Equine Dentists and Wild Dogs

Just realized that it’s been a good while since I last updated my blog so here goes..

Well, it has been busy, busy. An equine dentist comes out from the UK each year to tend to the horses (yes, horses need dentists too!). With 37 horses to do (the babies don’t get done), that is quite some feat but it was done in three days so that Becca can now enjoy a well deserved holiday here in return for her work. My job is to be on hand with the sedative for those horses that need power tools for their teeth or just don’t like going to the dentist. On the whole, the horses were pretty good but there were a few tricky customers who weren’t going to oblige until they had a dose of the sleepy drug to calm them down. In the UK, a vet would have to be on hand to adminster the sedative (and charge you a small fortune for the privilege). Here in Africa, you can buy any drug you like and do it yourself. It is actually very straight forward to do and the horses recover from it within an hour.

The locals find it pretty bizarre that the horses get their teeth done – I guess most of them don’t visit a dentist themselves so it must seem odd. However, when we said we were also going to do the donkeys teeth, I think they thought we were completely mad! The donkeys were very good considering they are treated as herd / pack animals here and are not accustomed to headcollars or bridles. Just as well as I’m not sure it would be very easy to find a vein to inject sedative into on a thick skinned donkey. Our two donkeys live a great life here. Once or twice a week they are required to do a little work and carry a picnic lunch down to the waterfall, but mostly they spend their days eating in the garden. They are forever being chased out by the gardeners but that doesn’t deter them – it is all a big game to the donkeys who have gained considerable weight since arriving here in December.

Well, the exciting news on Lewa is that the African wild dogs have returned. They haven’t been seen on Lewa for about a year but the other day a group were spotted on the morning game drive. I have never seen wild dogs so it is an animal that I would love to see. I went out in the afternoon to try and find them but sadly wasn’t fortunate enough to see them. May be one day…

Some of our guests had quite a shock the other day. They were out on a game drive when a cheetah strolled up and jumped into their vehicle. She sat in the passenger seat for a while before hopping over into the back. It turned out that it was a hand reared cheetah from another lodge. However, she had disappeared for a few days before showing up that morning and deciding that she would like to hang out with humans again! They have the most fabulous video footage of the event and we are all very jealous.

Moonlight Walks

Busy, busy. Wilderness has been full with guests for what seems like forever but is probably only about 10 days. Lots of people horse riding, including two children who are here for six weeks who love to ride everyday and especially like to have lessons. Hard work for me, but they took a day off today so I finally got to go out with the syces and exercise the polo ponies. 9 out of 10 of them are fit – long may it last – although with two of the polo syces on leave that means having to ride one and lead two each which can be hard going. However, despite that I never fail to be amazed by the rich variety of game here. On just a 45 minute ride this morning, we saw five white rhino very close, more rhino in the distance, lots of giraffe, waterbuck, zebra (the common and the Grevy), Grants gazelle, impala and jackals. One of the giraffes just looked so majestic with Mount Kenya in the background. Would have made a great photo if only I had my camera with me and wasn’t trying to control three horses. For those of you asking for photos, I have tried to upload some but the connection is so slow that ten minutes later you are still waiting for one photo and then the internet connection drops out so it just never happens!

Moonlit walks. Well, last night it was decided that we should try out a new option for guests of offering walks in the bush under the moonlit skies (only around full moon when there is enough natural light). Naturally I volunteered to come along. It was just beautiful albeit a little scary walking through the bush at night with just the moon to light the way and the guides listening carefully for the sounds of animals close by. It is just amazing what noises they can detect such as the sound of a rhino munching on grass. Lo and behold as we stood on a rock on the hill looking out over Lewa, we could make out the bulk of a white rhino and her calf beneath us. Such an incredible experience to be out there in the bush at night. The sounds and the starry skies are just beautiful to behold.

