Conservation Veterinary Nursing

A summary of the trip in numbers.... 21 Pangolins in the care of SVW 11  Individuals with ongoing treatment of wounds (some for multiple wounds) 73  Wound treatments (same animals as above over multiple days) 42 Light therapy sessions  22  Wound dressings applied 100+   Doses of medication given (oral, injectable, eye drops) 100’s of 1000’s of butterflies seen 2 Snakes seen More spiders than I want to think about seen 3kg+ of rice consumed  108  Mosquito bites received (even with all the repellent in the world on!) Achievements of the trip... 1. To see a pangolin - tick! 2. To make a difference in animal conservation as a veterinary nurse - although on a small number of animals treated the improvement in wound healing with the light therapy was more than I could have hoped for.  Thanks to Danetre to the donation of the machine so it can continue to make a difference! 3.  Develop new skills and work outside of my comfort zone and my normal VN role - I can

The final morning at the centre, I spent medicating the animals and completing all of the medical records and zims notes. A final opportunity to take photos, before saying my good byes to the staff and animals.  We packed our bags; mine much lighter heading home without all of the dressing materials!  We stopped on the way back to Hanoi at Van Long nature reserve and wetlands. It is also one of the last wild refuges of the endangered Delacour’s Langur, unfortunately we were not luckily enough to see any.  However the boat tour through the wetlands was so relaxing with the limestone cliffs creating a dramatic and beautiful landscape.  Arriving in Hanoi was a shock; the traffic, the amount of people and buzz of never ending activity was crazy! A system overload after a tranquil 11 days in the National Park.  However the luxury hotel we had booked for one night, with a rain shower, clean fluffy towels and a roof top bar was not to be complained about!  Even though

Day 10 was the final light therapy session.  Throughout the morning I worked with Huong, assessing each wound, cleaning, flushing, debriding and putting treatment plans together going forward.   With such good results seen with the previous Manuka honey dressing used, we added this to a second treatment plan and hoped for the same results. The ongoing eye treatment was given and the eyes of the individuals reassessed. After lunch one individual was given a warm bath under sedation, he had a history of a skin infection and inflammation and had been receiving weekly baths and oral medication. This was now almost healed with just a few very minor areas of dermatitis dorsally.  To clean in-between th e scales  chlorhexidine  and a toothbrush was used, not many people can say they have bathed and scrubbed a pangolin with a toothbrush!  We had our last dinner at the restaurant and said good bye to the rest of the volunteers. 

Day 9 and sadly only a few more days here. The first job of the morning was to give any required medication to the pangolins, including both oral medication and eye drops. The animal we had surgically removed a two scales on a few days ago was due a bandage change and wound check.  This was incredibly difficult as the animal was very stressed being restrained.  It was defiantly the quickest bandage I have ever removed and replaced.  Going forward this particular individual would need to be managed carefully with as minimal intervention as possible, to reduce stress but still facilitate wound healing.   I helped Huong analyse some routine faecal samples in house with faecal floatation and parasite identification. Then dispensing subsequent worming treatment where required.  I was off for the afternoon as I was heading back to the centre to join in the night feed and see the pangolins and carnivores active. Several of the volunteers and I spent the afternoon in the forest, vis

Day 8 was session 5 of light therapy.  I dispensed and made up the required medication for all of the pangolins and carnivores first thing.  Defrosting some ant eggs that they are fed and mixing the medication in before feeding to them. My veterinary assistant for the day was again another of the volunteers who helped with careful restraint of the animals whilst I treated each of them. The light therapy and wound treatment took most of the morning.  Not all of the pangolins co-operated with one sleeping outside at the top of a branch (which it did regularly), its tail wasn’t particularly accessible but we tried. After lunch we anaesthetised an individual with respiratory disease to reassess. She was very difficult to assess conscious, as soon as she was disturbed she became very vocal hissing and grunting so it was impossible to auscultate her conscious. It is essential that they are cleaned out regularly as the build-up of ammonia can lead to respiratory disease and pneumo

