A Vets Diary
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Unfortunately, when Chester, the 12 year old Bedlington Terrier, was minding his own business last month while holidaying with his owners in Wooler, his rather nasty neighbour on the caravan site decided to dig its teeth into his hind leg.
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Would you believe that I have been writing this diary for over six years now!
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At calving time there is no more satisfying sight than that of a new born calf that quickly gets to its feet and enthusiastically suckles from its mother.
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The unfolding events in Rothbury last week – played out in front of the nation’s media – were understandably both terrifying for anyone in anyway affected and also somewhat surreal.
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This week, a small digression from the veterinary theme – there’s something I’ve just got to get off my chest.
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As we know with both adults and children, vaccination can protect against illness and potentially life-threatening diseases.
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As I sit to put pen to paper for this weeks diary – the dreaded Wednesday afternoon has yet to play out its full gambit of twists and turns.
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You may get the impression that we work hard here at the vets - and well we do - but we also play hard. That is how it came to pass when at a wedding a year ago, Inge, one of our nurses from the Fairmoor branch had mentioned to a group of us that she had a big milestone birthday coming up and she wanted to do something special for it and suggested the Coast-to-Coast cycle ride.
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Just when that feel good factor was starting to gain momentum we have all been brought back to earth with a tremendous bump.
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Traditionally mares are taken to the stallion; sometimes involving travelling great distances, which can cause stress for a foal at foot.
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It is the fundamental starting principal of all veterinary surgeons to keep their patients alive – though unfortunately in some cases this just isn’t possible.
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After a very hard winter for most livestock farmers the April and May lambing has fortunately coincided with a spell of good weather. Though, unfortunately some of the earlier lambing flocks are still dealing with the consequences of poor conditions at the end of March; lambs suffering from joint ill and septicaemia are still showing up now.
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I think it was Arnold Palmer who proclaimed “I wouldn’t say God couldn’t have got out of it, but he’d have had to throw it” after having some difficulty getting out of a bunker at Muirfield. Well, one of our clients this week was presented with every bit as complicated a lie and unfortunately, the provisional ball ended up in the same predicament as the first.
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Ticks are most frequently found on sheep in the spring and some areas again in late summer, though in latter years we have seen them on livestock, not to mention dogs, during all seasons. Similarly we have seen a spread in the traditional tick areas, expanding from rough hills and moorland into adjacent pastures.
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On many an occasion I have written about how fortunate I am to be doing a job that I genuinely wake up every morning and look forward to doing; obviously there are moments of great sadness, not to mention occasional frustration, but on the whole it’s pretty darn good. That said - Monday mornings can be a challenge to anyone and after a weekend of enjoying the fine weather with the family I guess it was normal to feel this week that one more day away from the grind would do just fine.
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Now that spring is here, the heavy snow earlier in the year seems but a distant memory. But remembering back to all the national media hype about travel disruption and working days lost, it’s easy to forget those folk for whom staying at home just isn’t an option; being able to make it to work sometimes quite literally being a matter of life and death. Along with the emergency services, in rural communities, farmers and our very own farm vets fell into this bracket. Vet Jenny Hull recalls a memorably bad day.
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The year is marching on, with Easter behind us, the daffodils are flowering and there are more and more lambs in the fields with April well and truly underway. We have been very busy on all fronts, the farm vets quite literally up to there arms in it, with lambing and calving in full swing. Similarly, the horsey team have been busy with reproductive work as well as vetting the races and the usual problems that crop up at this time of year with folk taking their horses further with the improving weather. On the pet front, we have had a number of interesting cases, some detailed here, and with our Seahouses surgery set to open five days a week after Easter, things should only get busier.
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Well known and popular local vet David Young has landed a plum role in the next Harry Potter movie which will see filming returning to Alnwick and the surrounding Northumberland countryside. In circumstances that would not have been out of place for the famous student of Hogwarts School himself, the ever youthful veterinarian looks set to be plucked from every day life and thrust into international stardom.
