Mike Toft, [13 Mar 2023 at 20:56:30]: Hi Colleagues, we have recently had an extraordinary amount of rain in Zululand and subsequently had acute death of 6-7 adult giraffes on a single reserve, unfortunately up until today the carcasses were too old and putrefied to get a clear picture. Today, anaemic, icteric, hepatomegaly, shrunken spleen, lung oedema, sanguineous pericardial effusion, haemorrhage sub-endocardial etc. Blood slide and splenic impression smears show masses of Theileria spp. Any ideas on why an “outbreak” may occur in resident giraffe other than increased tick burden after rain fall? Control measures other than tick control? Roy Bengis, [13 Mar 2023 at 21:15:58]: Sounds like tick toxicosis where high tick burdens result in immunosuppression and normal endemic stability fails. Erik Verryne, [13 Mar 2023 at 21:20:51]: Remember the old saying of never dart a giraffe with a high tick burden……. David Pretorius, [13 Mar 2023 at 21:29:10]: Click on the picture: Hi Mike, We have darts that are pre-loaded with fipronil 10% that you can use on the heavy tick burdened animals. It is just an alternative to known methods and we are receiving excellent feedback from their use in cheetah, eland, kudu and even zebra. There are a few reports of eland and kudu that have recovered partially or fully from rotten ears and maggots without additional Dectomax and antibiotic treatment. I find this very interesting and definitely will need more testing. But i think this is becoming a tool each vet should have in his drug box... Mike Toft, [14 Mar 2023 at 05:25:30]: Morning Guys, thanks very much for the replies have sent off for histopathological confirmation but pretty sure of the diagnosis. David , how many darts would an adult giraffe need? Do you have in stock? David Pretorius, [14 Mar 2023 at 05:28:52]: Morning Mike, We build the darts based on weight 100 - 500kg and we can do larger on request. So i would suggest 2 x 500kg (5ml). We have in stock or we build them the same day.
