09/11/2017
All of us spends a lot of time making plans for the future. As far as I remember I’ve been always dreaming about travelling to african countries to see wild animals. Especiallt the ones I’ve seen in documantaries or cartoons like „The Lion King”. After starting veterinary studies, I gave up on my african idea and decided to focus on more common patients like dogs, cats and horses. One day, when I was a third year student, I decided to make my dream come true. After a year of collecting funds and making some arragnements, I’ve finally travelled to South Africa. For a month I was staying in Shamwari Game Reserve, where I could help the wildlife team and see what it takes to be a wildlife veterinarian. When I was departing from Johannesburg airport I made myself a promise. I will return to Africa, to improve my skills and help saving endangered species.
This summer I started my adventure in Namibia, where I Was helping during annual health-check in Africat Foundation, situated in Okonjima Lodge. In one week I helped with treating 16 cheetahs, 4 leopards, 2 lions and 1 brown hyena. Before doing anything, we had to put our patients under anesthesia. How it’s done? First, we had to prepare a mixture of drugs and put them in a special dart. Then we shot the animal with it, using Palmer’s gun. After we’ve made sure the animal was asleep and able to handle, we put them on backie and drove to our clinic. There, every cat was precisely examined by an amazing team of veterinarians. First we’put the animal on the scale to check it’s weight and then intubated it. After we were sure that it’s breathing properly, we were collecting blood samples (both arterial and venal) and urine for furhter labaratory examination. Later on an abdominal ultrasound was performed, followed by gastroscopy with collencting biopsy samples. We had a stomatologist on board, so in case of canine fractures or other dental problems, he performed necessary procedures. Next step, was to put the cat in crates and give it the antidote. After waking up, we released it back into the wild. During the whole process, monitoring was very important. Scriber was taking notes while controlling parameters like saturation, temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to gain so much experience during just one week. Being a part of this amazing team and being able to learn from well known specialist was a privilge and honour.
After leaving Namibia, I flew to South Africa. During the next four weeks I was working with dr Johan Joubert, the wildlife veterinarian I’ve met a year before. I did things I didn’t expect to do, like babysitting an orphaned elephant named Amara. This 4 months old baby was found alone in the bush and taken do the Rehab Centre in Shamwari. Taking care of an orphaned animal is an exhautsing but also very satysfying job. I had to feed Amara every two hours, take her for long walks, play with her in the sand and teach her how to be an elephant. Fortunatelly I had four other people to help me so I could take part in other activities. Working with buffalos was one of them. As they are carriers of dangereous diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease, Brucelosis and Tuberculosis, we had to sample every single animal to make sure they’re diseases free. In order to do that, we had to shoot the animal, then take blood from the ear, put the microchip under the skin and take some measurments. I also helped with taking x-rays of a lame male lion, that was rescued from a circus few years ago. Unfortunatelly the diagnosis wasn’t very optimistic. I also performed two dissections in antelopes. But not only wild animals were my patients. Together with the vet nurse and some students, we’ve set up an outridge clinic twice. For 4 hours we vaccinated and dewormed dogs and cats that belonged to the villagers. Some of them were in really poor conditio and unfortunatelly the only thing we could do fro them, was putting them to sleep to release them from pain.
Another important activity was game capture. What for? Eventhough Shamwari is a big reserve (>25.000 hectares), the whole area is surrounded by an electric fence. It means that animals can run freely, but they can’t migrate for long distances. To keep everytyhing in balance, we have to catch some animals and translocate them to other parts of the reserve or sell them to other places. There are different techniques of game capture and the method depends on the species and numer of animals. The most spectacular one is called mass capture and is used for groups and herds (ex. zebras, red hartebeests and impalas). In this method we use a helicopter and a system of black sails. The helicopter works like a border collie and chases animals torward the trap. There’s a truck on it’s end and while animals are runnig, we’re closing sail gates to prevent them from turning back. After the whole herd is in the truck, we administer some tranquilizers (mainly haloperidol) using a long metal pole syringe. Darting is the best way to capture a single, big or agressive animal (ex. rhino. Kudu, waterbuck). Unfortunatelly every animals acts in a different way and it’s impossible to predict everything. One of the waterbuck bulls started to panic after being darted. He hurt himself while running and we had to perform a small plastic surgery to fix his nose. Back of the truck was our operating room, that’s how you do things in african bush.
Next year, I’m going back to Africa, but this time I won’t be alone. I’m taking 9 polish veterinary students with me. If you would like to go to place like Shamwari, all you have to do is spend some time looking for different projects and writing some emails. Before applying, remeber to check if the place you’ve chosen is good for animimals and doesn’t breed them to gain more tourists. Unfortunatelly it’s quite common, especially in South Africa. After you’re accepted, you’ll have to start looking for some money. There are may options! For example crowdfunding, scholarship, sponsors… All you have to do is put some effort in it. Good luck in living your dreams!
If you have any further questions, you can find me on ww.facebook.pl/vetaway or www.vetaway.wordpress.com