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In the last month or so we seem to have seen a large number of rabbits and guinea pigs with problems associated with their teeth. As you might imagine, examining the oral cavities of our small and furry friends is not the easiest – but is of vital importance as untreated dental disease has the potential to have fatal consequences.
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There is no doubting what animal subject is exercising most media attention at the moment; namely dangerous dogs. Unusually, the current uproar doesn’t seem to have been associated with a knee jerk response to a particular incident, though statistics do demonstrate that reported dog bite injuries are on the up.
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By way of a change this week, the diary comes straight from the horse’s mouth – or sheep’s mouth to be more precise. After years of reporting how much easier our professional lives would be if we could only communicate with our patients it turns out that Wooler vet Steve Carragher actually can talk to the animals! I understand the following report was taken verbaaatim from a Cheviot tup – Ewe get the idea!!! (I think the Northumbrian accent has been lost a little in the following translation)
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I know one swallow doesn’t make a summer – but wasn’t it nice to have a little sunshine and coinciding with the first day of March it was definitely tempting to think that Spring had sprung. In the true spirit of the commentators curse no doubt we are now in for blizzards next week, though there is no denying that the spring-like fresh air was more than welcome.
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It never ceases to amaze me how, in certain circumstances; something so small and innocuous can have such severe consequences. For the second week running we have a young Cocker Spaniel suffering the effects of having something stuck where it shouldn’t be; though this time the events have evidently been much more protracted.
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When you’re on duty and the dreaded out of hours call comes in, inevitably you mull over the problem in your own mind and make a quick assessment as to how long it will take. Some things are fairly straight forward and can be dealt with easily, other things more complicated and involved. Last week I was called to a dog that had swallowed an apple and in no way anticipated the eight and half hour marathon that ensued.
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As you might expect, there are a number of diseases that we associate with humans that also effect animals. Of course, there are a whole host of infectious organisms that are common to a number of species, mostly fungi or bacteria that are not so host specific, but the occasional virus as well. Apart from these there are plenty of other conditions common to mankind and the animal kingdom.
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I think that you would probably agree that three cases in fifteen years of vetting constitute a rare condition, though in its nature it is once seen, never forgotten. As soon as the dog walked through the door, I could see from its rather extraordinary appearance that we were most likely dealing with canine tetanus.
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I have mentioned before how the true skills of a clinical team are often best demonstrated in a genuine emergency and that was just the case last Friday. A calm methodical approach by vets and nurses alike insured that the patient survived what could easily have been a fatal accident.
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At the start of a new year, it always takes me a few weeks to get used to writing the new date and the change this year from ’09 to ’10 seems to be particularly unsettling. Is it just me that thinks the “naughties” seem to have passed in the blinking of an eye?
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For many of us, the first weeks of January are marked by new gym memberships, buying trainers in the sales and saying no to that second helping of Christmas cake that just has to be finished soon. Roll in those sensible fellows looking to tackle their nicotine addiction and all in all the New Year is a time of good healthy intentions.
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I’m dreaming of a quiet Christmas
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Over the years, regular readers of the vet’s diary will have picked up a bit of a veterinary mantra proclaiming that common things occur commonly. The staple diet of the first opinion veterinary practitioner consisting of its fair share of anal glands to empty, cat bite abscesses to lance and flush, scouring calves to rehydrate or ponies with pus in the foot to release, could on its own become somewhat mundane, not to mention a bit smelly. Familiarity can work both ways. Though becoming accustomed with these common cases is part of the steep learning curve faced by all vets starting their careers, if faced with nothing but these tasks, vets would leave the profession in their droves.
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The continuing development of the alnorthumbria vets has received a significant boost in the last few weeks with three of our vets achieving a pretty rare hat-trick; namely passing their certificate qualifications. Jean Paul Schmidt (small animal medicine), Ed Chinn and Vicky Robertson (both equine medicine) received their results last weekend, the end point of over two years of intensive study on top of their normal working days.