Day 7 we anaesthetised an adult pangolin for further assessment of a tail abscess, he was particularly difficult to manage conscious, getting extremely stressed when handled and made it impossible to examine or treat, as he curled his tail over his head leaving us no access to the abscess on the mid ventral tail!  Stress is a big welfare factor to consider, and from their experience the vets believe it is also a large contributor to death of captive pangolins.  Once anaesthetised he could be examined thoroughly, the abscess was small, bursting out between two scales but a fairly deep pocket, and with a lot of purulent exudate. It was decided that to enable the best chance of healing, the two adjacent scales would have to be removed. It is often these small problems that can lead to further issues and tail necrosis resulting in partial tail amputations, if they are not treated early on.  Preparation for surgery consisted of scrubbing the surrounding scales with a tooth brush and hib

Day 6 was a busy morning, the Leopard cat that had arrived to the centre only three days previous required a health check and examination. The cat was refusing to eat any food offered, and we had tried everything!  He was visibly skinny and we were concerned about dehydration so it was vital he was assessed and given supportive care.  Despite being weak he still gave the keepers a difficult time in catching him, in the end walking in to the induction box on his own.   Once asleep it was clear he was very skinny and malnourished, dehydrated and with some previous healed limb and digit fractures which hadn’t hindered his movement but would require a full assessment if/when he was fit for release.  I monitored the anaesthetic and gave fluids whilst Hai fully examined him and also gave him wormer (he had a heavy burden of intestinal parasites which would also affect his health and weight), a vitamin solution and glucose. There was a keeper poised with thick gauntlets ready

Sunday, day 5 working alongside Hai - I did my first pangolin anaesthetic! We anaesthetised the individual with the infected wound, to enable surgical debriding. He was induced in a chamber with 5% isoflurane and then maintained on Isoflurane via a facemask.  I monitored the anaesthetic throughout, whilst Hai treated the tail. As part of the donated materials I had some medical Manuka honey (known for its natural antimicrobial and debridement effects) which we decided to trial.  The honey dressing was applied, followed by an absorbent layer, a cohesive layer and then a final adhesive layer. I learnt the hard way that you can, and have to put a dressing on much tighter than you would any other mammal.  The tail tip dressings have to withstand being dragged along the floor, used to cling on to branches when climbing and even dipped in water or food bowls.  The advantage however is that their scales provide much protection so it is very difficult/ almost impossible to put a dressing on

Day 4, and the third consecutive light therapy treatment session was due.  I dispensed and administered the required medication first thing.  I then worked with one of the longer term volunteers, assessing and treating wounds throughout the morning. One of the individuals had an infected tail wound, which would require further investigation, debriding and cleaning under anaesthesia – we booked the procedure in for tomorrow and started it on antibiotics. It was a warm and humid day; making the quarantine shoes/wellies we all had to wear (with no socks!) very uncomfortable and particularly disgusting. I am unsure if choosing a pair a few sizes too big and having ‘clown feet’ but some aeration was best or wearing the correct size and just not think about the 100’s of other sweaty feet that had been in them! With the afternoon off I went on a bike ride with 4 of the other volunteers. We cycled through local villages and beautiful green rice fields for a few hours, all the

By Day 3 I felt like I was adjusted to the local way of life; up early with the gibbons singing and the sweeping outside the room at 5am! Beginning the day with a morning meeting; drinking green tea from tiny tea cups, sat on tiny plastic chairs in the middle of the forest.  It felt normal, long having forgotten the normal pace of life!   I worked alongside Hai, the other vet at SVW today; it was light therapy session 2 for the pangolins. Hai was particularly excited about the light therapy machine, which he affectionately called the ‘ping ping’ machine, I think all the staff secretly wished it was a light saber !  The individuals had their dressings removed, wounds flushed and cleaned, and light therapy treatment before a new dressing was applied. I was photographing and documenting all of the wounds in turn each treatment session, to hopefully show the improvement over time with the light treatment. The photos were taking an hour a day to sort through and label.

Day 2 was true conservation nursing. I was working alongside Huong, one of their vets providing treatment for the animals requiring it.   We looked through all of the items donated, talked about how they could be used and the wound benefits of each type of dressing. Although there are a lot of products available in Vietnam, some are not very good quality or just not available e.g. large surgical gloves, cohesive bandage.  Their supply of bandaging materials had just run out so with a new stock we were going to be dressing some tail injuries and wounds. Aim 2 of my trip was achieved – ‘provide some useful materials and knowledge on their use in helping with wound healing’ (a big thanks to the companies who donated materials). Throughout the morning the pangolins were each examined, clinical notes made and any required medication prescribed.  The hand held light therapy machine (Photizo) was used on 6 individuals with wounds, each ranging from minor tail wounds to chronic open and in