Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 15 2007 | By: admin

Today I accompanied a ranger who was visiting the boma where leopard had killed a goat.

Owner holds what is left of his goat

Mara Conservancy pays compensation to Maasai when the carnivore kills their livestock. Postmortem investigation is important to verify each carnivore attack. The distance between two canine marks is used to differentiate between lion and leopard attack.

Canine marks on the nape

2 responses so far

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 15 2007 | By: admin

In the past couple of days, DVO (District Veterinary Officer) of Kilgoris town has dispatched their personnel to vaccinate cattle against Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the Trans Mara. I was told that this operation was funded by FAO and the total RVF vaccine given to this district was 50,000 doses. That is very small number when dealing with pastoral community. ‘Tajiri ya ngombe’ (cattle rich person) can own 1,000 cattle or even more. Evidently, only some of the cattle were vaccinated while most of the community did not even know that DVO came to administer vaccine. The Trans Mara district covers huge area and human settlements are scattered wide apart. The distance between boma can range anywhere from 5-10km on an extremely difficult terrain. Even if the vaccine for entire Trans Mara district was given out free, actually administering them to the entire cattle population sounds like near impossible task.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

The same guy who ended up killing his sick goats and sheep by injecting vaccine had yet another problem with animal. His calf has broken its leg and his traditional healing method is not working. The leg was bandaged using tree bark, very wet and covered by mixture of mud and cow dung. The calf was reluctant to move and the joint above the bandage was badly swollen. The bandage was too tight and it was cutting off the circulation. The tree bark must be removed and bandaged must be changed, otherwise the leg can necrose, I tell the owner He restrains the calf and starts removing his bandage. I was preparing a disinfectant and sterile bandages when I heard the owner’s loud voice. ‘Ime oza!’(it is rotten) The entire area he bandaged was rotten and broken bones were sticking out. He later tells me that accident happened 5days ago and calf had small cut on its skin at the point of fracture (which he refused to disclose to me earlier). I explained to him that his bandage method would only work if there is no skin cut because dirty bandage causes risk of infection. Also, bandage should never be too tight since it cuts off the circulation. I wish I could stay in the Mara instead of commuting from Nairobi so these kinds of things won’t happen while I am away…

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

Today I spent the entire day in area called Kirindoni. After usual dog vaccination, I went to one boma to take a look at sick goats and sheep. The entire flock had goat/sheep pox. Skin lesions were evident and many showed respiratory signs. Adults were little bit well off but young animals were severely affected, some of them unable to move.

Kid showing severe respiratory symptoms.

The owner explains that he bought a dawa (drug) at Kilgoris town and injected the animals, but the animals are still dying. I asked him to bring me the drug he used and he showed me a vial of pox virus vaccine. His animals were already sick and showing severe clinical signs. Now he further aggravated the situation by injecting a live attenuated vaccine, killing 75 animals over 2 weeks.　　I explained to him that chanjo (vaccine) can only be used for healthy animal and does no good for sick ones. Most of the people don’t know the proper dosage or usage of drug, and the seller at Agrovet shop does not have proper veterinary knowledge either. I always spend long time at each boma explaining the properly drug usage/dosing for the drugs sold over the counter, which I think is the one of the most important element of the project so case such as this would not happen in the future.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

There are three bridges in the Trans Mara, destroyed Saparingo bridge is the smallest and located in the middle of the three. The most well constructed bridge is Mara bridge and thre is another bridge leading to Mararianta town in Koiyaki-Lemek (I don’t know the actual name for the bridge). This bridge is quite dangerous when the water level is high and flowing fast. My Maasai friend from Mararianta was washed away couple of years ago. It was miracle that he survived the ordeal since he didn’t know how to swim and water carried him up to hippo pool 2km away from the bridge.

Today, my friend witnessed a herdsman leading his cattle across the Mararianta bridge. I don’t know what made the herdsman decide that it was okay to cross the bridge since the water level reached up to his thigh. One by one, cattle jumped into the water and started crossing, just like the wildebeest crossing. When the cattle reached midpoint of the bridge, one bull jumped sideway. Since cattle have no idea where the edges of the bridge were, it jumped into the river without knowing. The water flipped over the poor bull upside-down before it was entirely engulfed by the brown water. Then another bull does the same thing and now two of the cattle were carried away by the water. The herdsman watches his cattle drifting away in the Mara river and the only thing he could say was

‘E-shomo…’(It is going…)

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

My friend told me that his cow collapsed and wanted me to come take a look. When I got to their boma, people are telling me that this cow has been bellowing for the last two days and now completely recumbent. Bad news. It could be suspected rabies case. I found the sick cow in the middle of boma, collapsed and convulsing. The cow is paddling in the air, with both limbs and neck rigid. Severe torticoris is observed and the cow was froathing while grinding its teeth. I told the owner that rabies is highly suspected and that the cow is close to dying already. Not less than 5minutes upon my arrival, the cow stretched all its four limbs and died right in front of our eyes. In March, one guy lost seven cattle after getting bitten by rabid dog, then one boy was bitten also in the same area. The number of dogs in the area is unknown and the area covered is too vast. Lots of work to be done, but with too little manpower.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

I never knew that there was a trend in cattle horn shape. As I was driving pass one herd, I came across cattle with straight horn. Both horns are pointed upwards like oryx, it was odd. My friend tells me that that horn style was a trend some times back. Two horns are tied together with wire and supported with wooden board when it is still a calf.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

Today I went to see a case of sheep pox in one of the boma on the escarpment. During my last visit I treated the eye infection for one of the sheep in this boma and was curious to see if it had cured. When I gave subconjuctival injection, Maasai guys jumped in surprise. They told me that it could make the sheep blind and I reassured them that the animal will be fine. The owner brought the sheep I injected and happily told me that the eye infection is gone now.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

I was called to do a postmortem of a sheep at one boma. I have been hearing reports of several sheep dropping dead in bomas along the escarpment. The herdsman already opened up the carcass the previous day so I told them not to open the carcass before my arrival. The Maasai guys are insisting that this is an Anthrax case, but from what I saw it looks like Clostridial infection.

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Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2007 | By: admin

Yesterday, the mzee wanted me to take blood sample from his cattle to see what was causing the death. It was pretty obvious that they were malnourished and most probably dying from starvation. The blood sample showed Anaplasma and Babesia within the red blood cell. Under normal circumstances, Zebu cattle is a very resistant breed towards most of the endemic diseases. Thus, when healthy and well fed, majority of Zebu just carry Anaplasma and Babesia without showing serious clinical signs. However, this was not the case during this drought. Cattle were weak and were showing clinical signs and killed very fast. I was not sure if the direct cause or the death was malnutrition or due to disease since the cattle were already in bad state of malnutrition and recumbent. I treated the somewhat well off cattle with intravenous short-acting antibiotic and followed by intramuscular long-acting antibiotic since I did not know when I could return to this boma to give another short-acting drug. As for the already recumbent cattle with Babesia, the animal was in such a bad state, we decided that it was useless to inject imizol. The meat will have to be withheld from human consumption following the injection and the owner did not want to treat the animal.

My Jua Kali (makeshift) outdoor lab

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