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Fortunately these cases are few and far between but every now and then we see something that is truly shocking.
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Last weeks diary highlighted the problems associated with viral diseases and how we can protect our pets and for that matter ourselves against them. Being organisms that spend much of their time inside their hosts own cells, viruses are often protected from our medicines making them difficult infections to treat. Consequently prevention is definitely better than cure and by using vaccination we are able to stimulate immunity against them.
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Over the next few weeks, the diary will concentrate on a few of the infectious diseases that our animals, and for that matter us, suffer from and how vaccination can be used for protection.
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As I drove to work this morning through the dense sea fret I could be forgiven for thinking that the news and weather forecasts are some what southern biased. After all, the radio presenter was dutifully informing me of the specific measures I could take to protect me from the soaring temperatures predicted in this weeks anticipated heat wave. Drink lots, wear a hat and if all else fails move into the cellar a pretty good summary of the advice given.
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By way of a change, this weeks diary is going to stray from the veterinary theme and for added excitement it is being composed on location, so to speak. As I tap away at my laptop keyboard, the gentle roll of the over night ferry sailing back from Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, to Aberdeen gives a hint of my weekend activities and this weeks subject matter.
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For a change this week, Emily Silas, Alnwick branch administrator, gives us a personal account of what its like to have a very sick pet when you’re on the inside, so to speak.
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It’s bad enough when you get into trouble for pushing your nose somewhere where it shouldn’t be; but when you get into bother for poking it where your owner has asked you, life must seem down right unfair.
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Goats have a reputation of being able to eat anything and quite frequently they do! They are ubiquitous ‘browsers’ and will nibble at any available item; animal, mineral or vegetable.
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Mention the acronym GDV to any new or recently graduated vet tackling their first nights on call and you can see their faces visibly pale. Thankfully not that common, Gastric Dilation/Volvulus is a genuine veterinary emergency that requires both medical and surgical skills to treat and even then, your best efforts can end in failure.
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In many quarters proclamations of a "Happy and prosperous New Year" have been issued with nervous feelings of trepidation; no doubt with sincere wishes but in truth with little optimism that the sentiments will be fulfilled.
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There is no doubting that the horse world is a veritable mine field, steeped in mystery and wonder with all sorts of people having a respected opinion on just about everything equine; often more revered if there is a little bit of Irish blood coursing through their veins.
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Though not an uncommon problem we have seen a recent flush of a particular type of feline case that can be really quite tricky to deal with. In the veterinary world Feline Urinogenital Tract Disease or FUTD is not just a four letter word, with whole research institutes employed to unravel this complex disease.
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This week I’m asking you to indulge me for a moment for I am taking time to adjust to the "start" of my life. This is because the recent crop of birthday cards that I kindly received mostly informed me in bold phrases that "life begins from now on", though, to be honest, I am yet to notice any great difference.
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We have had a number of cases in recent weeks that are not only particularly sad in themselves; but also serve to remind us of other related problems.
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Over the last few weeks, the excitement amongst vets, nurses and support staff alike has been palpably rising in the southern end of the practice as the major extension and development works at our Morpeth surgery nears completion.
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There is no doubt that when Susan Haire of Forest Hall, Newcastle and her family set off for a walk on Simonside, Rothbury recently they hadn’t bargained for what they would find. A recent convert to the wonders of the great outdoors and hill walking, she confesses not to be an expert on wildlife, but even with her relative inexperience she was able to recognise the creature on the path in front of her as a bird of prey, thinking it was possibly a buzzard.
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The clocks have gone back, the now golden leaves are falling from the trees and there’s definitely a nip in the air after dark; it can only mean one thing, our peaceful nights will be disrupted by loud bangs, piercing whistles and flashing lights. Yes, it’s that time of year again!
