Nor'West News: July 13, 2023
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4<br />
Thursday <strong>July</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
A BUSY WEEK<br />
away from the clinic<br />
Steve, Connor and myself recently<br />
attended the NZL Veterinary Conference<br />
in the Capital. My very first vet<br />
conference, attending with my son. Was<br />
a fabulous 3 days reconnecting and<br />
sharing ideas with colleagues, learning<br />
new medical treatments and more<br />
about diseases, visiting the trade stands<br />
and formulating our “wish lists”, and<br />
spending time with Connor.<br />
Steve tested Pomeranians through to<br />
Great Danes, checking for diseases such<br />
as:<br />
• Distichiasis - an extra row of eyelashes<br />
that are directed towards the cornea<br />
(window of the eye)<br />
• Cataracts - cloudiness of the lens which<br />
is normally like a clear marble in the<br />
middle of the eye<br />
GOVERNMENT FUNDED: The Jobs for Nature scheme has provided $1.19<br />
billion in Government funding over four years. <br />
Nature work scheme<br />
making a difference<br />
I attended lectures on heart disease in<br />
cats and dogs, airway disease ( BOAS)<br />
in the Brachycephalic dog breeds,<br />
anaesthetic regimes for cardiac and<br />
respiratory patients, nutrition in heart<br />
disease and the coughing dog. I actually<br />
love being back in lecture theatre,<br />
soaking up new knowledge, new<br />
medications and what’s new in research.<br />
In veterinary medicine you can never<br />
know enough, and I realised early on<br />
that to get the most of my job and help<br />
as many patients as I can, I was going to<br />
have to keep up the study and constantly<br />
keep improving and bettering myself.<br />
Which is what I have done for 33 years.<br />
It’s the degree that just keeps on giving.<br />
Steve also recently held an “eye testing”<br />
day in Auckland, organised and run<br />
by the Auckland Poodle Club. It was a<br />
jammed packed, fun day, with 104 dogs<br />
in attendance to have their eyes checked<br />
by Steve for inherited diseases. Steve<br />
started at 8am, finishing at 4pm with<br />
only a 10 minute break. I joined as Steve’s<br />
secretary, uploading patient details and<br />
making sure the microchip numbers<br />
matched the dogs.<br />
• Retinal Dysplasia - the retina is the<br />
“nerve” at the back of the eye that<br />
collects all the visual information. Retinal<br />
dysplasia with when the retina is not<br />
formed properly when the puppy is an<br />
embryo being formed<br />
• Progressive retinal atrophy - a disease<br />
where the retina starts to “die away”<br />
when the dog is an adult. It is a little bit<br />
like macular degeneration is people.<br />
• Glaucoma - is an increase in pressure<br />
within the eye caused by a blockage of<br />
the internal drainage angle. This is nearly<br />
always a nasty painful disease in dogs.<br />
THE JOBS for Nature scheme has<br />
provided $1.19 billion in Government<br />
funding over four years to with an<br />
aim to bring people into nature-based<br />
employment and support skills training.<br />
Mitch Thorn is one of a team of five<br />
young people employed through the<br />
scheme by the city council as part of the<br />
Government’s Covid-19 recovery<br />
package.<br />
“It’s been a hell of an opportunity, we’re<br />
really lucky I reckon,” Mitch said.<br />
“The park rangers have got a lot of work<br />
that needs doing and being able to have<br />
five field crew put the hours in and get<br />
stuff done on the ground has helped free<br />
them up to work on other projects that<br />
they wouldn’t normally have the time for,<br />
which increases the conservation gain<br />
from the wider team.”<br />
Alongside him are Matt, Mackenzie,<br />
Hannah and Georgia, who are all in their<br />
twenties.<br />
For 23-year-old, Mackenzie the variety<br />
of her job is a draw card. Along with pest<br />
plant control and animal control there’s<br />
also planting, maintenance and habitat<br />
restoration on the Port Hills and Banks<br />
Peninsula.<br />
Hannah was a summer seasonal ranger<br />
at Bottle Lake Forest Park before starting<br />
with Jobs for Nature in February last year.<br />
She sees a future for herself in some sort<br />
of conservation field work.<br />
“Everything I’ve been doing is quite new<br />
so I’m still learning all the different areas,”<br />
she said.<br />
Matt was also on a seasonal summer<br />
contract before starting and welcomed the<br />
longer-term position.<br />
He enjoys wildlife and has since had<br />
opportunities with city council ecologists<br />
to do skink monitoring and bird counts<br />
around Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere.<br />
“Long-term I want to work with<br />
wildlife in New Zealand. My wife is from<br />
Zimbabwe so eventually we might end up<br />
going there and I’d like to carry on doing<br />
conservation work,” Matt said.<br />
City council head of regional parks Kay<br />
Holder said the Jobs for Nature staff had<br />
been invaluable.<br />
“The scheme has provided the<br />
opportunity for 10 more staff to work<br />
in Christchurch parks and natural<br />
environments across the city. Not only<br />
has this seen a great increase in plant<br />
and animal pest control, planting and<br />
maintenance, it has also given training<br />
and learning opportunities to people who<br />
will now be better placed to continue this<br />
important work,” Holder said.<br />
Steve has organised more clinics around<br />
the country to eye test breeding dogs.<br />
It’s very important for the specific breeds<br />
and breeders that hereditary conditions<br />
are identified are not passed on to future<br />
generations.<br />
Dr Michele McMaster BVSc<br />
AT WORK:<br />
Matt<br />
preparing a<br />
site on the<br />
Port Hills<br />
ahead of a<br />
volunteer<br />
planting day.<br />
PHOTOS:<br />
NEWSLINE<br />
Open 7 days Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place ph: 338 2534<br />
e. reception@mcmasterandheap.co.nz www.mcmasterheap.co.nz