Mission Rabies Vaccination Drive

Up bright and early on Saturday morning, we left the ITC at 6am headed for Kotagiri for a Rabies vaccination drive.

We split into three teams, each with vets, vaccines, educational leaflets (in English and Tamil) and most importantly a team of expert dog catchers and their nets.

We went through villages on foot vaccinating dogs, most of which are free roaming but some are owned so their owners showed us their dogs and were given vaccination cards.

It was quiet an operation as we had to find and catch the dogs, load vaccines and get them to wherever the dogs were caught, then those vaccinated had to be marked with a paint spot so they weren’t re-vaccinated and all vaccines were recorded in the Mission Rabies app which adds them to a map with the age, sex and neutered status of the dog.

Between us we vaccinated over 400 dogs throughout the day and our team vaccinated the most - not that it was a competition of course

Rabies Vaccinations

I'm going to India for a month this summer and will be volunteering in a neuter clinic performing surgery and going out vaccinating street dogs with Mission Rabies. One of the requirements is that we are vaccinated against rabies ourselves.

While I was at home for Easter I looked at prices and was quoted £55 per vaccine and we need a course of three. In Slovakia I got three vaccines for €46 from the pharmacy, supplied with a needle ready to go! I know some people have vaccinated themselves but we need a certificate so had to get that from the hospital.

I've not had an injection for about 8 years so just before I went in I was kinda nervous and was planning on not looking but it was fine and I watched her do it. Quite odd to have a vet scared of needles, something we use all day every day!

The worst part of the whole thing is that she said we have to avoid hard work, alcohol and sunbathing for 4 days; I live for two of those things!