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Late afternoon, early evening, most of us at Alnorthumbria are still hard at it and too busy to turn on a television. However, this week we have had call to set our video recorders as one of our own has been featuring large in the ITV competition "Britain’s Best Dish". For those of you with vivid imaginations that may not have seen it; it’s not a beauty contest but a cooking programme, though our gal would do well on both counts!
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There’s no doubt that the one case that has captured most of the attention at or Morpeth surgery in the last week is little Gizmo a four month old Jack Russell terrier that had unfortunately suffered a fractured femur.
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This week’s diary tells of a real journey of discovery and is testament to how dedication and hard work can really open doors for you. Young "Bill" Haley Parmley first came to our Morpeth surgery some five years ago to do her school work experience; a shy girl, she wouldn’t have said boo to a goose even if we’d had one in to say boo to!
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This week’s diary is not only testament to good sound diagnostic skills but also a fair degree of patience and perseverance in the face of a most challenging problem. Following a hard days work, duty vet Stephen received an evening call out last week to one of the dairy farms in the practice.
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Under the banner of "You’re killing them with kindness!" we face an ongoing struggle to encourage owners not to over feed their animals.
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Let me try and paint for you the stereotypical idyllic scene for one man and his dog. It’s been a long hard day in the office, it’s late August and the sun has been beating through your window all day; admittedly some poetic licence with the weather, but indulge me for a minute! At last the day ends and you head for home
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No surprises that this week’s diary involves lots of water and an extraordinary rescue, though actually the events described happened before the terrible flooding of last weekend.
Freddie is a fourteen year old Cairn terrier whom, if he was a cat would be down to his last few lives. Homeless a couple of years ago, having had several previous owners he was rescued from the pound; his current guardians freely admitting he posses “a bit of character”, an often used euphemism for the feisty terrier!
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As soon as I saw Mist, a young lurcher bitch, last week I knew there was something drastically wrong. In truth, she was a lot brighter than she deserved to be, just about managing the weakest of tail wags as her owner brought her into the consult room.
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The vaccination programme implemented by Defra is nearing completion now with counties as far North as Durham having already vaccinated their livestock. The policy has been to roll out vaccine county by county as and when the vaccine becomes available, starting with the most at risk area (the South East).
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Like thousands of other young people up and down the land, four of our training nurses were on tenterhooks last Thursday; waiting on their exam results to be published. However, unlike their “A” level counterparts, they were not buoyed by the knowledge that pass rates have been increasing in recent times. In fact, with more than one in four candidates failing these National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ), in the ten years that we have been training veterinary nurses, standards have been getting steadily higher and consequently the exams harder to pass.
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Last weekend saw the continuing Herculean efforts of the staff and friends of alnorthumbria vets as the next three legs of the try-athlon were completed.
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Last Friday evening marked the start of a series of weekends of varying physical challenges as we embarked upon our “Try-athlon” to raise money for three very deserving animal charities; RABI, The Equine Grass Sickness Fund and Alexa’s Dog Charity. The first leg of our marathon effort was to cycle from our surgery in Wooler to the one in Seahouses; some twenty-one miles.
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There is no doubting that for me, working out of our Morpeth surgery, the ongoing building works there continue to take up a large amount of my time.
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The one and often only thing that tups get prior to breeding is a dose of wormer. Ironically this is probably the only thing they don’t need. With other things going on through the summer months, the tups usually get forgotten about until they are actually required in the autumn. With prevention always better than cure; a few checks now may well avert more severe problems down the road and this week’s diary should provide a handy check list.
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Firstly, apologies for the lack of a diary in last weeks paper, unfortunately our cross channel ferry was cancelled due to rough seas delaying our return from holiday.
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In previous diaries, mention of the weather has immediately resulted in whole scale changes in climatic conditions; so, at the risk of incurring the wrath of everyone, here goes again!
