Veterinary Aid project in Mdumbi, South Africa

Gday, I recently got back from 3 weeks in South Africa where I was working on a veterinary aid project(and surfing ;-) ) organized by my saffa friend Jackie de Villiers. I was in a rural community/village called Mdumbi in the Transkei, Eastern cape, between Durban and East London. The Transkei was one of the original independant homeland areas from the apartheid regime and as a result is dirt poor. 68% of the population live under the poverty line, the employment rate is 8% and the HIV rate about 40%.

The area is known as the "Wild coast" and is remote and beautiful. We were hosted by Mdumbi backpackers hostel, in their round mud huts with thatch roofs (rondavels)which are typical of the area. It's 20km north of Coffee Bay (which is on the "backpacker trail") along a washed out gravel road which takes at least 1/2 hour to drive in a 4wd. The huts are set amongst rolling green hills and overlook the Mdumbi river mouth and associated beaches. At night you could hear the waves crashing into the rocks and beaches. From the lookout tower you can check the waves rolling along the awesome right hand break and over toward the river mouth. I hadn't surfed in 4 years and this was the perfect place to get back into it. The waves were well formed,long and forgiving, allowing me to regularly catch rides of over 100m. These awesome waves were to be shared with only a few people staying in the hostel and the Dolphins which were everywhere and surrounded me on the
board on one occasion. On my last morning, at sunrise, I saw a pod of at least 50 dolphins, I shit you not, cruising north, jumping and catching waves. (I was sitting on the point at the time- not surfing- so I got some nice video footage of them. Marine life was abundant so of course there are sharks, but they are very well fed and never stoop to eating people. There has never been a reported shark attack in Mdumbi.

On the vetinary (DAMN, i can never spell that word) side of things, it was a complete success.With 3 vets working out of a tin shack with a 40watt light bulb and with donated drugs and intruments, we desexed 65 dogs and treated 165 for ticks, fleas, worms + vaccinated for rabies, distemper.... and stuff. It was challenging working under this sort of pressure/conditions/equipment and I am a better surgeon for it. On the first day Darren and I desexed 21 dogs. After visiting the local school the day before we opened, when I returned to the hostel from sunrise at the point, there were about 15 kids waiting at the front of the hostel with their dogs (and it was pleasing to see 2 well chilled cats too). We didnt have the resources for much after care so when the dogs were awake enough to walk after the surgery, they staggered out of the padded recovery area and walked home!! Ive never done these sort of operations without gaseous anaesthesia (we only had
xylazine, ketamine and thiopentone -which are fairly primitive drugs) yet we didn't have anaesthetic deaths- very important when trying to win the confidence of a community who didnt even know doctors for animals existed. these are tough dogs. natural selection ensured the weak ones died out a long time ago.

In a kraal built in a day we treated over 400 cattle for internal and external parasites, and castrated about 10 bulls. We also castrated about 10 horses and treated shedloads for ticks, flies and worms.

We also treat a number of people- the most memorable of which were a man with machete wounds in his head, a boy with injuries sustained after falling out of a bakkie, and a guy with a huge abscess on his chin.

What we did was but a drop in the ocean, but did make a big difference to the community. We left heaps of drugs and equipment with the staff of the backpackers who we trained to continue with animal health programmes. This was a pilot study and Jackie intends to make this a yearly project and has big plans for the future, with the intention of expanding to surrounding areas. We had a film crew and journalist there this year and with that coverage and the success of this years mission, sponsorship should be more forthcoming in the future. Jackie is an organizational genius and my hat goes off to her.
For me, it was an amazing and rewarding 3 weeks, in a beautiful area, catching beautiful waves, making a difference in an impoverished area and meeting some amazing people. This is a truly wonderful part of the world, i will be back here- on the way back to oz from UK at the end of next year I'm going to spend 6 weeks in south africa- a good part of which will be spent hiking along this part of the coast. The Wild Coast.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• south
• africa
• mdumbi
• vet
• tony
• nahrung
• transkei

[girlsliketopartymad]

i was there



[rvrz]

makes me wanna go book a flight right away, def on my to do list, cheerz

[designerant]

Mdumbi is a magic place with great people, gud on ya for helping them and their animals, respect!

[meowvet]

Stunning! Reminiscent of 8 years of large animal practice in North Dakota. No surf but lots of open spaces and nice people.

[converseking1]

thats horse was nice

[NESSAOCEANSTAR07]

That must have been an amazing experience! But did you really eat puppy fetus'?