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4 Tuesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>19</strong> 20<strong>19</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
NOR’WEST NEWS<br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
Mariu bowls former<br />
McMaster & Heap<br />
Veterinary practice<br />
A PATIENT WITH A BIG HEART<br />
Meet “Lucy”, a courageous 3 year old Staffy<br />
cross who in the past 6 weeks has overcome<br />
many hurdles, but still has a wee way to go.<br />
I first met Lucy at the end of January as a<br />
second opinion. She had been intermittently<br />
unwell for the past month with swallowing<br />
difficulties, coughing, lethargy , pain and<br />
intermittent extremely high temperatures. A<br />
weird clinical picture. She had short courses<br />
of antibiotics and anti inflamatories but still<br />
appeared painful and lethargic and was<br />
deteriorating.<br />
When I first met Lucy, her painfulness struck<br />
me first. I see many uncomfortable patients,<br />
but Lucy was different. She never verbalized<br />
her pain but she was<br />
incredibly tucked up in<br />
the abdomen, walking<br />
slowly and stilted and her<br />
face wore all the pain. She<br />
was brave and lovely to<br />
treat but it was horrible<br />
for me to see her in that<br />
much pain. She was<br />
admitted for a full blood<br />
work up, sufficient pain<br />
medications, intravenous<br />
fluids and xrays..<br />
We got no conclusive<br />
results back from Day 1.<br />
On paper she appeared<br />
healthy but she clearly<br />
wasn’t. Next step was an<br />
ultrasound with Catherine.<br />
Large abdominal lymph nodes measuring up<br />
to 7 cm long were seen dotted throughout.<br />
Catherine wasn’t sure if we may have a<br />
migrating foreign body so it was decided to<br />
open Lucy up. Again no conclusive results<br />
after her exploratory. Kirsty biopsied her<br />
enlarged lymph nodes as a cancerous process<br />
was a possibility. Again we drew blanks as the<br />
lymph node pathology was normal.<br />
Despite our best diagnostic efforts to<br />
find a cause for her unexplained pain and<br />
lethargy, we just had no answers. We were<br />
unsuccessfully managing her pain despite<br />
a myriad of treatment medications. It was<br />
worrying and what was worse was that Lucy<br />
was getting weaker in her hindquarters,<br />
struggling to walk or support her weight.<br />
A contrast CT scan At Pacific Radiology<br />
under sedation was the next diagnostic<br />
tool employed. I was very worried about<br />
spinal cord compression or other diseases<br />
affecting the disc spaces and vertebral bodies.<br />
Interesting findings were seen. Lucy had<br />
large granulomatous masses underneath<br />
a few lumbar vertebrae no doubt causing<br />
compression on her spinal cord, a contributor<br />
to her paralysis. Her vertebral bodies also<br />
looked diseased. Many huge intra-abdominal<br />
lymph nodes were also seen. The scanner<br />
likened it to findings you would see with<br />
Tuberculosis in a person. We also weren’t<br />
expecting her to develop a large pus filled<br />
abscess over her lumbar back that required<br />
surgical draining.<br />
Interestingly Lucy had killed 2 possums a few<br />
months back but after specialized diagnostic<br />
testing for TB on<br />
tissue samples<br />
taken we came up<br />
with blanks. Also<br />
TB hasn’t yet been<br />
isolated in possums<br />
in the Canterbury<br />
area although we<br />
did have her on<br />
TB medication for<br />
several weeks.<br />
As you can see this<br />
case is still providing<br />
challenges for us.<br />
Lucy has since<br />
had more surgery,<br />
ultrasounds, blood<br />
testing and referral<br />
consultations with specialists to try to get a<br />
handle on what caused her pain, CT findings<br />
and paralysis. Our best guess is an inhaled,<br />
migratory Foreign body like a grass seed, that<br />
traveled to beneath her spine somehow. No<br />
other disease process has been found.<br />
The UP side to this story is how Lucy<br />
is handling her immobility and all the<br />
medications she has to consume 2-3 times<br />
daily. She is a terrific dog that has just adapted<br />
to life without walking. She has a ravenous<br />
appetite, appears pain free and happier now<br />
and even wags her tail and twitches and<br />
withdraws her hindlegs. Her improvement is<br />
slow but I guess any disease involving spinal<br />
cord injury takes time to heal. She hasn’t given<br />
up and her dedicated owner hasn’t given up<br />
hope either. Margaret has changed her whole<br />
life this past month to give Lucy the chance to<br />
recover – working from home, learning how<br />
to drain a urinary catheter, managing her care<br />
in terms of massage, reiki, getting her into a<br />
wheelchair – not an easy task when you are<br />
dealing with a 30 kg dog! Amazingly Margaret<br />
has managed all her care from home, which<br />
is better than caged hospital care for Lucy at<br />
this stage.<br />
We all love Lucy at the clinic. We often do<br />
our clinical exams and treatments from the<br />
boot of Margarets car to avoid tiring Lucy.<br />
Our nurses have been patient and gentle to<br />
Lucy and Lucy responds positively to us. We<br />
are ALL hoping and praying for a full recovery.<br />
Follow us on FB to see Lucy’s progress.<br />
Dr Michele McMaster<br />
Black Cap for 99<br />
• By Gordon Findlater<br />
ST ANDREW’S College<br />
batsman Rhys Mariu<br />
showed former Black Cap<br />
Hamish Marshall he’s no<br />
mug with the ball either<br />
when he clean bowled<br />
him middle stump in<br />
Wellington.<br />
Mariu, 17, was the<br />
lone Christchurch player<br />
selected in the first<br />
ever Maori Schoolboys<br />
team which played the<br />
Governor General’s XI at<br />
Karori Park.<br />
Marshall, 40, turned<br />
back the clock and reached<br />
a half century off 36 deliveries.<br />
He continued his batting<br />
onslaught, hitting the<br />
Maori Schoolboys bowlers<br />
around the park, looking<br />
a shoe-in for a deserved<br />
tonne. However, the legspinner<br />
Mariu foiled his<br />
plans, dismissing him for<br />
99. Marshall played 13<br />
tests and 66 one-day-international<br />
for New Zealand<br />
between 2000 and 2007.<br />
Mariu finished with<br />
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bowling figures of 10 over,<br />
for one wicket at 59 runs.<br />
He then opened the<br />
batting for the Maori<br />
Schoolboys scoring 36<br />
from 42 deliveries before<br />
being caught behind off<br />
the bowling of former<br />
Auckland domestic rep<br />
Jono Sole for 36.<br />
After being set 315<br />
SCALP:<br />
Hamish<br />
Marshall<br />
scored 1454<br />
one-dayinternational<br />
runs for the<br />
Black Caps,<br />
but only 99<br />
against St<br />
Andrew’s<br />
College<br />
student Rhys<br />
Mariu.<br />
runs to win the Maori<br />
Schoolboys fell just eight<br />
runs short after batting out<br />
their 50 overs. Next month<br />
Mariu will join fellow<br />
Canterbury players Nick<br />
Lidstone, Angus Sidey<br />
and Jesse Frew in the New<br />
Zealand under-<strong>19</strong> team’s<br />
tour of Bangladesh.<br />
•More sport, page 8<br />
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