Africa week 3

What a week! We have been extremely busy with darting impala, nyala, sable, buffalo, roan and wildebeest to relocated to other game reserves. The days have been extremely long and exhausting, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! We did a hind foot amputation on a black impala which had a penetrating stick injury, which now had turned both claws necrotic and had compromised blood supply. The procedure went as well as it could have in this situation. Impala are extremely sensitive to anaesthetics and can drop dead at any moment. Lucky for us the impala woke up and now, 1 week later, is starting to move around easier and the other back leg has started to compensate. You may be asking, why the hell would you do an amputation on an impala? The fact that the animal is worth $400 000 is why. I know. I’m guessing the farmer would like to get some offspring out of this impalas rare and valuable genetics. One day we saw a client with buffalo that needed their ear tags taken out, sounded like a bit of a mission for such a short and uneventful procedure. Fortunately for me, the client also had kitties! I’m talking lions, leopards, hyenas, tigers and JAGUARS! They seemed friendly enough, purring and being able to pat them through the fence, although I’m not game enough to jump in to cuddle them (especially after what the black leopard cubs did to me!). It was pretty awesome being so close to them and touch them through the wire though!! We jumped back into the helicopter this week as well, darting a roan bull. Even cooler, was getting to see a baby roan calf that had been born literally just before we arrived. It still had its slippers on (hadn’t walked yet)! It was so ugly it was cute.

Next week is my last week in Africa before flying home. I’m extremely sad that I have to leave! I can’t believe a month has gone so quickly! I’m already planning my return and may have to stay longer next time 😛 This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my degree and early career and it really cements in my mind why I chose this field of medicine. Final year has been exhausting but choosing to come to Africa for my advanced study/speciality has been the best decision I have made. I know my mum and dad are reading this, and I would really like to thank them for supporting me through these 5 years and allowing me get the best out of it.

Once again, if you love what you see and want to experience it for yourself, check out http://wildlifevetadventures.org – you will have the best time, make new friends, memories and best of all, work with amazing wildlife 🙂 

Big Cats!

Meow Meows

Yesterday we got the opportunity to go and check out some cute and cuddly cubs.. HA cuddly! What a lie! They were vicious little buggers! We were too busy defending ourselves to properly look at them – I guess they are okay! Me on the other hand… I came out with some serious battle wounds! Puncture wounds and scratches head to toe! Lucky i’m working with some pretty awesome vets that can drain any abscesses if they form -_- Luckily I just got my 3 rabies shots so my titre levels are high, the kitties also havnt been exposed so thats always a plus right?

Africa Update

Hello again from Africa! 

The weekend was full of fun and adventures! We travelled to Kruger Nation Park! It is huge, almost 200 million hectares! We drove around and saw most of the african wildlife, heaps of birds, hundreds of elephants and giraffes (yay! my two favourites!), zebra, hippos (so fat and so cute!), nyala, sable, impala, waterbuck, wildebeest and heaps more. We were pretty disappointed to have not seen any of the big cats though 😦 It was an amazing weekend making some great memories with my new friends! And did I mention the sunsets!

The town I am located at is nice too, the animals here are really tame and so cute! These are our nyala friends! ADORABLE!!

Rhino Vet

WOW, what a day in Africa!

Today we darted 6 rhino’s from a helicopter! 2 Bulls, 2 cows and 2 calves. For each rhino we had to dart them with a tranquilliser, sedative and opioid; take blood and a small horn biopsy for DNA testing and insert microchips into each of their horns and also subcutaneously behind their ear. We then moved them into crates that were loaded onto a truck and reversed their anaesthetics and gave them a long lasting sedative.

Poaching of rhino’s is a huge problem, hence why we had to dart these beautiful animals today. Sadly, 4 rhino’s lost their lives to poaching at this farm only 3 weeks ago. The owner of the farm decided it would be best to sell his animals to a farm that has higher security in order to save his remanding rhinos lives.

Working as a vet in Africa has gone above and beyond all expectations I had! 

AFRICA!

I have jetted to Africa to work as a wildlife vet for the next month!

I am still pinching myself. Although the flight here wasn’t too desirable (ew 14hr stuck in a squishy seat next to a lady who has stolen any spare room) my time here has been amazing. It’s only day 3 and I have already been so fortunate to have worked with elephants, rhino, wildebeest, nyala, sable and buffalo. I have also been able to get up close and personal to giraffe and zebra too 😀 We have darted from a helicopter, pregnancy ultrasound scanned, done hundreds of injections and been treated to cuddles with beautiful elephants and tiger cubs. We are currently in a country wide shortage of tranquilliser drugs which has limited the amount of work we can do this week, we have some coming next week though so don’t fret! We already have multiple rhino consults booked in for friday! Internet is limited, but I will be uploading photos and posts from my phone when I can – so keep your eyes peeled for more to come!

Want to have an amazing experience like mine? 
Feeling a pang of jealousy? Check out
http://wildlifevetadventures.org