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: 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: Dogs | Date: Oct 12 2007 | By: admin

Here is the video image of the dog showing compulsive clamping of the jaws. It has been showing this sign for over 8 months, but otherwise normal and healthy dog. Full of energy running around, eating, playing, etc.

3 responses so far

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

Lesingo, the dog handler, puts an ID collar on the vaccinated dog.

Dog is now fitted with ID collar and becomes Lesingo’s friend.

After helping me vaccinate 2,530 dogs, Lesingo developed a skill to befriend ANY dogs.

3 responses so far

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

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

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

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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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: 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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