Holy cow. I only have one week left of volunteering before I vacation with my family. It doesn’t feel real that I will be on the same continent as my family on Saturday. I’m so excited for them to see my favorite part of the world and understand (fully) why I keep coming back! Chandler and Trevin left to start their traveling to Chipangali today and I was so sad to see them go. We had an amazing two weeks getting to experience all of this craziness together and I will be forever thankful for their curious to join me. I read the last of my letters from my friends back home (from Alex) and it made me so excited to see her and all my other friends in 3 weeks.
Last Monday we were up super early to start work! We had a few tasks to do at this particular farm and it was about an hour drive. We had to take Tyson (snake bite dog that we had to stitch twice) back with us because he was finally healed enough. Once we got to the farm, we unloaded Tyson and let him go inside. Then, we went to dart a roan bull. He was being moved into a new camp so that they could bring a new bull in for breeding. Our last task was castrating a horse. This is a big task as you have to sedate the horse and then make sure it stays laying down on its side while you perform surgery and hope that it doesn’t wake up. Luckily, Klopper was fast and he finished before the horse decided to wake up. After lunch, we went to dart a sick sable to treat it with vitamins and dewormer. It was a beautiful bull but he was looking a little skinny. Hopefully, he gets healthier after treatment. 
Tuesday morning we went with Klopper to treat a horse with an infected ear. The ear had been injured at some point and was now extremely inflamed and missing skin on the inside. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much we could do besides cut off the necrotic issue and give antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. The ear will heal but it probably won’t ever look normal again. The owners of the farm also grow Bird’s Eye Peppers which Trevin tried and said were very spicy! I didn’t try one (I’m a huge wimp when it comes to spice) but they made for a nice picture! 
Wednesday was filled with darting roans. I think we ended up darting 4 total. They are really beautiful animals and I am happy that I have gotten the opportunity to work with them so much this trip. We treated them with all the usual stuff: vitamins, dewormer, and external parasite preventative. At this point, we have gotten so efficient at treating the animals that Klopper doesn’t even see us do it. Time is important for an animal when it is anesthetized so the faster we can be, the better. The farm we were darting at was HUGE and had super tight security. We had to sign in and out and get badges before we could enter the property. It was the first time I had been to a private farm that had more than a gate. Once we got back to the clinic, we were taken to a small pub on the top of a mountain, Hangklip. It was absolutely beautiful and incredible how much the landscape changed. It went from dry, warm, bush to cold, damp, rainforest. It was so cool to see. We enjoyed a couple of drinks up there before going home for the night. 
On Thursday, we went with Klopper to do mass capture to move around sable and roan. We started with the sable and caught all the adults that we not pregnant or that were currently nursing young. We darted 3 that were suspected to be pregnant so that a pregnant one did not get sent to the other area. They were being moved out of a small camp where there were no predators and they were fed into a large camp with many predators so the babies would be especially susceptible. Once we finished with the sable, we did almost the same thing with the roan. However, we darted all the roan adults to treat them. It was difficult working with so many animals anesthetized but we managed to move through quickly. Unfortunately, some of the workers let 5 babies through with the adults. This was a huge problem because the mothers of these babies were still on the other side. They would die without milk so we needed to recapture the babies and move them back. Luckily, we were able to find them all and get them back safely to their mothers. 
We left Friday morning with Freddie to read TB results and do fertility testing on cattle. Luckily, a lot of the cattle herds have been testing negative for TB but they still test annually. Fertility testing involved collecting semen and observing under the microscope the motility of the sperm. The first bull we tested had almost no sperm in his sample but the younger bulls had a TON with really good motility. Before collecting the sample, Freddie cleaned the sheath but kept the liquid because it is sent off to test for STIs. They also keep a slide of the semen to later check size, shape, and number of the sperm. After we finished the work, we left for a local game reserve where we would be spending the weekend. 
During our weekend out, we went on a bush walk and a game drive. We learned a lot on the walk including what plants can be used for medicinal purposes and which ones are poisonous. We also saw some bushmen cave paintings and heard stories of how the area got to where it is today. At the end of our walk, we found 4 white rhinos! White rhinos are usually very docile so we were able to get within about 50 feet of them. After our walk, we enjoyed a fire cooked brunch and a nap. Our game drive was in the afternoon. We saw the rhinos multiple times on the drive. One of the times they were about 10 feet from the vehicle! We also saw two male giraffes fighting (necking). As the sun went down, we stopped to enjoy some drinks and watch it. We braaied when we got back and I have to say we are pretty good at cooking over a fire now. Sunday was a much needed relax day full of napping. 
Yesterday, we started our morning going out to stitch up a bull (cattle) that had gotten in a fight with another bull and got a puncture wound. Luckily, the puncture only went through some of the muscle and not all the way into the abdomen. Right before lunch, we went with Dr. Freddie to TB test and bleed around 200 cattle. The blood is drawn to test for antibodies to other diseases that could decimate a herd. The TB test will be read in 72 hours by looking for a swelling at the injection site.
Until next week!
Wandering Wildlife Vet 
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