Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Mujambo (Hello),

On the way to breakfast the spider monkeys are on the roof of the passageway between our wing of the hotel and the lobby and dining room/bar.


I stop to take a couple of more pictures of a mother and baby suspended on her chest, and another who is eating mango or papaya right outside the window. The light is not good so the flash automatically goes off, scaring them. Malaria prevention day for me so I take my weekly mefloaquine (Lariam) pill in the morning with breakfast.

We depart at usual time, stop at Ministry office to pick up Mama Safe, Freddy and the others and head back south to Pongwe, taking the “shortcut route” to the site that we departed on yesterday. A few cattle are there, supposedly restricted by arrangement to no more than 100 today at the “crush” site. We are to concentrate on goats and sheep, which we do. We begin by administering FMD vaccine (2 ml rather than the cow 3 ml dose SQ), ivermectin injectable, and Drop-On pour on deltamethrin. Quite a “goat rope” as the Massai capture them by their hind or front legs, one to three at a time and bring them up to us to treat and then be marked with a crayon. We adjust the dose of the ivermectin and pour on to the smaller size of the animals, some are babies and others more mature and of some size, including a few Billies. The ivermectin sting some of them quite badly when administered SQ, with a few running off and rolling on the ground or twisting their necks pretty wildly.

I find one goat who is three-legged lame, not sure if it relates to the SQ injection it obviously received (blood from injection site on neck) or from injury received at same or earlier time. It would bear weight on that leg if the other leg was held up but went back to non-weight bearing lameness when let go. Could not palpate a fracture or dislocation, so I gave that goat to over to the Lord and moved on. We end the day pretty early, about noon or so.

Two sick cows to look at. A mature milk cow with fever of 105.9 degrees F in good flesh and “sick for three weeks.” CPT Coenen and I do a physical exam: lungs clear, HR = 72 BPM, not anemic on vuvlar or oral mucoas and no signs of vesicles or erosions; peripheral lymph nodes not enlarged above those we feel on all the cattle that we have felt. She is not pregnant; her right rear quarter is hard but not inflamed and the milk is not abnormal. We treat with injectable oxytetracylcline and give enough to repeat the treatment for two more days, and give a multivitamin injection.

The other animal is a calf about 180 kg who is weak and has clear nasal discharge. The pre-scapular lymph nodes are very enlarged, about the size of a small orange. One of the animal health workers points out that the parotid lymph nodes are also enlarged. Temperature is 102.9 degrees F, not clinically anemic and no erosions/ulcerations/vesicles on oral mucosa. We diagnose East Coast Fever and treat with buparvanone (Bulalex). Based on what Dr. Mwossa told me, if we were being paid for this call we should get it now; the chance for survival is not good. We also give that one over to the Lord and to her Massai owner, and then depart. We took a blood sample in an EDTA tube from the cow and intended to do a smear to look for RBC parasites but managed to not get that done today; will try tomorrow and perhaps add ECF treatment to her if we have the chance to get it to the owner.

Kwaheri! ("Good Bye" in Swahili)