Wandering Wildlife Vet

Today was the end of work week number three! Wow, how time has flown by. My time in Zimbabwe is almost halfway done but there’s still so much to look forward to! This week was a hard one though. We had a few highs and some lows as well. We worked really hard and are looking forward to the next two days off. It is also Lindsay’s last week here:-(. My little group of friends will have all left me. There are amazing other volunteers here. Jo, the detective from the UK, is still here as well as Hanna from Holland, and Lili from Colorado. We also got two new volunteers: Yo from Australia and Annette from Sweden! Everyone is so nice and I enjoy getting to spend time with all of them.

Jemima left on Tuesday:-(. It was quite a hard goodbye but I know we will see each other again. Our room is much quieter now and I miss her presence. Since it is Lindsay’s last week, we asked to be in a group together. Tuesday was a carnivore day so we helped cut up a cow and then fed it out to the lions. We’ve been getting a large number of cows recently so the animals have been happy. We went a few days without power so it was good that we could feed it that day.

Wednesday was a Diana Center day. We rebuilt some huts for the bunnies so they could have places to hide from the sun. We also helped ear tag and band tails and testicles on the lambs that had been born. We found out that the buses were finally running again so Lindsay and Johanna get to go to Victoria Falls!

Right before dinner, we were called to help Kiki (employee in photo above) with a sheep birth. The mom was an older ewe who had a foot problem. Unfortunately, she was really weak and having troubling pushing the lamb out. We were worried the baby wouldn’t make it but Kiki was able to help pull it out and it made it! Mom was so tired though that she was pretty uninterested in the lamb and wasn’t cleaning it. Kiki made the decision to take the lamb away and get it cleaned up and fed as soon as possible to give it the best chance. With the help of Kiki’s jack russel, Luna, we were able to get the lamb cleaned up and dried off. We got a little bit of milk from another sheep and got some into the lamb but it just wasn’t acting normal. We were worried about both’s conditions all night.

Thursday was a hard day. Unfortunately, the momma ewe didn’t make it through the night and the lamb passed away later on in the day. We were all devastated. It’s a hard thing to grasp here but everything that dies is used for food so that nothing goes to waste. None of us were able to participate in that. While we had been with the lamb the night before, I noticed it displaying symptoms that I had seen before. I believe it suffered from a birth defect known as neonatal maladjustment syndrome (dummy foal syndrome as I had heard it before). It’s a condition that results from the baby being trapped in the birth canal for a long period of time without access to oxygen so it is born with brain damage. We’re not sure what the actual cause of death was but we are also not sure how long the ewe had been in labor before we got to her.

Yesterday, I was in the Diana Center again. We sexed some more bunnies and moved the females into the big pen with the other females. In the afternoon, we cleaned the sheep pens. If you want to see an animal that poops a lot, get a sheep. The second the herd came back in, it was like we hadn’t done anything. Oh well…we tried. I spent my animal time with Jackie, a 17-year old side-striped jackal. She is very old and probably deaf but she loves scratches! She even has a tickle spot just like a dog!

Today was our last work day of the week. We are getting all day Sunday off because it is Micky’s birthday and we are going hiking! I spent today doing whatever needed to be done for the day. We started the morning by cutting grass. You wouldn’t think that is a hard task but there are no lawnmowers here so it is cut with a slasher and we bag it and then carry it back to the center. We managed to fill 13 bags in less than an hour! It was hard work but the animals really appreciate it. After lunch, we treated Jackie’s eyes, gave her a good brush, and treated her with flea and tick powder. We also helped clean up the slab from all the chickens that had gone bad from our power outage. I spent my animal time with Carla, the leopard. I am working on getting her to let me put flyspray on her ears so the flies will stop biting her. I successfully got two sprays on her but she wasn’t the biggest fan. I’m going to continue to work on it daily so that she doesn’t have to deal with the flies!

I’ve had the room to myself since Thursday which has been nice but I am excited for Lindsay to come back tomorrow. She only has a few days left here. Tomorrow we are having a braai (barbecue) and party after our hike for Micky’s birthday. Here’s to hoping the power stays on! I’m looking forward to our days off and just relaxing. Next blog post when we get back to work!