charcoal…

9 responses so far

Local School Visits

Category: Dogs | Date: Sep 14 2007 | By: admin

Today, we started visiting local schools to raise awareness for rabies. Each year, 55,000 people die from rabies throughout the world. Majority of victims are in Africa and Asia where large number of unvaccinated dog population persists. If this figure is further broken down, every day there are 100 children who die from rabies in the third world countries. Rabies is often overshadowed by ‘big 3 killers’ of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. However, its danger and public health concern should not be underestimated.

Since most of victims of rabid dog bites are small children, we felt that it is important to teach children about the basics of rabies so they know what rabies do to human and what we can do about it. Fearing that they might get beaten by parents for being careless, children who get bitten by dog often tend to keep the incident hidden from parents for couple of days. In today’s lecture I strongly emphasized on the importance of ‘immediate report and treatment’ and that they should never fear reporting to their parents. My lecture consisted of following: what is rabies and how it is transmitted, what kind of symptom rabies show in dogs, what to do when you get bitten by strange dogs (first aid and post exposure injection), what vaccination does and its importance, how to properly handle dogs during vaccination, etc. We lectured at 2 schools and children were very interested in our lecture. In the evening some children even came to help us in vaccination by restraining their dogs. What was nice is that children were willing to learn how to properly handle dogs (with gentleness!) and to raise awareness about this dangerous disease which can easily prevented by simple vaccination of dogs. We are now done with vaccination of 2,300 dogs!

2 responses so far

Awaited Rain Arrives

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Sep 12 2007 | By: admin

Yes, the rain is back in Trans Mara, but perhaps it is too much now. My water tanks are now almost full, but crazy rain is washing away everything in my garden (my vege seedlings!). Thunderstorm arrives around 3pm and people are stuck in the house due to the intensity of rain. Today, instead of normal thunderstorm, it started to hail! My worker tried getting his jacket from outside and almost got seriously injured when ping pong ball size hail hit him in the head. Needless to say, I sought refuge in my house during hail with all my shivering dogs.

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Smoking Car Repair

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Sep 09 2007 | By: admin

I have never seen an inside of a car dashboard!

People are curious to see what is going on with my car.

I really hope that my car will return to its original state…

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Smoking Car

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Sep 08 2007 | By: admin

This past couple of days, my car has been smoking from the steering wheel area. Mechanic tried checking the cause of smoke, but failed to find the problem after two days. Now it seems like he needs to open up the entire dashboard and the car will have to spend an entire day at the garage…

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September 8 is the World Rabies Day!

Category: Dogs | Date: Sep 06 2007 | By: admin

We have just done rabies and CDV vaccination for 2,100 dogs in Trans Mara. We have successfully raised fund for two months of work, but still got more work till we reach the core outbreak area. Together with Dr. Cleaveland (UK epidemiologist), we are trying to raise fund for our Trans Mara work through World Rabies Day.

We are trying to improve the wildlife health with canine distemper vaccine and human publich health through rabies vaccine. Rabies is very disturbing and horrific disease both in animal and human. When I was in vet school, we were shown a video of South African boy with rabies. The video was very disturbing as it had footage from the beginning of symptoms to the moment of boy’s death. I found a similar video footage on YouTube showing child with rabies symptom. It is extremely disturbing but it shows the reality of this horrifying disease which we are trying to eradicate here in Trans Mara. It is not a rare disease here in most of rural area. A boy died of rabies as we were doing vaccination in Angata town just couple of weeks ago. Rabies is a preventable disease by mass vaccination of domestic dogs, and it can be eradicated with 70% vaccine coverage. It is time for us to take action to stop this suffering.

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Eland and Giraffe

Category: Wildlife | Date: Sep 03 2007 | By: admin

Couple of weeks ago, my askali (guard) came to my house with a lost eland baby. It has been left alone near his boma from 8am to 6pm. It was soon getting dark and he was concerned that it would be eaten by hyena. He asked if I can keep the baby eland inside my compound fence and find the mother in the morning. We agreed that it would be better if we find the mother before the dark. Well, just before the sunset we finally managed to find the mother! Together, happy baby eland and mama eland disappeared into the bush.

We came across huge herd of giraffe when we were looking for mama eland. I would say there were over fifty giraffes! (sorry for the shaking image, I was driving when I took this video).

4 responses so far