TNR Trust
The Beauty and the Beast – pure breed or local “Mctuffy”?
Shared compound? Before getting a pet ask your landlord and neighbours first
- Many people dislike or are afraid of dogs. Find out from your neighbours how they feel about you getting a pet. Ask them what you can do to avoid any upsets.
- Ensure your dog doesn’t mess their area and if he does clean it up.
- Build a proper size kennel and run so your dog can be enclosed when needed. This ensures his safety and that of neighbours.
- Train your dog daily and go for classes if you don’t know how to. The more training you do the better behaved dog you will have. Most people don’t appreciate dirty paws on office clothes.
- Listen to your neighbours complaints and resolve them amicably. A pet’s behaviour is the owners responsibility. Neighbours can do distressing things to animals when they feel they aren’t heard!
- Leaving dogs alone for long periods can result in barking due to boredom and distress. Hours of barking dogs are NOT acceptable in any situation. Be prepared to adjust your lifestyle, and if you aren’t then a cat could be a solution.
- Ask your landlord to put it in writing pets are allowed. Check if they object to large size dogs.
- Ask yourself the question: if I was forced to move would I make sure I can take my pet to the next place? If not, it is perhaps better not to take a pet unless you have a backup plan.
Foster Home Wedding Bells!
Amber-eyed Malaika didn’t fall for blue-eyed boy Max at once. They grew affectionate through the fence and once together realised they are soul mates.
Passionate embraces, wild play, and similar attitudes to very small (not friendly) and larger (very friendly) pups. Malaika after many months has discovered walking on leash is super fun: Max gives her the courage to do this. They are a special needs couple who want a permanent honeymoon suite in your house. We would love them to go together in a home without other dogs and experienced dog lovers who understand. They are fine with children 14 yrs and above.
Carla 0733 739708 for more information.
Launch of the TNR Trust Mobile Clinic
The TNR Trust’s mobile clinic will be on the road in January, to fulfill our mission of improving community health by sterilizing and vaccinating dogs and cats in and around Nairobi.
Once fully up and running, the clinic will vaccinate up to 250 animals and sterilize up to 20 dogs and cats a day – but we can’t do it on our own.
If you’re a registered vet or veterinary student and would like to help the TNR Trust, or if your company is looking to provide funding for a very worthwhile cause, then we’d love to hear from you!
Please click on the link to see how you can help.
VETS
We need registered vets and veterinary students to sterilize and vaccinate animals brought to us against rabies. They will work alongside our volunteers to educate the communities we meet on the benefits of maintaining a healthy dog and cat population. If you want to be part of this please contact us via email
CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
Sterilization and vaccination is important – but expensive. We are offering a competitive branding package for potential sponsors as well as advertising space on our mobile clinic. If you think your company would like to be part of this please contact us via email
WORLD RABIES DAY: Educating the future of this country
TNR Trust Karura Education Children Event
Going with the theme for this year’s World Rabies Day that is “Share the Message, Save a Life.” on 21st September, 2018, TNR Trust in collaboration with Friends of Karura held a half day Kids Event at Karura Forest. The intention of the event was to sensitize school children of the age of 6 years to 14 years old children on the subject rabies. It should be noted 2,000 Kenyans die every year because of rabies
For the event to be more relevant and factual, we invited Fifth Year Veterinary students from the University of Nairobi who took through the children on that particular subject. And a lot of questions came out for the speaker to answer during Q&A time.
It will be important to note some of the interesting questions the students had concerning rabies. The questions included:
- Can an infected dog that is pregnant, give birth to puppies that are infected with rabies?
- Where did this disease come from?
- If a dog has rabies, can it be treated and get healed?
- If a dog has rabies, can I kill?
- What causes rabies?
- How do we vaccinate dogs?
- If cats are also infected with
These and many other questions were asked by the students during the talk and our able tutor of the day Rashid Ocholla did a great job in using very simple language to make the students understand what is rabies, symptoms if bitten and how to prevent rabies infection and spread.
Being a children event, we had stuffed toys of dogs, stethoscopes and Dr’s coat, empty syringes and a digital weighing scale, where they imitated being Vet Doctors, with the help of the vet students, they were shown how to vaccinate a dog and where exactly. It was real fun for the students.
With the sponsorship from Swedish Society, we had prepared colouring booklets with drawings showing how to take care and treat our dogs and crayons for the students, which we gave them to colour and take home.
Being an education event, Swahili Rabies posters were given to all the students and their teachers to take home to their parents and neighbours. The teachers and the students were very happy for learning much about rabies and how it can be prevented.
Rabies: Zero Deaths by 2030 Vision
Rabies is a viral disease that affects mammals and can lead to paralysis and death. The Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (Kiambu County) is one of the many organization who is offering their services.
The department hopes to mark the world rabies day on Saturday 29th September 2018 at Kanjeru stadium (Gitaru) Kabete sub-county. With this year’s theme being ‘ ZERO DEATHS BY 2030‘, the department’s main activities of the day will include; Free vaccination of dogs and cats against rabies, free deworming, free neutering of dogs and a sensitization session on the need to control the fatal disease.
RABIES: How do I prevent it?
In light of World Rabies Day on 28 September, we will dedicate this week’s post to Rabies: The facts, the figures, how to prevent it and our goals.
- Make sure your pets are vaccinated annually by a registered vet or DVO. Vaccines through a DVO are cheap, costing about Ksh 100.
