Week of May 25th

This week was busy with a number of different things on the go. We´re looking for a more permanent office space to establish Veterinarians Without Borders in Chile, so we met with the Director of Extension Services to discuss our role within the university and the community here in Valdivia. Our meeting was very positive and exciting, and will likely lead to something collaborative and long term in the future. Regarding an office space…well we´ll have to be patient while we all start investigating possibilities on and off campus.

It was also a big week in the wildlife department. There is a big project here with a multitude of undergraduate and post-graduate veterinary students working together to learn as much as possible about the pudu, for example: exposure to diseases acquired through contact with cattle and that are a risk to humans, reproductive characteristics, age and gender distribution, general health, intestinal parasites and response to a general anesthetic protocol. These students and the doctor of the wildlife rescue centre worked together to collect as much data as possible in the short time provided by the anesthetic. Everything went well, and all pudus recovered nicely from the anesthetic. Here are some pictures taken in the field:





So what do pudus really have to do with the dog program? Quite a bit actually…let´s talk about interfaces. An interface is simply an area where things meet. We are considering the dog – wildlife interface, and it is quite a problem here as well as in other parts of the world. Pudus live in rural and semi-rural areas all around Valdivia, and it is these pudus that come into unfortunate contact with roaming packs of dogs. Most of the pudus brought into the wildlife rescue centre at the university are those that have been found by members of the community after being attacked by dogs. Here are some of the ones we´ve seen recovering from attacks:

The last time we were in Valdivia, in November 2008, there was also a young puma who had lost his mom when she was also chased then attacked by a pack of roaming dogs. Although it was never clear what happened to her in the end, the result for her baby was that she never returned, and he was brought to the centre. Unfortunately, he was determined to be unreleasable and now lives in a zoo. Here he is when he was first brought to the centre:

Another major issue at the interface between wildlife and dogs is disease transmission. When you have such high numbers of unvaccinated dogs roaming in and around the cities, they can potentially come into contact with wildlife living in the same areas. Many of these species of wildlife are susceptible to canine diseases such as distemper and parvovirus, and any form of contact can result in transmission of the disease. It´s a similar scenario to when smallpox was introduced into indigenous populations of North America in the 1700´s - when a population is completely vulnerable because they have never come into contact with a particular disease before, the results can be absolutely devastating. Very little is known about whether this is happening or not here in Valdivia, but we do know that there are foxes, small wild cats and marine mammals very close to the city that are all susceptible to some of these canine diseases. We hope to investigate this interface together with local wildlife veterinarians, epidemiologists, ecologists and biologists.

This first picture is of the fish market in town right along the water’s edge. There are lots of dogs hanging around during the day hoping for a scrap of food, and at the end of the day, the whole market is hosed down, with much of the water running back into the river. You can imagine that if any of the dogs in the area are sick, and shedding virus in body discharges, this provides the perfect area of contact between dogs and the huge sea lions (or lobos marinos- see bottom picture) that are begging for food on the river side of the market. In this way, transmission of diseases and parasites can occur without the two animals ever having direct contact.

For more information on some other canine outbreaks in wildlife with staggering consequences, follow these links:
1. http://cheval.vet.gla.ac.uk/vetscape/vet-x/lions/
2. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025094914.htm
3. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/kennedy.htm
4. http://www.iws.org/island_fox_studies_Santa_Catalina_Island.htm

Here is one last picture for this week, of me working with a young captive fox ¨Tachi¨. She was part of the breeding program on Catalina Island that was built in an attempt to recover the population after a canine distemper outbreak devastated this population (see 4th link above).

Just FYI, the pictures are much better if you click on them and blow them up.

Enjoy, and chau for now!

Week of May 17th

This week we've been busy working on a proposal for canine sterilization. Although we're planning on addressing this dog problem in a holistic manner, we need to make different applications for all the different parts of our program to the appropriate funding agencies that have interests in each specific area.

