Today marked the last day of the first week of our Mission Rabies Tanzania project. Our assignment today was to go back to an area up in the mountains called Nkoarisambu. A Mission Rabies team had already been there, but the post-vaccine survey revealed that we’d fallen shy of the 70% needed to break the cycle and stop the spread…
Today was my kind of day. We drove around the Moivaro area, announcing through the loudspeaker that we were in the area, vaccinating dogs and cats for free. Then we parked in a residential area and went door to door, meeting people at their homes to vaccinate their pets. This allows us to walk through all the pathways and trails…
The first two days of this Mission Rabies vaccination drive, we worked “static clinics”. We drive to a place, set up our makeshift clinic, and people bring us their dogs. Today, we did “roaming clinics”. We drive through an assigned area announcing that we’re offering free rabies vaccinations to dogs and cats. When we see someone with a dog, we…
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…
Today is Mission Rabies Tanzania Workday 1, the first day we hit the road and start vaccinating. Didn’t sleep great last night. Still getting used to it being so quiet. I’m up early now, so I’ll start this blog post now and finish it tonight. Last night I packed my backpack with all of the items I think I’ll need…
I woke up today with a start when my iPhone alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. I usually awaken on my own around 6:30, but the very long travel day wore me out, and I slept like a zombie. My room was pretty nice. It’s very big and has a huge bed draped with mosquito netting. Had a very nice…
Mike arrived in New York last night. His plane landed at Newark, and he took the train to Penn Station, and then walked to my apartment. He had a memorable flight, mainly because a passenger on his flight fainted in the aisle. Oh, I should mention that the passenger was … him! Apparently, a crappy night’s sleep, a very early…
So, after what seems like an interminable wait, the Mission Rabies Tanzania journey begins. My college buddy, Mike Rosen, is joining me on this trip, and he arrives here in New York in about 8 hours. He’ll stay overnight, and then we both depart from JFK airport tomorrow evening. In these times of Covid-19, planning this trip has been a…
Until I adopted my cat Mittens, I had never had a cat who liked to sleep in the sink. One day I went into the bathroom and found her in the sink, and it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I hadn’t thought much about since, until I recently saw another photo of a cat in a sink that…
Regular readers of my blog know that even though I retired from veterinary practice three years ago, I’ve remained active in the veterinary community. I still author the bimonthly “The Vet Is In” column for Catster magazine, and I still pop into Dr. Soboroff’s practice, New York Cat Hospital, every now and then to visit him and Dr. Sheheri and…
Today is World Rabies Day. With a mortality rate of 99.9%, rabies is the deadliest disease in the world. Human cases of rabies are rare in the U.S., but in underdeveloped parts of the world (Asia and Africa in particular), rabies kills approximately 60,000 people annually, the majority being children under the age of 15. Most cases result from…
JOIN CFA EVERY WEDNESDAY ONLINE FOR MEOWY HOUR AT 6PM EDT/3PM PDT JULY 29, 2020Dr. Arnold Plotnick Shares His Tales About Cats Around the World 𝐓𝐎 𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐍, 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82809871152Or, watch live here on Facebook. <- This is also where all the shows are saved, so you can watch the recorded show any time. 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠Arden Moore, Casey the Pet Safety…
In an issue of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery there was a pretty interesting article about the effect of various genres of music on a few parameters of feline anesthesia. Being a big music fan myself, I was intrigued. The aim of the study was to determine if cats were able to process auditory stimuli even though they…
Although cats are generally more discreet about what they put in their mouths compared to dogs, some cats have a penchant for chewing unusual objects. One thing both dogs and cats often chew on are electrical cords. This can be a hazard for two reasons. First, it can be a danger to your cat, because of potential electrical burns. Second,…
In 2015, I sold my cat hospital, Manhattan Cat Specialists, to a corporation that owns and manages several veterinary clinics. I continued to work at my hospital, however, in June of 2017, I decided to retire from veterinary practice. My hospital continued on, in the very capable hands of Dr. Victoria Sheheri, and my faithful technician Hiromi Karagiannis, who started…