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Like with many other walks of life, the veterinary calendar is punctuated by particular events that look to raise the awareness of important issues...
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As vets, we frequently get asked to visit schools or youth groups to chat about our job. Most recently for me, this involved a forty five minute session being grilled by the reception class...
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Many of you reading this will be regular blood donors; well done if you are, and consequently aware of the huge benefits that can come...
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So the big day finally arrived when last Sunday four of us tackled the Alnwick Triathlon. Unfortunately, Frances had to drop out through injury but Adam, Steve,..
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It has been said so many times that it has almost become a cliché; but in many cases life would be so much easier if our patients could talk...
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The definite benefits of being able to hospitalise our equine patients at the surgery at Wagonway Road were demonstrated this week, with the completion of a cutting edge surgical technique...
Northumbrian Vets Diary
Apple bobbing with a difference
When you’re on duty and the dreaded out of hours call comes in, inevitably you mull over the problem in your own mind and make a quick assessment as to how long it will take. Some things are fairly straight forward and can be dealt with easily, other things more complicated and involved. Last week I was called to a dog that had swallowed an apple and in no way anticipated the eight and half hour marathon that ensued.
Roxy – a gorgeous little two year old Cocker Spaniel does have a bit of “previous”! On Boxing Day she bolted a block of frozen pastry that lodged fast in her oesophagus and had to be removed by surgical intervention; the offending item not wanting to break down on its own.
Apart from intermittently retching up great volumes of frothy saliva, Roxy seemed bright and well, having apparently swallowed the apple whole about twenty minutes earlier. In view of the retching we decided to sedate her and have a look down the oesophagus to see if the apple was indeed stuck.
Sure enough some fifteen minutes later, with our patient now soundly sleeping we examined the oesophagus with the video-endoscope and could see the apple firmly lodged, rather worryingly at about the level of the heart; confirmed by the obvious pulsing movements from the adjacent vital organ. Unfortunately, the apple was so tightly stuck that it was impossible to get anything past it or get a good enough purchase to be able to pull it back up into the mouth. After several hours of trying we gave up and decided to operate; the plan being to try pushing from the stomach end.
An hour and a half later, our exhaustive attempt to push the apple back up the oesophagus from the stomach had failed, the offending item just wedged too tightly to shift without fear of rupturing the tissue, causing fatal damage.
Now one o’clock in the morning, we were starting to become very concerned that this problem was going to beat us. However, we still had the option of making a surgical incision in the base of the neck and try to retrieve the apple from there. Weighing up the balance of post-operative complications this was a more preferred option to open thoracic surgery; requiring rib removal and going directly into the chest.
Carefully dissecting down through the muscle layers we could identify the oesophagus and make an incision, then by re-introducing the endoscope visualise the apple. Now only fifteen centimetres from the wound we were able to use some specialised extended biopsy forceps to gently gnaw away at the apple one bite at a time. All the while concerned about damaging the oesophageal lining this was a painstaking process that for a long time seemed to be fruitless (if you pardon the pun). In fact, we felt like we just weren’t getting to the core of the problem – I’ll stop there!!
Eventually our patience paid off and almost unexpectedly what remained of the apple suddenly freed and came up to the incision where we were able to remove it. Though inflamed and sore looking, the oesophagus showed no sign of perforation and so we were able to close our wound and wake Roxy up. By now it was four o’clock and she had been asleep for nearly eight hours and though the apple was out, she was by no means out of the woods.
Her recovery from the anaesthetic was remarkably good all things considered and within a couple of hours she was looking extraordinarily well in view of her ordeal; probably better than us in fact!
The following morning she was keen to eat with little evidence of any pain or discomfort on swallowing and some seven days later she is just about back to normal. Though she still does have a few stitches to come out, the wounds are clean and heeling well and do not do justice to the trouble that Roxy’s predicament had caused. In future, we recommend that Roxy takes her five-a-day chopped rather than whole!