Now for those of you with no interest in horses, read no further. For those of you who would like an update on the foals and other injured horses, please read on! Coco’s foal is doing well. Still small but she is filling out. It has to be said that her legs are still a little wonky but this doesn’t deter her from cantering and bucking. She now lives with the other mares and foals and looks so sweet and tiny next to them, but she is full of character and very bold so is not deterred by the fact that they are bigger than her. Santa was fascinated by her when they first met although was soon sent packing by Coco when he started to make a nuisance of himself. Champagne has been rather a subdued little foal since her injury, limping round sadly but still showing an immense amount of spirit and fight when it comes to daily injections. Her rearing is impressive and it takes three syces to hold her for injections. The twitch option worked for a couple of days but she soon figured that out and rears as soon as they attempt to get it on her. Anyway, the wound is healing but she is now more mobile and the stitches aren’t holding so well. She had to have a little re-stitch job yesterday which meant sedating her. She was so sweet, desperately trying to keep her eyes open and not go to sleep. Unfortunately, more stitches seem to have come out today so we’ll have to see how it goes. I think she is going to end up with rather an ugly scar.

So that’s the foals. The other horses are generally okay – a few lame ones but that is nothing new. Sij’s horrific neck wound is finally healing (after a couple of re-stitch jobs). Fortunately, he really is the easiest horse to treat. We didn’t even bother to sedate him for the last lot of stitching – just gave him local anesthetic - as he just stands there and doesn’t move. I wish all the horses were as well behaved as him!

Rhinos at breakfast

Well, it's not every day you are joined by four white rhinos at breakfast.. It was a long day in the saddle yesterday as we had some guests staying who wanted to do some "proper" riding. This is a rare occurence as most of our guests can't ride or think they can but in actual fact really only know how to ride western style. Anyway, we set off at 7am and rode for three hours before reaching our bush breakfast site. As we approached, we were commenting on the fact that it was a shame we hadn’t yet seen any rhinos. Lo and behold, there are two white rhinos quite close to our breakfast spot which quickly became four as two more emerged from the long grass. Keeping one eye on the rhinos, we tucked into breakfast. May be rhinos like scrambled eggs and bacon because they decided they would come closer and have a good look. I can definitely say that I have not been that close to rhino whilst on foot. I had to laugh when the guests asked if this was normal at bush breakfast for rhinos to come so close –  well, no actually!! Eventually after having a good look at us, the rhinos ambled off. Refueled, we set off again riding for another two hours before returning to Wilderness. I wish we had more guests like this as it was fantastic to go on such a long ride and see some new areas of  Lewa.

Problem Foals

Three foals – all problems! I jinxed Coco’s foal in my last blog by saying that she seemed to be doing well despite her tiny size. A couple of hours later, she came down with pneumonia and I thought we might lose her. Her breathing was so fast and loud but after a few days of strong antibiotics she seems to be pulling through. She was cantering around the paddock this morning trying to elude her injections so she must be feeling better!

So yesterday, I went into Nanyuki to stock up on vet supplies. Unsurprisingly, after all the recent traumas we are running low on lots of things. As I don’t leave Lewa that often, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to do my shopping then go for lunch at a restaurant with free wifi, catch up on emails and download some more books on to my Kindle. No such luck. At 12.30 I get a call saying Champagne (the four month old foal and my absolute favourite as she is so full of character) had, to quote the syce, “hit a stick and was bleeding”. What he meant was that she had crashed into the fence when she was galloping round, splintered the fence and basically impaled herself on it at the top of the front leg where it meets her chest. Most fortuitously for Champagne there was a surgeon staying at Wilderness who kindly stitched her up. As Nanyuki  is over an hour from Lewa, I didn’t get back until they had almost finished so I didn’t get to see the full horror of the wound. I do know that it was very deep and there was lots of blood as she damaged an artery. I was met by a very sorrowful Champagne, all sleepy from her sedative. She is limping around today and being a very difficult patient because she hates injections. She is determined to do battle over each and every one which is unfortunate because she is going to have to have two injections a day for the next week if the wound isn’t to get infected. Hopefully she will make a full recovery since she has been stitched up by an expert. He is actually a plastic surgeon and hasn’t ever stitched up a horse before but he seemed very competent and I’ve no doubt has a much better idea of what to do than any of us here! And he’ll have a story to tell his friends about his holiday in Africa!

The other foal, Santa, is actually doing well (although perhaps I shouldn’t say that or it may jinx him). He seems to get bigger every day and is now bigger than Champagne despite being half her age. Still has to have his leg bandages changed every 2 to 3 days though so he is high maintenance too.

No more foals due to be born until September – phew!