KURKUR TIHAR - November Here are a couple of photos for you to enjoy from this year's Hindu celebration day when dogs are garlanded and worshiped.
OCTOBER NEWS 2010: Early this month HART was delighted to welcome Sarah Vallentine and Elodie Guillon from WSPA. They came to tell HART about their newly revised Education Programme. We were encouraged to find that they had no objection to our using a live dog for demonstration purposes, provided of course that the dog is of reliable temperament and that the person giving the talk is well-experienced in handling. Later in the month we found ourselves in a position to put the new techniques into practice, using the set of flash cards WSPA had provided. This programme was set up initially for use in Sri Lanka and those of us involved in our first session here realise that it will need a little 'tweeking' for Nepalis; even the teaching staff had difficulty with some of the questions which had been designed for 8 - 13 year olds!  Elodie & Sarah (WSPA) meet Juliette at HART  Particularly dismaying was that in the two questions asking how to control the canine street dog population, and how best to control rabies, numerous children thought all the dogs should be poisoned! Hopefully they are wiser now, but we can see that we have a long way to go to change the mind-set.
LUCKY & BALU During October two very special patients have stood out amongst the rest. Lucky, pictured below, was a street dog who hung around Henja Tibetan Refugee Camp in a terrible state. Someone had been feeding him so he was not too thin, but his parasites, both internal and external had done their worst, leaving his skin and coat in a very sorry state. When we picked him up he also had a nasty eye infection.  Lucky's personality is first rate and he seems so grateful for what HART has done for him that at this stage we plan to keep him as our 'education dog'. If we can get him in tip-top condition, it will be good for children and adults to see what a little TLC can do.
The other dog who especially captured our hearts was Balu, a pet dog who suffered a leopard attack. He was lucky enough to come out alive, but not unscathed, with dreadful wounds to his neck and ear.
Balu stood staunchly while his wounds were dressed twice daily, uttering the occasional wince, but never a cross word. We are delighted to say that Balu has now recovered sufficiently and has gone back to his owners in the little village of Anadu, alongside Pokhara's Lake Fewa. HELEN AND THE PUPPIES We consider ourselves very fortunate to have come into contact with volunteer nurse, Helen Johnson, from Australia who spent a while with us towards the close of the month. She is highly supportive of the work done by HART and plans to return again in April of next year. Both her parents are vets, so this is a wonderful chain of contact.
Their siblings and mother had all died and Helen saw the woman who had been feeding the litter put Archie in the middle of the road for the cars to run over. Hardly believeing what she was seeing with her own eyes, the woman then stamped on the bitch, so Helen rushed up to say that if she didn't want the puppies could she please have them. So it was that Archie and Rita have ended up living at HART, having travelled with Helen on the bus to Pokhara. They are both doing well, but at 5 weeks Archie only weighed one pound, while his sister weighed three and a half. But I think Archie carries most of his weight in his brains; he is a real character!____________________________ ANTI RABIES CAMP AT JOANNA LUMLEY VIEWPOINT While Helen was with us at HART we carried out a rabies camp in the very rural villages leading up to what is now called 'Joanna Lumley Viewpoint', so named as a 'thank you' to her for all her help to the Gurka soldiers. It was fascinating to see that the majority of dogs here has pale eyes, even the black dogs, and temperament seemed to become increasingly aggressive as we moved deeper into the countryside. But it is was a worthwhile day and Helen was able to give treatment to several dogs with recent wounds from fighting. She gave every dog the 'once over' and the children loved her stethoscope, especially when she allowed them to hear the heartbeat on one of the better-behaved pets!  |
 We began at 8am and got off to a rather slow start, but soon people and dogs seemed to be coming in their droves and when we packed up at 3pm 64 dogs had been vaccinated against rabies. Actually three mothers, each independently, brought along their children for vaccinations and we had to explain carefully that the camp was for dogs, not children! This provided a good opportunity to check all these dogs over and many were also given anti-parasitic control, in some cases both internal and external. An anal tumour was observed on one dog, which would otherwise have gone un-noticed, and another had a visible tapeworm problem.
Many of the owners were wonderful with their dogs and injecting them was no trouble at all, but a few seemed to have absolutely no control over their pets and it was a wonder there weren’t any serious biting incidents. This gave us all food for thought regarding our education programmes, for even caring owners who otherwise keep their dogs in good bodily condition, have a lot to learn about bring them up as ‘good citizens’. But we had been to this location before, 11 months ago when vet, Luke Gamble, visited with the television crew and it was heartening to recognise several dogs that had visited before. Clearly the treatment many of them had received very nearly a year ago had reaped its rewards because a high number were completely lacking in skin and coat problems, which had not been the case when we visited the first time. This was very rewarding for all concerned, not least the dogs!
Every dog treated went home with a card giving full details of the vaccine/s used and the dates administered, essential for future reference.
The photos here will give our supporters a ‘taste’ of the day’s events and to all those who lent their help and support we would like to say a big ‘Thank you’.