- Do not touch unknown dogs and wildlife.
- Educate your community.
- “Do it yourself”: Facilitate/sponsor vaccinations of street dogs and pets of low income people in your community.
- Facilitate/sponsor sterilization of pets to reduce the spread of rabies in neglected pet populations.
- Contact TNR Trust for vets who participate in our community programme or contact a vet in your area through the Kenya Veterinary Board.
- Sponsor rabies vaccination campaigns by KSPCA, TNR Trust and other such institutions.
- TNR Trust’s mission is to help eradicate rabies in Kenya using a mobile clinic to
reach communities. Be part of driving this clinic – help us eradicate rabies and keep
Kenyan communities safe! Donate towards our mobile clinic – materials or cash – so we can reach many.
For more information on TNR Trust and Rabies Prevention, check out our flyer HERE.
Rabies Prevention: what to do in case of a dog bite?
In light of World Rabies Day on 28 September, we will dedicate this week’s post to Rabies: The facts, the figures, how to prevent it and our goals.
Today we look at what you should do if a rabid or unknown animal has bitten you:
- Make the bite / wound bleed as much as possible, then wash with clean water and soap or disinfectant. This reduces the chance of rabies substantially. THIS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR IMMEDIATE TREATMENT BY A DOCTOR INCLUDING POST EXPOSURE RABIES VACCINATIONS!
- You should go and see your doctor IMMEDIATELY!
- DO NOT WAIT: once you are infected the disease is always fatal if not treated immediately, or once symptoms appear!
For more information, see our flyer at the following link: TNR Rabies Prevention Flyer
Rabies: What is it?
In light of World Rabies Day on 28 September, we will dedicate this week’s post to Rabies: The facts, the figures, how to prevent it and our goals.
WHAT IS RABIES
Rabies is a viral disease that is nearly always fatal. Infected dogs cause more than 99% of rabies cases in humans.
In Kenya approximately 2,000 humans die from the disease annually, 40% of these are children under 15. In rural populations, this figure is 95% for children under 15. Additionally, a significant number of livestock, pets and wildlife die from rabies every year.
TNR Trust doing vaccinations in Kiambu County: This little girl used to be scared of dogs. Thanks to her brother and her furry friend, she became best friends with a dog!
Rabies is a disease that is 100% preventable through vaccination. The Kenyan Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries together with the World Health Organization, have started a program to eliminate the disease through:
▪ Mass dog vaccinations
▪ Educating the public
RABIES IN PEOPLE
Rabies mainly affects people in poor rural communities. People get the disease from the saliva of an animal that is infected. For example, if an infected dog bites or licks a human, that person can get rabies if the skin is broken and the saliva of the dog enters the person’s body. If the skin is not broken, the person is less likely to get sick.
Main symptoms of Rabies in Humans:
▪ Pain at the bite site
▪ A general feeling of illness
▪ Fever
▪ Headache
▪ Poor appetite, nausea, vomiting
▪ Muscle aches
▪ Sore throat
▪ Depression
TNR Trust Rabies Vaccination Campaign in Kiambu County
RABIES IN DOGS
Dogs get rabies from the bite of any animal that has rabies. Infected dogs often display clear behaviour changes: friendly animals may become shy or irritable, whereas, aggressive animals may become affectionate and docile. However if you do not know a dog it might be difficult to tell whether he is showing signs of rabies.
Main symptoms of Rabies in Dogs:
▪ Constant licking of bite site
▪ Jaw is dropped
▪ Inability to swallow, hydrophobia (extreme or irrational fear of water)
▪ Change in tone of bark
▪ Disorientation
▪ Seizures, paralysis
▪ Excessive foam at the mouth
TNR Volunteer: KARANJA
We are so lucky to have dedicated volunteers who help socializing and healing our fosters. We asked several of them what motivates them.
Karanja, a university graduate, is up first:
Why do you volunteer with foster dogs?
Karanja: “I have always loved dogs. As I was inbetween jobs I didn’t want to be idle and giving my time to the fosters seemed a worthwhile pastime.”
What do you “take home” from volunteering?
Karanja: “Patience. I used to give up easily if something didn’t work immediately. Malaika (the white dog) who was very scared after a bad accident and amputation took 3 months before we could put a collar on. Sitting beside her and slowly gaining her trust taught this patience. It makes a difference in my interaction with people now too.”
What difference does your volunteering make to the dogs?
Karanja: “Wow! Where do I start, I can answer this question by using Malaika, one of my favorites. When I came in the first day there was a sign on Malaika’s kennel which said: “she bites, don’t touch, no eye contact”. After learning how to get her socialised, it became clear that she has a beautiful personality. I mean, she has come from far: from not touching her to touching her nose only, to legs to petting her all over. I feel proud to have played a part in this major achievement.
My volunteering I believe, makes a big difference to the dogs, because I’ve seen most of them make huge strides to being happy and adoptable. The training and well programmed instructions we follow has also been one of the other contributing factors to the success.
And what difference does your volunteering make to you?
As I learn and understand much about their behaviours, I get to understand myself even better and this makes me a better volunteer to the doggies every day.
How do you become a TNR Trust Volunteer?
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, there are multiple areas at TNR Trust where we depend on the help of volunteers, which you can find HERE. Become a volunteer and make a difference!
