When we moved to Moz we acquired two pre-trained dogs that a
previous MAF family could not bring with them when they moved back to the US. Sarge and Lady have been wonderful. They are two really sweet German Shepherds
that scare people with their barks but are excellent with our kids. Diego loves them and Lucas’ only problem with
them is that they are the same height so he gets LOTS of kisses. They go so far as to let Lucas crawl/fall on
them without complaint.
Dog ownership in Africa definitely has a learning curve
though! For example, did you know the
flies like to bite the end of dogs’ ears, and if you do not put medicine/repellant
on them it can get really bad. There are
dogs around that have most of their outside ear missing because no one treated
the fly wounds.
And until recently there were no vets in town so you had to
wait for the traveling vet who came to town only once a month! (Now there is one who is setting up her practice
in town.) Well, I went outside two weeks
ago to see Sarge’s left ear swelled up like a puff pastry. It was
the weekend, so I called another MAF family who has dogs, and after discussing
his fly bites we decided to try an antibiotic shot. Dave bravely came over and administered it
for us. On Monday he was closer to his
happy self, but his ear was not any better.
I began to wonder – maybe it is not an infection, maybe it is fly
eggs? Ewww.
Ear, or puff pastry?
So on Monday I loaded up two boys and the dog our borrowed LandRover and headed to the tiny vet office that had been pointed out to me just the week before. No luck, they were locked up tight as it was a city holiday. Through a phone call with poor service in Portuguese I gathered they opened on Tuesday at 8:00.
But Tuesday we had to leave town at 8:45 for four days. So, I loaded up the dog again in the back –
do you know how heavy a full grown male German Shepherd is!? This time Grady was home so the boys aren’t
along. On my arrival at 8:05 the green painted
security doors are wide open – I’m in luck! Sarge jumps down from the back and stays trembling
in fear beside the road – totally frozen.
Normally someone, (or usually multiple someones), offer to guard your
car, but everyone stayed back because of Sarge.
Way WAY back. When they say
having dogs is a good deterrent to theft, I think they must be right.
Anyways, I had to CARRY him across the road because he would
not walk. I walked to the green doors only to realize that
the vet has the white doors next door– the still locked white doors . . . People confirmed the vet opens at 8:00, but I
finally I gave up, got Sarge across the street and safely back in the
vehicle. I backed out into traffic only to find a man
running and waving at me. The vet was
open. So we did it all again and I
carried Sarge up the stairs into the office.
Well, guess what.
This guy is only the shop employee for their pet supplies. He calls in the vet who cannot be there until
at least 10:00. After a call to Grady I
decided to take Sarge home and wait out the four days. (Sarge hadn’t been showing signs of pain.) Armed with the vet’s phone number, I left yet
again.
The next week (this week) we began again with Grady calling
the vet on Monday. He got a Tuesday
appointment. So, while the boys played
at Nikki’s house we took poor Sarge on another terrifying drive. We arrived a little late but that was fine as
we still waited another 20 minutes for the vet.
Only it turns out this was apparently a vet tech and still not the
vet. And he could not drain the ear, but
he could give us a phone number for the actual vet who was getting back from a
couple day trip on Wednesday. And she would
come do a home visit instead of us making another dreaded office run - if we could give directions well enough for
her to find the house… in a city with no road signs.
The directions I gave the vet tech were kind of like this,
only in Portuguese:
Take the Eduardo Mondlane road outside your store past four
corners (an intersection) and on down to Mercado Unico (a grocery store). Turn right opposite the store and go almost
all the way down the road to FPLM (another major road in town). Before FPLM on the left side there will be a
wall painted red with Vodacom written all over it, and a yellow hut selling
chicken. Turn left at the road just
before the yellow hut. Our house is
bluish-gray with a black gate on the right, with a coca-cola distributor almost
directly across the street.
The vet did not get back to Nampula until Thursday, but
agreed to stop by around 3:00. 3:00
turns into 6:30 when you get really confused by the newbies directions in
Nampula. She took a look, in the dark,
at Sarge’s ear and confirmed it needed drained.
The reason? Otohematoma, ie it
was so big because of a large amount of blood in the ear. This meant a small surgery on Friday morning –
to be done at our house. Did we have a
space we could keep him for a week out of the main yard? A table she could do the surgery on? After dinner, Grady ran to Kent’s to borrow
their sturdy folding table, and then on to an ATM for the cash payment.
Friday morning dawned and Grady headed off to the
hangar. I swept out the back patio and
set up the table, using an old shower curtain liner to keep the table
clean. The surgery was set for between 8
and 9 but the vet and her tech showed up at 10:15. Our other dog was put on the front patio to
keep her out of the way and I slung Lucas into the Ergo baby carrier on my back
to contain that little mischief maker.
Diego was busy building a Lego hangar inside.
Patio - turned - operation room.
The vet, who is from Maputo (Mozambique’s capital) also
studied in Canada and speaks English really well. She sedated Sarge but didn’t put him all the
way under. I held him still for the
shots and then the tech lifted him onto the table. The whole process was really interesting… and
gross. It involved needles and blades
and an S-shaped cut through one side of his ear. There was even one of those kidney bean
shaped pans, all out on our patio. They stitched
multiple plastic tubes outside the ear to hold it closed while it drained and
then in addition to some meds she asked for honey.
Honey is recommended for its antibacterial purposes and was
rubbed all over the ear before he got bandaged up. While they bandaged him up Lucas got ahold of
the honey spoon… and since he was still on my back, my hair took the brunt of
that mess! I got a great view of the
entire process because I was right there holding Sarge’s head steady the entire
time (that’s why there was blood on my hands).
It was quite an adventure with Lucas periodically pulling my ponytail
and yanking my head back while I tried to keep from jerking Sarge!
A very good patient.
The whole thing, including vaccination updates for both dogs
and a discussion on how to care for the dogs took less than two hours. Now Sarge is stuck for a week on the front
patio with a cone around his head. Poor
guy. The vet is coming by for a checkup
today (update, it is getting dark so maybe not?). Anyway that is the adventure you undergo when you live in Mozambique and your
dog needs a vet! I cannot imagine what
we would have done before the vet moved to town!
