Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Dogs, Life of a Vet | Date: Nov 11 2007 | By: admin

Then there are my canine family members.

Yamato, my beloved Jack Russell Terrier.

Koyuki, Yamato’s daughter.

Shino, Yamato’s son.

Musashi, dobermann/rottweiler askali (guard) dog.

Maile, former shelter dog

Marimo, ridgeback cross.

6 responses so far

Category: Cats, Life of a Vet | Date: Nov 11 2007 | By: admin

It is about time I introduce my feline family members.

Tora, my friendly tiger cat (together with my Jack Russell Terrier)

Uri, semi-feral tiger kitten

and

Rei, cat with personality disorders.

*All the names are in Japanese, not Swahili.

5 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Nov 11 2007 | By: admin

Just before the first heavy rain is expected, you need to do one thing.

Clean the tank!

The tank can contain anything from mud, frog to half melted snail (yuk!) This cleaning is usually my job (my maid tried to help, but she got stuck).

So here I go…

Tank cleaning is not a joke, it is nasty job with all the myseterious looking debris on the bottom of the tank (I don’t even want to know what exactly it is).

You even get dizzy from oxygen deficiency…

*photos are taken when we moved from Nairobi.

11 responses so far

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

Finally the awaited rain came to the Maasai land! It came so suddenly everyone was caught in a surprise. People could not get home because of downpour. Herd of goats came rushing back from pasture and forced themselves into outhouse next to our house. My worker went to the toilet and came face to face with 12 wet goats squeezed inside the room looking very miserable…

Good news - our precious water tanks are half full now (they were completely empty).

Bad news - the rain was only for one day!!

2 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Maasai People | Date: Nov 08 2007 | By: admin

Couple of nights ago, friend of mine came to my house at midnight. Walking! Even worst, without a torch!(flashlight). He was completely drunk. “Peleka mimi nyumbani”, he insists me to drive him home. “My car is not working”, I tell him. He then ask to be given my askali (guard) as an escort to his house. It is midnight and his house is on the other side of Dupoto forest, there is no way I am sending my askali.

“Are you crazy?! You don’t hear the elephants breaking the tree just behind our house?”

I don’t know how he even managed to get himself to my house without being trampled by elephant. They are less than 50 meter away.

“Sleep at our house or go back to the bar in Kawai (nearby center), but don’t even try to walk home now”

He did not take my advice seriously.

“Kama ni hivyo, ni sawa” (then so be it)

He disappeard into the darkness of the Dupoto forest before we could even have a chance to stop him. My friend is raising his voice like dancing murran (warrior) and in the background I am also hearing the elephants breaking trees. I quickly call my friend’s brother and explain to him that his older brother is completely drunk, refused to stay at our house, disappeared into forest in attempt to return home and that someone needs to go rescue him if they hear any screaming from the forest. Next day, my friend came over to my house, ALIVE and NOT remembering how exactly he got home…

6 responses so far

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

I just received the break down for October donation. Thank you Gary, Shelley and Andrew for contribution towards our project. The total amount from wildlifedirect this month is USD170. My personal blog (written in Japanese) raised USD1,600 in Sept-Oct. Both will be contributed towards the purchase of the project car. Yes, it is long way to achieve our goal, but we wont give up!

5 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Wildlife | Date: Nov 06 2007 | By: admin

Late last night, horrible car accident happened inside the park. Two of Mara Conservancy workers were badly injured as result. They were coming back late from fieldwork to their office when 3,000kg hippo appeared from darkness with incredible speed, crashed their tiny Suzuki. One guy broke his ribs, went unconscious and he was rushed to Nairobi by flying doctor during the night. I was told that he did not gain consciousness till the next day and now he is hospitalized. Other worker was sent to Kisii hospital.

