Western News: February 18, 2020

4
Tuesday February 18 2020
McMaster & Heap
Veterinary practice
Brain tumour in a cat
This is a remarkable story where an 13
year old Norwegian Forest cat “ Sashenka”
was diagnosed via CT imaging of having
a brain tumour, “Meningioma” and
successfully had surgery two weeks ago
in a specialist hospital in Auckland to
remove the tumour. Never in 30 years
of being a vet have I had a client willing
to proceed to surgery to remove a brain
tumour in their pet, plus she survived and
is thriving. She’s one very lucky cat with
incredibly caring owners who wanted the
best possible outcome for their precious
cat.
Sashenka first presented just before
Christmas being a bit “off” - more
clingy, vocalising more, seeming to
have trouble going up and down stairs,
difficulty navigating obstacles, seeming
disorientated, scratching the wooden
floor boards, pacing, kneading and off
balance sometimes. She was a cat always
up a tree and she stopped doing this.
She wasn’t chasing her treats and started
walking in circles. She was never seen
seizuring though and continued eating.
We examined Sashenka and ran an
extensive array of blood and urine tests,
X-rays and ultrasound examinations. We
saw her 15 times in about three weeks.
All testing was basically normal. We tried
different medications and she stayed in
the hospital on IV fluids but we couldn’t
get a of handle on her diagnosis and
there was no improvement at home. Her
owner saw a different Sashenka than the
cat we saw at the clinic.
We consulted the services of Feline
consultants and specialists but she was
deteriorating quickly, having difficulty
eating and appeared dull and not
responsive to her owners at times. Steroid
injections showed improvement but her
bizarre behaviours did wax and wane
with her worse clinical symptom being
close to comatosed. We decided to CT
Sashenka to find out what was really
going on. We offer MRI (Forte Health)
and CT (Pacific Radiology at Lincoln)
at McMaster & Heap. The patients are
sedated and the images taken from
Open 7 days
Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place
phone 338 2534, Fax 339 8624
e. mcmasterandheap@yahoo.co.nz
www.mcmasterheap.co.nz
very fancy expensive computors. It’s
painless for the pet and can give us many
answers that other means of testing
can’t deliver. The radiologist diagnosed
Sashenka with a large intracranial brain
lesion , most probably a meningioma.
Other differentials included a glioma or
astrocytoma.
We consulted an experienced surgical
team in Auckland who were keen to take
over her case. After lengthy discussions
with the owners it was decided to push
forward with brain surgery, so Sashenka
and her devoted owners headed to
Auckland. Brain surgery isn’t a walk in the
park and more tests had to be carried
out on Sashenka. She was getting very
used to needles now and thermometers??
She had an MRI before the surgery and a
CT after the surgery to confirm position
of the titanium screws used to secure
her cranium back in place. She received
a blood transfusion on the day of the
surgery and had an oesophageal feeding
tube placed so that we were able to
supply her nutritionally post surgery, in
case she didn’t feel like eating. Once the
tumour was removed it measured 2.6cm x
3cm x 1.2cm - quite sizeable. She made an
excellent recovery from her anaesthetic
and stayed in the specialist hospital to be
closely monitored for a few days.
She had very specific discharge
instructions including cage confinement
for four weeks (an impossible requirement
for Sashenka), physiotherapy on her
back muscles and legs and medications
including steroids, pain relief and
antibiotics. Catherine has seen her
recently and she appears to be doing
really well - she even escaped her cage
and was seen running up a tree - her
favourite place to be, a birds eye view of
life.
Day 1 after the surgery.
The tumour may grow back and
Catherine is exploring chemotherapy
options but for now Sashenka has her full,
active life back again which is great news
for everybody. She may pave the way in
the future for other patients with brain
tumours. Thank you to Sashenkas mum
and dad for allowing me to write this
article on her.
Dr Michele McMaster
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
News
McMaster & Heap
Petition presented to
fight parking restrictions
• By Georgia O’Connor-
Harding
RICCARTON residents
have rallied together to
fight plans to lose car
parking on their street to
make way for the weekly
rubbish collection truck.
A petition signed by 27
residents was presented to
the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton
Community Board
after it approved parking
restrictions on part of Colligan
St in December.
It called for the city
council to reconsider its
plan to put no stopping
lines on part of Colligan
St from Monday to Friday
6am-6pm and instead only
on rubbish days, due to the
difficulty rubbish trucks
have negotiating parked
cars in the cul-de-sac.
The board approved the
parking restrictions at a
meeting in December –
prompting a backlash from
residents.
Since the petition was
presented, city council
transport operations
manager Steffan Thomas
told Western News a sign
stating “rubbish collection
No38 (Wigram)
Squadron Air
Training Corps
Recruiting now
for 2020
Are you interested in:
Aviation
Team work
Leadership
Bushcraft
Are you aged between 13 and
15 years?
Come along and have a look
at what we do.
Wednesday nights
from 6:45pm
Starting back
Wed 5th February
43 Corsair Drive, Wigram
facebook.com/38SqnATC
FIGHT: Residents living in Colligan St have sent
a petition to the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton
Community Board.
days” only is not legally
recognised in New Zealand.
But he said staff are
confident there will be a
similar restriction which
should meet resident’s
concerns.
The petition, presented
by resident Janet Mansell,
called the changes approved
in December “excessive”
given the purpose
for the plan is to enable
rubbish trucks to turn
around more easily.
It instead called for a
notice to be placed on
the fence adjacent to the
holiday park requesting no
parking on rubbish collection
days from 6am-3pm
as an appropriate solution
WESTERN NEWS
for this problem.
In her presentation to the
board, Ms Mansell raised
concerns many residents
including herself weren’t
notified.
One of the key issues
originally from city council
staff was if the parking
restrictions were only in
place once a week – Thursday
– it would be difficult
to enforce.
This was because rubbish
collection day could
sometimes change to the
following day because of it
falling on a public holiday.
But Mrs Lee said a public
holiday falling on a Thursday
in the next 10 years
will occur seven times –
which was very low.
For everything
AUTO ELECTRIC
CARS • BOATS • TRUCKS
CARAVANS • TRAILERS • 4WDS
ELECTRIC & HYBRID VEHICLES
• Starter Motors
• Alternators
• Central
Locking
• electric
Windows
• ABS & Airbags
Amazing
Auto USUALLy
AAE Electric SAMe DAy
ServiCe
65 Coleridge St, Sydenham
Phone 03 379 4250
www.amazingautoelectric.co.nz
3 issues $20
6 issues $39
11 issues $60
• Stereos/
Alarms
• Batteries
• tuneups
• engine
Management
SUBSCRIPTIONS FREEPHONE
0800 77 77 10
rugbynews.co.nz