Veterinary

The ACE vets attend our in-patients and the out-patients throught the day, and quite often some cases require care around the clock.  Here is an example of a typical working day for our vets.

A Day in the Life of the ACE Vet's

8am:   The working day starts with morning rounds, this is when all the inpatients are examined and receive their medication.  We observe whether they are eating, drinking and passing urine and faeces, perform a clinical examination and assess the animal's particular condition.  All our findings and the medications administered are recorded on the patients' individual record.

9am:   Having checked the patients, the vets all meet to discuss each one in turn and we decide how they will be managed that day.  The day chart on the clinic is then altered accordingly, so procedures can be checked off once completed.

9.15am - 12pm:   Daily treatments then begin, which alter daily depending on the cases in the hospital.  Usually two or three vets treat the inpatients, either alone or assisting each other as we don't have nurses here, and with the help of the stable staff if needed.

One or two vets man the out patient clinic, where anything up to 200 animals a day make visits, including horses, donkeys, cats, dogs, camels, and the occasional sheep, goats or water buffalo!

Today I started by changing the dressing on a donkey with a nasty ulcer-type wound caused by an over-tight bandage, applied by his well-meaning owner.  It is healing well and I'm pleased with his progress.  Next I changed the poultice on a mare admitted yesterday in great pain, with a hoof abscess that had tracked all the way from her toe to the coronary band (at the top of her hoof).  After removing the shoe and paring the hoof yesterday to release pus, hot tubbing in Epsom salts and hot poulticing, she is walking a lot better today and some more pus has come out onto the poultice, so we will continue this treatment for a few more days.  I then took some blood from a foal we have here, with a nasty chest infection.  He is doing well, but I felt his gums were a little pale this morning and was worried he may be anaemic.  After spinning his blood down in our laboratory, I found his packed cell volume to be normal indicating he was not anaemic.  I then flushed the sinus of a donkey with a sinus infection secondary to a root tooth abscess, with the help of a garden 'killer spray'!

Dr Hanna changed the bandage on a two week old foal with a wound inside her knee, with the help of the stable staff, who were holding her lying down on a mattress.  Foals tolerate this extremely well, and it is much safer and easier for all concerned!

Dr Hanna then flushed, and changed the head bandage, on a donkey who had been bitten on her ear and developed a nasty abscess, and cleansed and bandaged another donkey who had a bite at the top of her thigh.  Bites are a common injury we see here, as most horses and donkeys are not castrated, and fighting is common.  Bites invariably are infected, and form abscesses that require debridement, flushing and antibiotics.

Dr Assma was in the small animal theatre performing a cat spay and a cat castrate.  We perform a few a week, which brings some money to the charity, as all the non-elective procedures and emergency treatment is carried out free of charge.

Dr Hanna then x-rayed a dog with a sore elbow; she suspected soft tissue damage, but wanted to rule out a fracture, and the x-ray confirmed her diagnosis.  Dr Assma also x-rayed a cat that had been vomiting, and found an enlarged, impacted stomach.  We were very lucky to have been donated the x-ray machine, which still uses old fashioned film, which we 'wet' develop in various chemicals in the pitch dark!

12pm - 1pm   We have a break for lunch, while the clinic is closed to outpatients and visitors so long as we have finished the cases and no emergencies appear!

1pm - 4pm   We continue any work not completed in the morning, and if we have any elective horse or donkey surgeries, we usually do these at this time to ensure there are many hands available.

After lunch today a donkey was admitted with a bite wound on his forearm, he was very lame with foul smelling pus pouring out of the resultant abscess.  We sedated and laid him on the mattress so Dr Hanna could debride the wounds (remove dead and infected skin and tissue), place drains to allow the remaining pus to drain out from the wound, thoroughly flush and bandage him.  All wound patients receive tetanus antitoxin, as no animals are vaccinated here, and this one will also have a course of strong antibiotics and pain killers.

Next a donkey arrived with a rectal prolapse, (where the tissue lining the rectum gets pushed outside, like a giant haemorrhoid), which is usually the result of straining to pass faeces, often because of worms.  Having cleaned the exposed rectal mucosa, we gave him an epidural to stop him straining in order to push it all back in.  To stop him pushing it out again we sew a 'purse string' suture around the anus and tie it closed.  Obviously he cannot pass droppings through this so my job for the next few days is to untie it every three or four hours through the night to empty the rectum, until the inflamed wall is back to normal - pretty undignified for the poor donkey!

Dr David was very busy in the outpatient clinic treating a constant stream of minor wounds, saddle sores, & lameness on the working horses and donkeys.

A lot of boys came as well to show us their puppies, mainly because they want us to give them collars and leads.  One very sad case arrived, a puppy who had been run over by a bus, with both back legs and his spine broken.  There was no option but to put him to sleep straight away.  Very sadly we see a lot of road accidents, as animals are frequently free to roam on the streets and donkeys and horses share the roads with heavy traffic.

4pm - 5pm   We prepare and administer the evening medications, re-examine any patients we are worried about, rug the more vulnerable animals as it gets very cold at night, and put them to bed.  The clinic closes its doors to outpatients at 5pm.

10pm   I go round the in-patients last thing, making sure they are all comfortable and safe before I go to bed.  The night watchman, Um Sabre, checks them through the night, and he will be on hand to wake me should anything have a problem, or any emergencies appear.  Rectal prolapsed aside, hopefully the animals allow me to sleep well enough to be fresh for the next days work ...

Jane Harry BVSc MRCVS, 6 month volunteer vet