Domestics in the Village
by Becky Nichols
June 28, 2005

Today we processed a couple domestic cats in Andranofasika. We’ve caught one fossa and one wildcat by now, so I was fairly comfortable with the process, but doing domestic animals in the village was a completely different experience! It’s quite an event for the local people – we were always surrounded by at least 10-15 people, and Julie said that was a pretty small crowd. Jack and Kirk both helped out and did crowd control. The two cats we did today were owned and cared for by one of the villagers, so they were pretty easy to catch. It’s amazing how small Malagasy domestic cats are! The adults are about half the size of our housecats, and far less tame.

The first cat was a female calico. I tried to keep out of the way while Luke weighed and measured the cat; when he was done, Julie turned to me and said, “Your turn!” Apparently I was drawing the blood, not Julie. I’ve never successfully bled a cat before, and this was in front of a whole crowd of staring people! But Julie is a great teacher, and I hit the medial saphenous vein without much trouble. I learned how to pump the syringe and massage the foot at the same time, and while my syringe-pulling technique needs a little work, I think I’m on the right track. I then obtained a fecal sample – the crowd got plenty of enjoyment from that! We also look for ectoparasites on the animals, which is much harder than it sounds, at least for me. Every time I combed out a flea, it would jump away before I could grab it with the tweezers! I’m afraid more ended up on me than in the vial.

The second cat was an intact male. The blood was a little easier to get this time – I was more confident after the first cat. But it turns out that Julie castrates every domestic male she works on, and I got to help! I’ll never forget that my first surgical procedure occurred on the front porch of a Malagasy village in front of 15 people, including the cat’s 8-year-old owner. Julie showed me with one side, and I did the other. It may not have been a textbook castration – my University of Tennessee professors would probably shudder! – but we kept things as sterile as possible, and the cat should do fine. All in all, it was a great day. I learned a great deal, and the only “war wound” was some black stains from silver nitrate that I got on my fingers. That should wear of in a couple weeks, I hope!