Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Dogs, Life of a Vet | Date: Mar 08 2008 | By: admin

Today, my dog handler Lesingo got bitten by a dog. We are now up to 2,770 dogs and it was his first time getting bitten by one (I got bitten about a year ago). The bite was small, but we deal with non-vaccinated dog and it was important for him to get post-exposure vaccine nontheless. After giving him a basic first aid treatment, we rushed to my house to pick up the post-exposure vaccine and headed for local dispensary. In general, Maasai can take lots of pain, but from larger crude weapon such as panga (machete), spear, arrows and rungu (club). For some reason they do not handle pain well from tiny pointy needle. Lesingo finched and told me that “he hated needles”.

After Lesingo’s treatment, daktali (doctor) came to us to thank us for all the work we are doing for the community. He says that prior to our vaccination campaign, he was getting average of 5-8 rabid dog attack cases per month. Since we started the vaccination, the number of victim is now is almost zero as even the sporadic cases are from vaccinated dogs. I am soooo happy to hear this positive feedback!

Lesingo collaring of vaccinated dog.