Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dr. Shimbalo (Sp?), the ministry veterinarian we met on the first day we arrived, was at the office site where we always pick up Mama Safe and Freddy, et al. We discuss how the work is going and the animals we treated yesterday. He takes the EDTA blood sample we drew and will have a smear done for tick borne RBC parasites, not failing to mention that we should also have taken a lymph node aspirate in any case of suspected tick borne disease. We have a good discussion of therapies they use. They use label doses (“manufacturer’s recommendations”) of drugs such as oxytetracycline and pen-strep, which is what we did yesterday with our treatment of the more mature cow with OTC injectable at 4 mg/kg. They stay with label doses and train their field workers to do this. I assume that these antimicrobials are effective at those doses because they may not have been used widely, although the isometamidium (“Veridium” or “Samorin” by trade names) that are used for prevention and cure of trypanosomiasis are certainly widely used. He also mentions that stacking treatments such as buparvaquone (“Butalex”) for theileriosis/East Coast Fever along with the babesiosis treatment we have, imidocarb (“Imizol”) i.e. the same as “Diampron” that we used in Devon in 1979, and even along with OTC as combination therapies is an ok practice. They do not like multiple antigen vaccinations, however; hence their reluctance to immunize with both FMD and Lumpy Skin Disease at the same time.

We go to a new site for working animals today. An old unfilled dip tank reveals just how deep they are. I estimate the depth is ten feet at least. This one has not been used in a while. A nearby concrete walled building has “16-3-1980” etched in the concrete to memorialize its construction date. I am told by Anna, one of the Extension workers who rides out with Amanda Coenen and me today, that the square tank to the side of the dip tanks is for conserving water and premixing the dip. Still not sure the exact function but that sounds good. In any event, we are not using the dip tank and the number of cattle to be worked is relatively small. By the end of the day, which we declare over by about 11:30 AM, we have only worked about 200+. These are small herds and the cattle are somewhat thinner on average. One of the young men has an “Alabama Crimson Tide” t-shirt. I take several pictures and will send to the Auburn crowd.

I do a stand up interview for the “Combat Camera” crew which is composed of Air Force personnel, including one still photographer, one motion picture cameraman with a Sony, and one who is a Public Affairs guy. I manage to talk about cattle infectious diseases and how the Tanzanians work their cattle for longer than necessary, but they keep prompting me to talk more: “Why is this mission important to the CJTF-Horn of Africa?” “What would you say to students who might be visiting here about what you are doing?” “What has been the greatest challenge?”

I talk about the importance of tick borne diseases here in East Africa and about how CPT Coenen and I lack clinical experience with the particular ones they have in abundance. I mention that we treated an animal with signs of East Coast Fever yesterday and that it was the first one I had encountered, along with all the FMD vaccines being the first I have administered. I mention that it would be great to have our veterinary students from NC State here to share in these clinical experiences, emphasizing that our knowledge of Foreign Animal Diseases is critically important to our ability to keep the US free of them.

While I am talking Amanda takes a look at a cow that had gone through the “crush” earlier and then had injured her leg in a fight of some type. Her right rear metatarsus has a complete fracture on the distal end above the fetlock. This is a mature cow; the fracture is not at the epiphysis but it is complete; not compound yet but it will be if given the chance. She is standing but cannot bear weight on the right rear, obviously. Although we discuss making a splint and using the small amount of water activated casting tape we have, it is obvious that there is no way to stabilize the fracture and the best course of action is slaughter and salvage. With the help of Freddy, Mama Safe and Major (Dr./MD) Asez (sp?) of the Tanzanian Peoples Defense Force who is with us every day along with LTC (Dr./MD) Macheka (sp?), we inform the owners and the village head that the prognosis for successfully healing the fracture is hopeless. I help the 300 kg cow, who is in lactation (she also has a neck bell, indicating some worth) at about 5+ years old, to walk to a shade tree and then we depart.

We have no firearm with which to shoot her or drug that we could use to euthanize her, which would not be appropriate for slaughter anyway. I am guessing that if they do slaughter her they will cut her throat. Very sad that we couldn’t help her or them, but it would have been hopeless given the location and nature of the fracture. We considered going through the motions of splinting her but CPT Coenen and I agreed not to and also convinced Mama Safe of the wisdom of this. She and the Major talk to the owners and people, who I hope understood.

We leave and return to the hotel by 12:30 PM in the early afternoon, a very light day. We believe that there was a failure in communication which prevented any numbers of cattle being treated today. CPT Coenen takes on the task of arranging the two “VETCAP” boxes with drugs and equipment so we can better find things. She is doing a great job. Don’t know about me.