UWEC Day 1

WARNING: some photos below may be a bit graphic, viewer discretion is advised :)

Adult female leopard

I was contacted by Hameed in the morning, and told that we can meet at the veterinary hospital. He also told me that we had to perform a necropsy on a leopard! So, very excited, I quickly got myself ready and headed over to the hospital. I was happily greeted by Hameed and Barbara (the Animal Health Technician that also works at the hospital). Hameed showed my around a little bit, but then guided me straight to the post mortem room. There she was, an adult African leopard on the table. The history about the leopard was quite sad to say the least. She was found the previous day caught in snare in a rural community. Initially she was brought to the vet school at Makerere where staff attempted to amputate the lower part of her limb that was caught in the snare, because it had already gone necrotic (meaning the tissue was dead). Unfortunately, she was in that state for quite some time before she was taken to Makerere, and one of the consequences of necrosis is that when tissue begins to break down it releases many toxins and byproducts that can get into the bloodstream and cause many problems. She unfortunately succumbed to sepsis and died before the surgery was complete. So, she was then brought from Kampala to Entebbe the day I arrived, and the necropsy was scheduled the next day.

Attempted amputation, yes that is bone protruding
out the end

Me chopping away...

Dr. Kateregga and I 

Anyway, usually necropsies are performed to determine a cause of death, and in this case we knew why she died. But as an opportunity for learning and as an official record of death for the government, the necropsy was performed. First, we took a good look at her externally, noting any abnormalities that appeared obvious. Other than the fact that she was missing the lower half of her right forelimb, we found a few ticks on her coat, some maggots (as she was deceased for quite some time by now), and a few clips on her ears (probably from fights). Hameed wanted to open up her affected limb first to see how bad it was.... To put it in perspective of a human, the amputation was done between the elbow and wrist. Once we reflected the skin back, Hameed and I immediately saw how extent of the damage. The necrotic tissue went all the way up to almost her shoulder. So, if she had any hope of being saved, her amputation would have needed to be extended quite far up.

Tapeworms!

Then Hameed right away asked me if I wanted to begin performing the necropsy. Of course any chance to practice my necropsy skills that I had only learned this past year of my DVM program, I could not turn down. I made an incision starting from her groin area and extended it all the way to under her chin, to first reflect the skin back. Then her abdomen and chest was opened to look for any other abnormalities. Almost everything was normal, or normal after death changes. However, once we opened her intestine, we found worms! She had a moderate burden of tapeworms (Taenia species) in her gut. Most wild felids can have quite a substantial burden and not be affected. They don’t do much in there except pass eggs in the feces to transmit infection

This truly was excellent practice for me for two reasons: 1) There only was opportunity to perform 2 necropsies during my second year due to resource limitation, and 2) I was able to apply my knowledge of pathology to a real clinical case. Finally, Hameed allowed me to fill out the necropsy report, noting all of our findings during the procedure.

UWEC Veterinary Hospital

After the necropsy, Hameed gave me a proper tour of the veterinary hospital, including some of the resident animals that are there. Some of these included: Charles, the orphaned baby elephant, Kiri, a true hermaphrodite chimp, a little Patas monkey named William who was rescued and brought here and some other creatures who you will hear about later! Hameed then proceeded to take me around UWEC to see all of the exhibits. Quite a place this is. Each area is modeled after a national park of Uganda that includes animals that live in that geographic area. After some close introductions with the baby chimps, we headed to the dining hall for lunch. More African cuisine :)

Goat Preg check

In the afternoon, while at the hospital, one of the drivers came by with some guests and a goat. They had said she was walking a bit funny and thought maybe her hooves needed some trimming. They also thought she may be pregnant. So Hameed and I began to exam her. She seemed quite normal, bright and alert; eating the vegetation around her. She also did not seem obviously lame, so it might have been the ground she was walking on where she was to make her seem so. Hameed then began to feel her abdomen. I then took a feel. To my surprise, I could feel at least one kid inside of her. I felt a hard structure about 15cm long. She was definitely pregnant – my first pregnancy check, so rewarding!

Night feedings :)

He was very happy to meet me :)

We then headed back to the administration building to access the internet (catch up on emails and such) It was nearing the end of the day, but Hameed suggested if I wanted to go out with some keepers for the night feedings, I was welcome to do so! I had myself some supper at the restaurant on the UWEC property and then met up with Helen and Alex (two senior keepers) to begin. We started with the chimps. I walked with Helen to the back of the enclosure where the gate is to open the pathway for the chimps to head back to their night house. They definitely knew it was feeding time. The 11 older chimps stay on the island exhibit during the day, while the very young ones stay in an enclosure near they night house. This is because the babies cannot be introduced right away with the adults or they could very easily be killed. Once they were a little older then they could be slowly introduced. We entered the night house, and it was EXTREMELY loud. They really made it known they were hungry. Helen brought out a bucket of chimp slurry that we hand feed them through the fence. All we had to do was hold the cup up to the fence and they sipped it right up!

Someone was hungry

Male and female adult northern white rhinos, extinct in the
wild in Uganda

Next was the White Rhinos (which are completely extinct in Uganda by the way!). There was an adult male and female that also knew when it was time to come in for their grass. At night they are kept separate for safety but the female only saw food in one pen right away and went with the male. She was being very stubborn and would not go to her pen. So we left them and would come back later. Last were the large carnivores, the lions and hyenas! First, Alex and I went into the hyena enclosure to toss their meat in different places for enrichment. We then proceeded to feed the lions. UWEC has one male, who is 21 years old believe it or not! (That is extremely old for a lion, even captive born). There were also two lionesses, and two cubs that belonged to one of the females. Alex let me go into the pen with the cubs to feed them. That was an experience for sure! They were so big for only being 8 months old.

This guy is 21 years old!

With night feedings done, I must say my first day here was nothing short of remarkable!