Today we were scheduled to vaccinate at two separate sites.  We arrived at our first site around 8:15 and set up shop. A minute later, our team leader Lucy received a phone call informing us that a dog had been hit by a motorcycle on the road nearby.  Courtnie and I grabbed our supplies and ran up the road, and saw the dog laying off to the side. 

The dog was awake and reasonably alert, but wasn’t able to get up.  I started to examine it, but it was scared and disoriented and attempted to bite.  I fashioned a muzzle out of gauze and got it on the dog, preventing anyone from getting bitten.  A cursory exam of the dog showed several scrapes and abrasions.  The front legs were a bit rigid and the rear legs were a bit flaccid, suggestive of a spinal injury.

My teammate Courtnie is a veterinary technician, so I held off the cephalic vein for her while she placed an intravenous catheter.  

We started IV fluids, and then called the leader of the spay/neuter project that was running concurrently with our vaccination project. 

We gave them our exact location, and they zoomed over and took the dog back to the clinic for further treatment.

It was exciting and gratifying to do this kind of work again, with such competent and dedicated people.  

After they took the dog away, we went back to our makeshift vaccination clinic, where local residents soon began arriving.  

Once again, it was kids, proudly carrying their dogs.  

And once again, we had a few cats as well.  

I noticed something interesting yesterday, and again today.  Some dogs, like the upper dog in the picture below, have a ridge of fur down their back that runs against the grain of the rest of the fur. 

It is very reminiscent of the fur seen in Rhodesian Ridgebacks, although these dogs clearly aren’t purebred dogs.  But Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe, which is not terribly far from Tanzania.  I wonder if some purebred Rhodesian Ridgebacks accidentally mated with some street dogs, resulting in mixed breed dogs that retained the gene for the unique ridge of fur.  Interesting thought.  Anyway, it wasn’t an overwhelming onslaught of dogs like yesterday, but it was pretty steady until about 12:15.  

We took a break, quickly ate lunch, and vaccinated a few more dogs (and a handful of cats) before packing up and moving on to our next site.  

The afternoon vaccination site was in a more remote location and we didn’t attract as many dogs as we did this morning, although as you can see below, we had our moments. 

By the end of the afternoon, I think we finished with 60 animals vaccinated at the morning location, and 24 at the afternoon spot.  

Not bad overall, considering that it’s Sunday and many people were at church. 

Dinner this evening was the usual fun affair. I spoke to Ian, the volunteer who came to pick up the injured dog this morning, and he said that given the dog’s flaccid paralysis and the rigid front legs, and the lack of deep pain sensation in the rear legs, he agreed that a spinal injury had occurred.  Tomorrow they will check on the dog again, but given that the dog isn’t owned and has a really poor prognosis, they will likely end up euthanizing.  A sad situation.  

Tonight I’ll do a little reading and once again hit the sack early.

CONTINUE TO MISSION RABIES TANZANIA PART 7

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We smashed all records from previous Mission Rabies Tanzania trips, vaccinating 7,657 dogs and 1,229 cats.  Total number of animals vaccinated against rabies: 8,886.  It’s an incredible accomplishment.  To continue to do this kind of work is expensive. If you like reading these blog posts and you support this kind of work, I humbly ask for you to make a small donation if you can.  Every little bit helps.  Thank you.