__________________________ AND THEN IT WAS WORLD RABIES WEEK!
Anti-Rabies week 2010 fell in the latter half of September and it has really been a busy time for HART. After all the excitement of the rabies camp, a free service provided by ourselves, a rally was organised for September 28th, headed by HART’s van with its new loud-speaker system and the voice on the microphone was that of Dr Grishma from the Animal Health Training and Consultancy Service (AHTCS) with whom we are now co-operating closely. The other organisations involved will be found on the logos below. We were very proud of Mukti, who Dibya and Juliette brought back from Mustang, as he strode out at the front of the marchers and really enjoyed his day.
In the afternoon there was a highly informative meeting at the Veterinary Hospital, attended by the invited participants and there was much productive exchange of information.
Between Pokhara and Begnas Lake, to the East of the city, is a rocky area which is now the site of a large development of housing plots. This was (and still is) the home of black panthers, but now that they have lost their natural habitat, through no fault of their own, they are confused and apparently running around, creating havoc, biting many animals, buffalo, cows, bulls, dogs and goats. In doing so, they are transmitting rabies.
In the Nepali month of Jesta, 18 animals died in that area, with rabies having been confirmed by Veterinary Laboratory tests.
There have been other isolated cases in other areas in and around Pokhara.  RABIES IS NOT CARRIED IN MILK PRODUCTS Many villagers in particular have been distressed and worried when they have discovered that a milk-producing cow or buffalo has contracted rabies. The vets want to reassure them that rabies can not be passed on through milk products, so they are in not danger. PRECAUTIONS IN THE LAB Discussed in detail at the meeting was the danger in which laboratory staff are put due to lack of protective clothing. When doing lab tests on a dead rabid animal, there is great danger of fluids being released from the brain and coming into contact with the doctors or technicians.
Good quality goggles with clear lenses are unobtainable in Nepal, so we put out a plea through HART’s web site for anyone who may be able to help to get in touch with us. We could accept the goggles when safe transport can be arranged and then hand them over to the Lab doctors.
They also need to work with a double set of gloves and protective aprons, so if anyone can help provide either of these we should be more than grateful if they could get in touch with us.
The vets at the meeting also asked if anyone, through HART, could donate or provide veterinary medicines for cows, horses and goats. They also expressed a wish that they come from English speaking countries, for if the instructions are printed in any other language there may be confusion.
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OUR NEW EMAIL ADDRESS HART now has a new email address: hartnepal@email.com _________________________________
HART CELEBRATES WORLD RABIES DAY 2010
This year, to let everyone know it was World Rabies Day, for several hours over a couple of days leading up to the event HART’s van drove around Pokhara to tell everyone via microphone to meet at Malipatan where their dogs could receive free vaccinations against rabies. Himalayan Animal Rescue Team (HART) had arranged this in conjunction with Pokhara Municipality and the Regional Veterinary Hospital, both of which lent their support to the project.
WORLD ANIMAL DAY October 4th was World Animal Day when events took place all over the globe. HART decided to hold an educational event at Shree Primary School, the first of its kind.
 We had had many colourful posters made, each of them depicting something important about animal welfare and children's safety in the presence of animals. Juliette used children to take part in some practical demonstrations, and even the headmaster joined in!  Dibya explained everything clearly in Nepali and captivated his young audience, as well as the teachers.  Thank you Shree Primary, for helping HART to support World Animal Day!  World Animal Day has a web site at http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/index.asp and the teachers amongst you may be particularly interested in clicking on ‘Teachers’ Pages’, for research has shown that there are numerous benefits in teaching children to care for animals as this can help develop a sense of responsibility and compassion. HART SUPPORTS NEPAL'S LADIES' DAY FESTIVAL In early September Nepal celebrated 'Ladies' Day', a day filled with songs and dances for which the ladies had practiced for weeks. This year, in Pumdi Bhumdi, the area where HART is located, all the groups performing at Bhagbhati School compound had to sing about animals, so HART was understandably an enthusiastic supporter.
_____________________________ LUKE GAMBLE'S VISIT TO HART
Luke Gamble set up the charity Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS) and when he arrived in Nepal, he not only brought with him his expertise, but also an enormous black bag, packed full of veterinary medicines, donated by WVS. The principal reason that Luke came to HART was to film the animals in Nepal for a TV series to be shown on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD - the episode was shown in the UK on September 8th at peak viewing time, and will soon find its way around the world. Luke came with the Director and film crew of Red Earth Studio and together they were great fun and exceedingly hard working. Even the most energetic Nepalis with whom they came into contact found it difficult to keep up with their pace! Before the team's arrival, Dibya and Juliette had been busy preparing a wide range of animals for Luke to treat. Apart from dogs at HART, there were also cats, pack animals, birds of prey and forty-or-so yaks. We had to arrange for the yaks to be brought down to slightly lower altitude for the filming, so the timing had to be just right as they could not stay at this lower level for long. Luke Gamble is an excellent vet and carried out some very complicated surgery at HART, providing our veterinary team with a wonderful learning opportunity. Thank you for all your help Luke, and here's hoping our contact with you will endure well into the future.  The TV programme was first on air in September 2010, so we are now at liberty to show you photographs taken during the filming process. The link below features Juliette Cunliffe's article 'Luke Gamble's Vet Adventures in Nepal,' published in Our Dogs newspaper, October 1st, 2010. Click on the title to open the file:
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