I have seen truck being crashed by hippo in Koiyaki area where the half of bonnet was gone. From my own experience, hippo is very difficult to spot at night when you are driving pass it. I have been caught by surprise by charging hippo in its attempt to cross the road before my car passed. Hippo cannot be blamed as it is partly blinded by the spotlight of the car and it wants to run to its safe zone (river), but it is dangerous when it collides with moving vehicle. I cannot imagine the force of the impact from hippo onto a tiny car. It was very unfortunate because these guys usually travels in Landcruiser which was under repair at workshop on this particular day…

13 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet | Date: Nov 06 2007 | By: admin

I am reading all your comments with excitement! Thank you Robin for passing the email template for project car fund raising and all the other commenters (Gary, Jim, Lisa, Cecile, Christine and Sheryl) for your generous donations! I am also doing fund raising on my Japanese blog and managed to raise USD 1,600 as of today (this will be combined with donation from wildlifedirect to be directed towards the project car). The readers from Japanese blog have donated USD 5,000 in the beginning of vaccination campaign enabling us to buy solar fridge for vaccination storage and other operational equipments so I am greatful for their support too! I will be able to tell you guys how much we raised once I check my monthly donation breakdown from wildlifedirect.

I would like to thank all the people who have been donating to Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit. Our campaign to save the wild carnivores (through canine distemper vaccination) and local children (through rabies vaccination), would not have taken place if it wasn’t for my readers. All of you helped me raise fund for initial stage for vaccination campaign and persuaded me to take my first step towards huge task of covering the entire boundary of Mara Triangle. Now, you guys are helping us get a project car so we can continue our work, it is just amazing.

Initially, everybody (including myself) stared at the reserve boundary stretching all the way to Tanzania and thought ”it is not possible!”. Local Maasai guys exclaimed in disbelief when we told them that we are trying to cover the entire Maasai Land. To be quite honest no one thought one lady with one dog handler and tiny car will manage such a huge task. Well, they were wrong!

I would like to thank all of my donors for their generous support. Remember that without you guys, all our vaccination in Mara would not have taken place! I cannot wait till I get the project car so I can put a big sticker with WILDLIFEDIRECT on it!!

5 responses so far

Category: Dogs | Date: Nov 05 2007 | By: admin

My dog handler, Lesingo, came over to my house. He has been sent home till the problem with my car is solved and it is now the 5th week. Having vaccinated 2,550 dogs with me these past several months, he finds the life in ‘nymbani’ (home) is boring and he wants to get back to work. People are constantly asking when we are back vaccinating in the community as we failed to reach the outbreak core last month. I also had two reports of rabid dog attack on small children in October from the area near where we left off. Unfortunately it is not possible for us to do our work without transport as we cover over 500 sq km and probably will take me 5-6hr to walk to get to the point we left off last month. I feel bad sending Lesingo home, but I have no choice…

Lesingo (left) feeling very proud of his work during our Rabies & Distemper vaccination campaign.

24 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Wildlife | Date: Nov 03 2007 | By: admin

My house is situated right next to eastern end of Dupoto forest in the Maasai land. As I mentioned in my past entries, Dupoto is full of elephants during months between June and October. For the last one week, elephants have been paying night time visits to my compound and I am hearing elephant choir from my bedroom every day. Before they used to come right up to my fence and vegetable garden. This worried me because elephants dislike barking dogs and in my house there are lots of them. I have seen an elephant crashing manyatta (Maasai village) when dogs were constantly barking at it (it torn down the house). As a consequence, most Maasai dogs keep quiet when they come across elephants at nights. Well, not my dogs. They are ex-town dogs and bark at anything (they are doing great job keeping big cats away from the compound). I had to do something.

I have consulted several people on method to deter elephants and most agreed that chili pepper fence would worth a try. According to many wildlife conflict experiments done in Mara area, chili pepper fence has so far proved to be 100% successful in detering elephants. Really? Chili pepper keeps such a gigantic animal away? I was very skeptical, but I decided to give the benefit of doubt. Well, it works! I have pack of barking dogs, vegetable garden full of cabbage, tomato, cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin and not a single elephant attack! (and I live on th elephant path)

Chili pepper fence is cheap and easy way to keep out elephants. Get 5L of used engine oil, mix with chopped fresh chili (1kg) and tabaco leaves (1kg). Then immerse sisal rope into mixture and pull the line along the pre-existing fence. Some say that planting fresh chili along the fence is also effective.

I am not sure its effectiveness of this fence for big farms, but it seems to be working for my house for the last 5 months and many of the boma here in the Mara. Engine oil is not exactly the most environmental friendly, but I prefer over electric fence. When the rain comes, I might try planting the chili pepper to see if that is more effective.

Black sisal rope above the wiremesh is my elephant fence.

4 responses so far