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My Buffalo’s Back!
One day in early summer, Vav was phoned by a farmer who wasn’t sure he would be taken seriously. “My buffalo can’t walk, and the vet has tried everything and says it may be time to put
her down.”
Vav listened and reassured the farmer that she hears this sort of thing from owners of horses, dogs and cats as well. He said, “Well, my friend is a farmer up the road and he said you
rescued his alpaca from the bullet, so I wondered…"
 When she went out to see this poor animal, she found her literally on her knees. She had
spent a long time like this, and the vet had not been able to improve things. Discussing the case with Green, Forster & Hallum vet practice, she was encouraged to try anything that might change the direction of the case.
The farmer said that in the spring, he has to put the buffalo into a very sparsely grassed valley. In Africa, they live on dry savannah
plains and in England the danger is it would get ill from eating grass too rich in nutrients.
 Vav asked about this valley – called a ‘chine’ in the Isle of Wight. Was it steep sided? He
said yes, and she said that it was possible that the problem was purely mechanical – if Sharabi had slipped while climbing up or down these sides. If she had mis-aligned the bones in her neck or upper back, this might be
pinching the nerves to her fore-legs and weakening her knees so much she kept falling forwards.
With some difficulty (buffaloes are big and heavy!) Vav palpated the spine. Sharabi did not really want to stand still – she was not used to being handled. Working with her in a small
pen full of nettles, Vav eventually found that her neck was seriously out of alignment. She set about adjusting it by pushing against the relevant bone while bending her neck to allow the bone to move.
 As she would usually do, Vav tried to massage Sharabi’s neck to encourage blood-flow to the
area. This would speed up healing by bringing extra oxygen there.
After this treatment, Sharabi was quite wobbly, but showed signs of getting up onto her feet. We left her to settle and the farmer reported that a few days later, she was on her feet
and eating normally. “My Buffalo’s back!” |
