I am Dr. Stellah Nambuya. I joined the Big Fix team January 1st, 2020 as a Veterinary Doctor, to help carry out our mission of improving the health and welfare of animals and people in Northern Uganda.
I chose to be part of BIG FIX because there are so many dogs and cats in this region which really need attention. The animal guardians also need our help because of the high risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases such as rabies. If dogs are in good health, likewise human health is improved, and for those guardians who love their dogs very much, their lives are enhanced emotionally as well.
Because of poverty, a lack of education, and the large numbers of dogs and cats, many animals are still abandoned, tortured and killed. We know the solution is through our spay and neuter program and the situation is improving every year, but we must continue offering these services and to somehow reach the hundreds of remote villages in Northern Uganda which otherwise have no access to veterinary care.
As a veterinary Doctor at the Big Fix it is my role to ensure that animals brought to the hospital are given the best possible care. This requires the doctors to continually check on the animals and assess their treatments and how they are responding. We never know when the next emergency will come to our gate, or when our animal rescue officers need us to respond in the field to a critical case. I can say that our veterinary team works tirelessly to save lives and to try to keep our patients as comfortable as possible.
I chose to be part of BIG FIX because there are so many dogs and cats in this region which really need attention. The animal guardians also need our help because of the high risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases such as rabies. If dogs are in good health, likewise human health is improved, and for those guardians who love their dogs very much, their lives are enhanced emotionally as well.
Because of poverty, a lack of education, and the large numbers of dogs and cats, many animals are still abandoned, tortured and killed. We know the solution is through our spay and neuter program and the situation is improving every year, but we must continue offering these services and to somehow reach the hundreds of remote villages in Northern Uganda which otherwise have no access to veterinary care.
As a veterinary Doctor at the Big Fix it is my role to ensure that animals brought to the hospital are given the best possible care. This requires the doctors to continually check on the animals and assess their treatments and how they are responding. We never know when the next emergency will come to our gate, or when our animal rescue officers need us to respond in the field to a critical case. I can say that our veterinary team works tirelessly to save lives and to try to keep our patients as comfortable as possible.
Being a vet doctor at the BIG FIX hospital is interesting because I love dogs and cats and love interacting with them. Seeing a patient come to the hospital very ill, taking care of that patient, and having them recover and be taken home again as a happy dog or cat with a very grateful guardian, is extremely rewarding and exciting to me. It can also be very stressful when we lose a patient, as we bond so quickly with each of them and it is difficult when even our best efforts cannot save the life. Sometimes people wait too long to come to the hospital, such as with a poisoning case, and it is hard on our hearts to lose those patients and not be able to do more to help them.
One of the things I really like about working at BIG FIX is that the organization provides the vet doctors with free accommodation in BIG FIX Guesthouse, located right next to our hospital. This means there is no worry of going home late in the night, especially on those days when our patients need close attention or when procedures go on for longer hours. It excites me to be near my patients at all times so I can easily monitor their progress.
I have also very much enjoyed participating in BIG FIX’s school outreach programs. Seeing all the enthusiastic pupils listening to our presentations gives me hope that animal cruelty will one day stop as this next generation becomes Uganda’s future.
We do have some hardships in our work. We still lack laboratory equipment and there is no veterinary laboratory anywhere in the Northern Uganda region. We still lack some basic items such as cell counters, hematocrit tubes, hemocytometers, SNAP diagnostic tests for parvo/ehrichiosis and other diseases. When we have a fracture case, we need to take the patient to town to the human x-ray facility, where we have friends who allow us to use their equipment. These shortcomings still make our work, and especially definitive diagnoses, very challenging.
The electric power situation is also unstable at times. BIG FIX is operates solely on a solar power system, so at times our sockets go off and this threatens our vaccines. We have to make ice continually so we have it on hand for these times, and must work hard to keep our cold chain so our vaccine remains viable. We would also like to be able to iron our scrubs and other clothes, but the solar system cannot support use of an iron. We hope in the near future, we will be able to connect to the public power system, since BIG FIX is now within the boundary of the new Gulu City area but this will also take funding to pay the cost of accessing the power.