So why sterilize dogs???

Well, the obvious reason is to limit the existing population from reproducing, further contributing countless puppies to the ever growing population of dogs. But the less obvious reasons are for reasons of animal welfare. When roaming populations are too large, nutritional resources are low, body condition and immune responses are therefore compromised, and diseases spread easily through susceptible animals. Let me show you a few pictures of what we see:

This first dog has mange, and most dogs spend the majority of their time scratching at fleas, like the one below.

This poor dog had bloody diarrhea in the middle of the street, and the puppy below was very sick with runny eyes and nose, emaciation, weakness and dehydration- and was available for adoption!

The other welfare issues we run into are dogs being hit by cars. If you're squeamish, don't look at these ones!

Some people take the problem into their own hands, and poison dogs with strychnine, this poor guy didn't make it....

Overall, the overpopulation problem means that there are lots of unwanted and uncared for pups, resulting in some dogs spending their whole lives sleeping in the street like this old girl in the bottom picture.

Luckily things are changing. People are starting to push really hard for new legislation protecting animals, and making it illegal to treat them badly or let them roam in the streets. There are lots of organizations and associations working together to care for abandoned animals, and then adopt them out to responsible families. The goal is to foster this growing movement in Chile...there is evidence of change and a growing respect for animals everywhere! Here is a sign for a meeting to discuss and debate pet ownership in Chile, a policeman using a trained canine assistant, and a young girl hugging her new puppy.

Lastly, this family near Rancagua, Chile fostered a family of abandoned dogs- one mother and all her puppies. They helped raise the puppies until they were ready for new homes, and then adopted all the puppies out. The mom was taken to a local veterinary clinic where they paid to have her spayed.



Hats off to this family! See you next week!

Week of May 10th

This week we had some bad news...unfortunately we were robbed and both our cameras were stolen. So I have no pictures for you this week! We will be buying a small camera to get us going again this week, so stay tuned next week, when we´ll be back to normal posting pictures again.
I spent some time working on a pudu this week with the wildlife veterinarian that runs the Wildlife Rescue Centre at the University (follow this link http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pud%C3%BA to see what a Chilean Pudu looks like). The pudu had been attacked by dogs, and was just recovering when he punctured his foot, and was limping badly. We anaesthetized him, cleaned the puncture and took an xray, then bandaged up the hoof and woke him up. The injury is quite serious, but at this point we´re really hoping for a complete recovery, as this species is threatened. This is the other side of the dog overpopulation problem...when they exist at such high numbers and roam freely, they form packs and attack wildlife. We hope to expand our work into this area as well.
Until next week....

Week of May 3rd

This week I wanted to give you some idea of where we are working and living. The name of the city is Valdivia, and we live about 15 minutes from the city, in a small village called Niebla, right on the coast (http://encarta.msn.com/map_701517329/valdivia.html ). There are a lot of resident dogs here that are either loosely "owned", or just live in the streets near our house, and live off whatever they find, including garbage. They occupy a territory, and are just always there. Here are a few pictures of the dogs in our neighbourhood.

Our area is called the Rivers Region. The landscape is beautiful, and the culture is a real cross between modern and very traditional, people with higher incomes, and those with very few resources. There are lots of wildlife in the area. Here are a few pictures from the area to give you a general sense of where we are working:

1. Our own dogs enjoying the beach
2. University Austral de Chile marine research centre
3. Hiking to the beach
4. The beach near our place
5. Horse and delivery cart in town
6. Produce market
7. Selling grains at the local market
8. Pelicans
9. Sea lions- right on the sidewalk in town!

Lastly for this week, we had a meeting on Wednesday evening with a student group called Policlinico Movil. They gave us a presentation on what they have been doing, and we were so impressed! For ten years now, this group has been operating in conjunction with private veterinarians in town, bringing valuable mobile veterinary services and education to rural communities around Valdivia. We are looking forward to working together with this creative and vibrant group!