Western News: September 14, 2023

Thursday September 14 2023 5
FED-UP:
Rule-abiding
whitebaiters
are frustrated
by rogue
fishers on
the Avon
River.
PHOTO:
GEORGE
HEARD / NZ
HERALD
Whitebaiter camps
‘disappointing’
• From page 1
He added they’re all in the same boat,
and have to do what they can to make
sure future generations get to fish as well.
Last year the city council
ruled whitebaiters were no
longer able to purchase keys to
access fenced areas around the
riverbank.
City council residential red
zone manager Dave Little said
the situation is disappointing,
but he hopes things will
improve.
“It’s probably one of those
situations that we’ll get at the start of the
season, and then our rangers go out and
talk to those individuals . . . we’re hoping
that then they’ll start to even out.”
Little said they’re managing the
issue, and those they’ve spoken to have
Nationwide first
for swim team
THE CITY council swim education team
has become the first organisation in New
Zealand to get accreditation as a water skills
for life provider.
City council swim education
manager Tina de Boer said the
accreditation is recognition of the
team’s dedication to the Swimsafe
programme which educates children about
water safety.
“Teaching children water safety is a
crucial skill they will use for the rest of their
life. Our goal is to give children the skills
and knowledge they need to
assess risk and make smart decisions
complied so far. “If that becomes a
repeated pattern, and it starts to look like
it’s going to escalate, then our rangers
would have to hand those matters on to
police.”
Frayle (left) said the city council
has become good at dealing with
this situation, but antisocial
and disrespectful behaviour is a
problem every season.
“There are people who are
whitebaiting along that river
(who) don’t leave any mess, and
they’re respectful . . . but there are
lots of people who aren’t.”
She added that whitebaiters need to be
mindful they’re entering a community
who have been through a lot, and while
they want to share their space, they need
to feel safe.
– NZ Herald
around water.
“We are very proud to have received this
significant recognition for the hard work
and effort we have put into our successful
programme.”
De Boer said the Swimsafe programme
has been developed over a number of years.
No other organisation or individual in
New Zealand has received this accreditation
to date.
Water Skills for Life is a national water
safety education programme, supported by
Water Safety New Zealand and ACC.
It was developed for children in years 1-8
to learn water safety while at school.
GIVING BLOOD TO SAVE A LIFE
Recently my Macy and Hannah’s
greyhound gave up their blood to help
save a life, both within days of each other.
The dog needing the blood ended up
with 4 blood transfusions over 10 days
and sadly we couldn’t save her. When a
patient requires a blood transfusion, things
need to happen fast as the patient has lost
too much blood for sustainability of life.
For patients that have lost blood volume,
whole blood or packed red blood cells are
required.
Left: Percy getting
a toy after being a
blood donor.
Below:
Macy gave up
400 mls of blood.
Here she is sedated
for the procedure.
We fairly commonly
see blood loss
anemias with
poisonings like rat
bait, bleeding spleens or ruptured tumours
and trauma like road traffic accidents. Some
of these patients will exhibit weakness,
laboured breathing and wobbliness.
Transfused blood to a dog with a non
regenerative anemia will last 120 days, so it
can stabilise a dog for 2-3 months allowing
diagnostic tests to be completed.
We don’t keep stored fresh blood products
so if we can’t source from the NZL Blood
Bank, we have a few of our own donors
with staff pets.
To become a donor first the dog has to be
healthy, fully vaccinated and parasite free,
not on medications and not had cancer or
chemotherapy in the past. They need to
weight over 25kg and have a PCV over 35%.
Greyhounds are perfect donor dogs for this
reason. We then need to get their blood
type to make sure they are the donor type
( Ideally DEA 1.1 or DEA 1.2 negative). The
recipient dog also needs the same blood
type as the donor and both dogs need to
Last week I operated on my beautiful
14 year old Labrador Lola to remove a
potentially malignant, life threatening
Anal Gland cancer ( I’m still awaiting the
histology results). I took her for a CT scan
at Pacific Radiology to check she was
cancer free elsewhere before embarking
on this major surgery. She flew through
the anaesthetic, even getting a teeth clean
and pedicure before wake up. She is doing
fabulously, taking all her medications
be cross matched at the laboratory, on the
day of the transfusion.
Usually we sedate the donor dog to remove
the blood needed for the patient in need.
We check the donor dogs amount of red
blood cells ( PCV) before we remove 10%
to 15% of the donors blood volume. To
prevent hypovolemia ( low blood volume)
the donor should receive intravenous
fluids (IVF) at the commencement of the
transfusion. A dogs total blood volume is
90mls/kg bodyweight so Macy could give
between 300-400mls blood safely.
The donor blood is given to the patient
in need via the jugular or cephalic vein
through a filtered giving set, which reduces
clots entering the circulation. Blood can
be warmed to body temperature before
administration. Slow blood flow rates
are advised for the first 30 minutes of the
transfusion to detect a possible reaction.
Signs of a transfusion reaction are hives,
intense scratching, vomiting,
fevers, depression, changes
in breathing and heart rates,
convulsions or cardiac arrest.
Luckily I haven’t witnessed
a transfusion reaction ever,
probably because we type
and crossmatch our donors
carefully, and have a nurse
sitting with these patients
observing their vitals.
Transfusion medicine isn’t
common, but if and when you
need to to save a patients life,
your whole team need to be
ready to go fast. Having donor dogs and
cats in the practice we have typed and we
know are healthy saves a huge amount
of time and potentially a life. If you’d like
your dog to be a donor dog then let us
know. You can never have too many blood
donors.
Left:
Pearl
receiving
Macy’s
blood.
Pearl was
the most
beautiful
dog.
UPDATE ON LOLA’S SURGERY
reluctantly (unless in tasty sausage meat),
back exercising and has been perfect to
care for. Lola is a regular feature on our FB
page so hop on to follow her journey.
Dr Michele McMaster
Open 7 days Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place ph: 338 2534
e. reception@mcmasterandheap.co.nz www.mcmasterheap.co.nz