Another challenge is supplies. Things like tick and flea treatment and shampoo (especially flea shampoo) are not available for purchase in Uganda OR they are priced so high we cannot afford them. All of what we have is brought to us from volunteers who come from abroad, and with the COVID situation, we have no volunteers coming, and parcels are not allowed to be sent to Uganda from the U.S. at this time, where BIG FIX U.S. has supplies waiting to come to us. Getting supplies to us is a challenge as mailing parcels is expensive, even when parcels can be sent. Yet, so many animals are in need of these products. We can buy regular shampoo and one thing that would help so much would be to be able to provide shampoo for free to people to use for their dogs. Most people cannot afford it, but will gladly use it to wash their dogs, which will improve the health and comfort of the dogs tremendously.
Our vet team would also sincerely appreciate the opportunity to travel to hospitals in other parts of the world, and to learn as much as we can, so that we can bring that knowledge back to BIG FIX and improve our services here. Learning new skills and seeing how things are done better elsewhere is the most important thing we can do to improve animal health here in Northern Uganda.
I am very happy that despite challenges, we have managed to help so many animals, to alleviate suffering, to spay and neuter many, and to reach thousands of school children since my arrival at BIG FIX. I look forward to the future and what we can accomplish together.
One of the things I really like about working at BIG FIX is that the organization provides the vet doctors with free accommodation in BIG FIX Guesthouse, located right next to our hospital. This means there is no worry of going home late in the night, especially on those days when our patients need close attention or when procedures go on for longer hours. It excites me to be near my patients at all times so I can easily monitor their progress.
I have also very much enjoyed participating in BIG FIX’s school outreach programs. Seeing all the enthusiastic pupils listening to our presentations gives me hope that animal cruelty will one day stop as this next generation becomes Uganda’s future.
We do have some hardships in our work. We still lack laboratory equipment and there is no veterinary laboratory anywhere in the Northern Uganda region. We still lack some basic items such as cell counters, hematocrit tubes, hemocytometers, SNAP diagnostic tests for parvo/ehrichiosis and other diseases. When we have a fracture case, we need to take the patient to town to the human x-ray facility, where we have friends who allow us to use their equipment. These shortcomings still make our work, and especially definitive diagnoses, very challenging.
The electric power situation is also unstable at times. BIG FIX is operates solely on a solar power system, so at times our sockets go off and this threatens our vaccines. We have to make ice continually so we have it on hand for these times, and must work hard to keep our cold chain so our vaccine remains viable. We would also like to be able to iron our scrubs and other clothes, but the solar system cannot support use of an iron. We hope in the near future, we will be able to connect to the public power system, since BIG FIX is now within the boundary of the new Gulu City area but this will also take funding to pay the cost of accessing the power.
Another challenge is supplies. Things like tick and flea treatment and shampoo (especially flea shampoo) are not available for purchase in Uganda OR they are priced so high we cannot afford them. All of what we have is brought to us from volunteers who come from abroad, and with the COVID situation, we have no volunteers coming, and parcels are not allowed to be sent to Uganda from the U.S. at this time, where BIG FIX U.S. has supplies waiting to come to us. Getting supplies to us is a challenge as mailing parcels is expensive, even when parcels can be sent. Yet, so many animals are in need of these products. We can buy regular shampoo and one thing that would help so much would be to be able to provide shampoo for free to people to use for their dogs. Most people cannot afford it, but will gladly use it to wash their dogs, which will improve the health and comfort of the dogs tremendously.
Our vet team would also sincerely appreciate the opportunity to travel to hospitals in other parts of the world, and to learn as much as we can, so that we can bring that knowledge back to BIG FIX and improve our services here. Learning new skills and seeing how things are done better elsewhere is the most important thing we can do to improve animal health here in Northern Uganda.
I am very happy that despite challenges, we have managed to help so many animals, to alleviate suffering, to spay and neuter many, and to reach thousands of school children since my arrival at BIG FIX. I look forward to the future and what we can accomplish together.