Travel Plans

Today was a slow day at the American Fondouk. Only a few patients came in the door in the morning, one of which was a dyspneic mule with a hind limb lameness that Michelle took on. Several patients went home including a pregnant mare that obtained large wounds in a trailer after purchase from an auction. Her wounds had granulation tissue debrided several times and she was now healed enough to go home. I was disappointed because the mare was supposed to be over 10 months pregnant and I was hoping to get to experience her foaling.

The pregnant mare goes home today. I am sad I will not be able to witness her foaling.

My rectal prolapse mule was supposed to go home today but did not. I will be happy when she goes home because she has been in heat the last several days and has become a very dangerous animal to work with. She will double barrel at anything and it take 2 or 3 people to catch her in her stall.

Only a few procedures were performed in the afternoon, most of which involved monitoring the splenic entrapment mule that presented Tuesday. The colon remains in the nephrosplenic space and the mule has since developed an impaction and has begun refluxing. Rolling has not been attempted yet and we do not have phenylephrine in the hospital. Hopefully the mule will do ok with conservative treatment.

Meandering thru the streets of the Medina

Late in the afternoon Michelle and I took a cab into the Medina. We wanted to find the tanneries and Michelle wanted to buy some sweater leggings. I couldn’t remember quite how to get to the tanneries so we just started meandering through the maze of the Medina. Michelle looked at many pairs of sweater leggings but found that no one was willing to barter down to the price she wanted to pay. We kept walking and somehow ended up outside the walls on the east side of the Medina. This area was more motor streets with apartments all around. Finally we found our way back into the medina and back onto paths that I recognized. It was starting to get dark so we decided to end our quest for the tanneries and head back to the taxi stand. The trip was basically a short workout as we climbed up and down the hills and walked a couple of short miles.

Map of the Medina in Fez. No wonder it's so easy to get lost! Most of the streets don't even have names!

Earlier in the day we started to make plans for our trip to Marrakech. Gigi encouraged us to take at least a three day trip, so after looking at the train schedule we decided we would leave tomorrow (Friday) morning and would return on Sunday night. After returning from the medina we researched some hotels and found a cheap hotel in the Marrakech medina that had an opening. The place appeared very pretty online and we hoped it will be a nice place to stay. When we arrive in Marrakech tomorrow after a 7 hour train ride, we will probably explore the medina before returning to our hotel and researching what we will do the rest of the weekend. We hope to go on a several hour camel ride and explore as much of the city, expecially the Medina, as possible. I may not be able to blog until I get back due to all the fun I will hopefully be having in Marrakech! Until next time, Au Revoir!

A map of Morocco. We will take a train from Fes to Casablanca and then to Marrakech, a 7 hour train ride.