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Tuesday 6th November

The last week has flown by and yet, somehow, it seems as if I have been here forever. It's not that I don't miss home and family but things are just so different that it is as if that was another lifetime away. I think it is something about the pace and the way people view life here. A wise friend told me that India looks after those who see the joke and that you will never change it. Try to and you will get frustrated and the wheels will grind even slower. Martin would be shocked to see how slow I am walking around Pushkar. I am the most annoying person to walk anywhere with as I stride off as if my life depended on it and end up yards ahead of everyone else but here, you can't. By the time you have dodged crowds heading to the temples, street sellers, street dogs, small friendly children trying to befriend you so they can pull a scam, and cows, cows, cows, you will have progressed about 10 feet. Why rush, you won't get there any faster.

Typical Pushkar scenes

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 We work 6 days out of 7 and get Wednesdays (today) off. The day starts at 5am when the drums start at the temple opposite my balcony, quickly followed by taped and very annoying chanting that has so got under my skin that I hum it as I work. I shove in my earplugs, go back to sleep for a couple of hours and get up about 7am. I'm usually first upstairs for breakfast on the roof top restaurant and wake Bhoma, the teenager who works for Nadia and Sam and who does the breakfast orders. He and several other extended family members sleep on wooden beds with thin foam mattresses on them and when I get there in the morning all you see is a row of humps with their heads under blankets. Breakfast is the first lesson in "India time" it doesn't matter how early you get up, it still takes about 30 minutes to make ginger lemon and honey tea and toast but somehow, we manage to be ready for Sam to take us in the taxi to get to work for 8.30. We had an abortive attempt at going on the scooters but Mary's shot off and collided with a lamppost. Concerned men came out of nowhere with Ayurvidic cream, styptic powder and bottles of water and after a 10minute sit down she was bruised, grazed but still game to try again another day so for the moment we are taking the taxi.
It's a 30-minute drive through the crowded and manic streets and the main bazaar and then out into the road that crosses the desert between the mountains. There is virtually nothing out there and yet women and children appear, herding goats and carrying pots of water from the (rather foetid looking) watering hole half way along).

After a day, I have got into the routine at TOLFA. I get straight into the kennel block and start walking the dogs while it is reasonably cool. I feel a bit like Gladys Ailwood crossing the mountain (what, you've never seen the Inn of the Sixth happiness???!!!) as I wear a straw "coolie hat" that folds up when not in use (only 30 Rupees from a very nice man in the bazaar) and I have got some loose Indian trousers and a tunic shirt and wherever I go I usually end up with a gaggle of local children who appear from out of nowhere, usually when I'm trying to find a secluded spot for a wee!  (The septic tank needs emptying and the municipal tanker is broken. There is a privately owned one but the man who needs to sign the form allowing it is in Delhi so for the moment I have a particularly secluded cactus and it serves the purpose, providing you don't get too near to the thorns!!....)

Some of the dogs are well up for a walk and they get a 10-minute stomp around the small fields and scrub that surrounds the area which is the time when I revert to my old habit of route marching. I leave the nervous ones till later and then go back and work with them using essential oils and several packets of high-energy Tiger biscuits. Most of them have come round but they seem to get a bit agoraphobic and don't want to go out. They just want and need attention and that is what Rachel doesn't always have time for and why volunteers are so important.

She has also asked me to work with several dogs that have slow healing wounds and are quite stressed by being kennelled to the point that they have depressed immune function and seem to suffer from breakouts of pus-filled pockets of infection. I am seeing a difference in the 2 days since I started already and it is so gratifying and amazing to see how they respond.

***PLEASE NOTE: many of the pictures I have added are of severe wounds and are grafic in detail so please be warned if you are likely to be upset by this sort of thing. However, without exception, all the dogs shown were making excellent recoveries and so the result is a positive one. ***

“E1”, one of my stressy slow healers at the start of treatment

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“E14” another very stressy slow healing dog who breaks out in pus filled sores when very distressed

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 I also have a tiny black whippet type I called Kermit (because viewed from on top, he is so skinny that he looks like a little frog) and he has a major de-gloving injury to his front right leg. This is basically where the skin has been ripped off and has exposed the underlying issue and in one area, bone. The wound is granulating and has started to heal from the top already. He is such a sweet dog and however sore it is for him to have it treated, he still crawls onto my lap for a cuddle afterwards.

Kermit

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 I am using Aloe vera gel with various oils according to the injury and the temperament of the dog and I make a loose gel by diluting it and then squirt it on and into the wound with a syringe. I have managed to find a pharmacy that sells AV gel as I am getting through it really quickly but I didn't have the weight allowance in my bag to bring as much as I'd have liked.
I have a second dog that has a severe injury to his back left leg and a more minor puncture to the other. The gash is to the bone and goes from thigh to toe and Rachel was going to get the vets to amputate but then asked me to have a go in the hope that we may save the leg. It still has circulation and although we were concerned about the colour of the exposed joint, we got to the 48 hour deadline she set yesterday morning and he is so happy and cheerful and the wound is a little healthier looking already that she has decided to extend the time and keep it under review with the vet.

Potential amputee puppy. Note very unhealthy colour of the wound and exposed hock joint.

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 Lunch is eaten with the doctors (vets) and compounders (male vet nurses) sitting cross-legged on the floor in the kitchen. One of the compounder’s wives makes chapattis and curry...usually cauliflower and spinach or similar as Pushkar is entirely veggie (not even eggs but a lot of dairy) and we scoop spoonfuls of it with bits of chapatti. It's hot but I'm already more tolerant of the spiciness and I made a decision only to eat local food and so far it's been fine. We have a water filter and easy access to bottled water too so that helps take the uncertainty out of things.

The afternoon routine is as the morning but I do treatments first as it is too hot until about 2.30/3pm.

I've also got a donkey to work with who came in after being found in the road. It was hit by a car in the head and bowled over and has brain damage so I am working with him for shock and to help reduce the inflammation. There is a donkey who is a permanent resident who came in exactly the same and he recovered to almost normal given time so Rachel is very keen that he gets anything that will support him. Even though he is badly injured, he still responded to the oils I offered for shock and trauma. I trust the oils and know that they work and I also trust the animals responses to them but to see them work in a situation like this, even if the result is ultimately that the animal needs to be euthanased on humane grounds, means that we know we have done everything we can to ease the situation emotionally which is so often not possible when you are under pressure in a veterinary situation.

Work is supposed to end at 4.30 but often over runs as there are animals coming in all the time for assessment and treatment. All it needs is (another!) dog to arrive at 4.25pm with a maggot-infested wound and the day extends. Maggots are a fact of life when working with wounds due to the climate. The animal is sedated and Turpentine used to drive them out to the surface so they can be picked out with artery forceps. The wound is them cleaned out with Beta dine and packed with cotton wool soaked in Turps and the following day, any remaining maggots will have been killed and the wound can be re-dressed. After that, recovery can be astonishingly fast. I have photographed all the individual dogs I work with and will be posting updates on their various injuries at the end to show how they are doing.

This is an example of a typical maggot wound, probably as a result of a fight. The dog has been anaesthatised and the wound treated and packed with cotton wool. 

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At the end of the first week, I feel really good about what I am doing. I have got into the routine and really love the people, the place, even the pace! There is no way I would ever want to live here and do what Rachel is doing because I am just too in love with home (Hi Cranham!) but I am so glad that I am here and "doing" something, rather than just being a tourist.