Two Kids (goats), Two Kids (humans), and Two Shots

     Yesterday afternoon I went down to the pens to see the two new kids (baby goats) that were born earlier this week. Eric is down here from NC State to help with the goat breeding program. He suggested that I walk down there and take a look at them. The kids were cute, two of them, hiding under the branches hanging in the pen for feed. Mamma Goat watched over them very attentively as I moved closer to take some pictures. She stared at me. The kids started climbing over Mamma Goat. These kids looked healthy and ready to go out into the field. I asked Eric how much longer they need to stay in the pen before they can go out in the pasture with the rest of the herd. About a week. These kids were born out of the usual cycle so they are the only young ones right now. Eric is getting the rest of the females ready for the next breeding cycle and that is why he is down here now.

Two baby goats and Mamma Goat

     Late afternoon, about 5:30, Sue came to the lab looking for Meer. She needed help. A wild dog, a puppy really, bit two children at the orphanage. The men trapped the dog under a 55-gallon heavy plastic barrel. Dr. Jim at the clinic advised that the children be given rabies immune globulin and that the animal be killed and examined for rabies. We needed to preserve the head and transport it to Port-au-Prince to be examined for the rabies virus. We gathered around discussing the best way to put down the dog. The final idea was to cut a small hole in the top of the barrel, take a gun, aim and shoot the dog, preferably not in the head. Rob cut out a hole in the barrel. Ken got a gun. He peered down the hole, aimed, squeezed off two shots, and the dog was dead. Now, how do we remove the head? I suggested a machete (why not?). Someone went off to look for a machete. Believe it or not, there was not a machete to be found. It was late and all the Haitian workers had gone home. It was getting dark. Kirk and Rob managed to cut the head off. Kirk put on some lab gloves and placed the dog’s head in a double-bagged, biohazard bag that Meer had brought from the lab. Then Meer brought the dog’s head to the lab where he placed it in the -80C freezer to store until someone from PAP can come today to pick it up. They'll test it for rabies. Meanwhile the two kids got the first dose of rabies immune globulin. If the dog turns out not to be rabid, they can stop the treatment. If not, it's about seven weeks of treatment for the two kids, and the local clinic has no more immune globulin. They will have to get some more somewhere. What a way to finish off the week.

Taking aim at the dog in the barrel

Meer prepares to take the sample
back to the lab