We woke up at 4:30 and were on the road by 5 AM. There was a juvenile buffalo with a swollen jaw that needed to be examined. It was about an hour drive to the farm, and when we hopped out of the car, the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees. It was chilly! The sun was just rising when we hopped on the back of the bukkies to go dart the buffalo. Kelleigh, the intern that works with us, got to dart it! The weird thing about (Cape) buffalo is that the herd will eat the dart off the darted buffalo. Very weird. We scared off the herd and went to work on the sleepy buffalo. At this point, I'm glad I didn't bring my camera because Cobus, the head head vet (over Martine), was expecting really speedy work from us. I got to put the blindfold on, give multiple injections, and watch Kelleigh and Cobus stick their hands in this buffalo's mouth. They discovered it had "lumpy jaw" which is a bacterial infection in the jaw. This was caused by a broken tooth. We gave antibiotics, vitamins, and finally the anecdote to the sedation and ran for it. It was a very cool experience.
After, we headed back to the lab to make blood smears and feed Valentino and Belle. Then we ate lunch and went into town to do some grocery shopping and pick up the first round of new vet students coming for their course! Three of them are from Kansas State, so I can't wait to pick their brains about the school!
Later we made hot dogs, played card games, watched/finished 10 Things I Hate About You, fed the baby rhino and buffalo, and now I'm heading to bed. Tomorrow is our day off, and the second and final batch of vet students will be here. There will be a welcoming party tomorrow night, which should be a lot of fun!
Love and miss you all,
Llewy
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