Honey in My Hair and Blood on My Hands

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!