Only the finest veterinary treatment is good enough for man’s best friend

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 21

Only the finest veterinary treatment is good enough for man’s best friend

By

GARRY ARTHUR

< A nurse dabs at the surm.°? s br ? w under hot l. gbT ; s °J r i he o P er ating tr f: the head of tht , table the latest CGS machI. me monitors the breathing and heartbeat of the • anaesthetised oatient. A. complicated orthopaerac: procedure is bein» performed to repair a smashed elbow. It involves tne insertion of three long Steel pins into the bone; it takes two hours of meticulous work. It might be the operating theatre at. Christchurch Hospital, but it is not The patient is a dog called Sooty, and the sur*s being performed in the modern operating theatre of a Christchurch veterinary surgeon. But apart from that — and the fact that Sooty cannot have her operation on social security — she is getting the same standard of modern medical treatment that any human victim df a motor accident would get in hospital. - Booty’s was a very difficult operation. It was a bad fracture, with many small fragments of- bone I. in an area packed with . nerves and blood vessels. ■ Four people were’involved ■ in the. long operation. ■

It. began with X-rays> and it will end with a return to the theatre for the removal of the steel pins. It will cost nearly S2OO — a fact which Mr and Mrs L. S. Pickering, of Bryndwr, knew in advance. They had to decide whether they should pay such a large sum for a serious operation on a young dog which they had taken in to save it from being destroyed. Sooty belongs to their daughter Rosemary, and her elbow was smashed

when she was hit by a car. “It was a lot to spend when we didn’t know if the operation -would be a success,” Mrs Pickering says.

But the family- loves the dog and the decision was made. The children will all be contributing to the cost from their piggy-banks and pocket money.

Thanks to the skill and knowledge of the veterinary surgeon, Hans Andersen, and the availability of modern drugs and equipment, Sooty appears

to be making a good recovery.

Today’s vets are trained to the same standards as doctors (in some countries they do the same pre-clin-ical courses), they use the latest drugs, treatments, and surgical procedures developed for humans; and they use much of the same equipment. It is not entirely surprising, considering that new drugs and techniques are often perfected by testing them on dogs and other small animals.

The parallels between animal and human medicine are quite, striking. Animals brought .to the vet .by their owners are referred to as “the patient” and their case histories are kept on index cards. Hans Andersen’s firm is considering buying a $16,000 computer for the purpose. Animals are vaccinated against common diseases, just like humans. For distemper, vets use the human measles vaccine. They consult medical specialists about tricky problems; they even call in surgeons at times to operate on animals.

A year or two ago, vets could send dogs to Christchurch Hospital for cancer treatment with the radiology department’s cobalt machine, but the department is now tod busy with human patients to take dogs. Dunedin vets have sent dogs in to the public hospital for heart surgery.

Samples of pets’ blood, urine, etc, are sent to pathologists’ laboratories just like those from general practitioners. The Purdie practice calls in an eye surgeon to operate on the eyes of animals. One recently put in a prosthetic (false) eye for a dbg. Lyndsay Fraser, who recently built a new animal hospital at Rangiora, sometimes calls, in dentists for . the capping . or straightening of animals’ teeth. Owners Of pedigree animals have their pits’ teeth fixed for show purposes. Straightening costs from $5O to $BO. Other “cosmetic” surgery includes the docking of puppies’ tails (for show purposes again), and the straightening of crooked .tails.

In some species cosmetic surgery also has a medical benefit. Lyndsay Fraser is often called on to remove folds of skin under the eyes of dogs' of the pug-breed, partly fob appearances, but also because of the danger of irritation, ulcers, and even blindness.

It is not all a one-way street; Doctors who suspect that their patients have ringworm often send them to Campbell Purdie’s veterinary clinic to be checked with a special light which up. Animals usually recover more quickly than humans, Hans Andersen finds. The reason is that they don’t know they are sick, so there is no psychological brake on recovery.

The reason animals ”get“pebple treatment” at the vet's is that dogs, particularly, are prone to all the illnesses that humans get — and one or two more besides. The get tonsilitis (although few owners know that their dogs even have tonsils), bronchitis, diabetes, heart • disease, skin disease,- kidney trouble, cancer, arthritis, toothache — you name it. Veterinary surgeons say that their modern surgeries are often built to better standards than those in hospitals. “We try to work, off the benchmark that* the medical profession sets,” Hans

Andersen says. “Our difficulty is that the < medical people have general prac- . titioners and specialists, while we have to do it all — . and for various species.” Even open-heart surgery of the kind done at Green Lane Hospital has been performed on animals in Australia. But not here. The Australian veterinary surgeons have been criticised for spending huge sums of. money on the necessary heart-lung machines and New Zealand veterinary surgeons consider that kind of expenditure unjustifiable. Veterinary surgeons keep up with human orthopaedics. They read all the medical journals, and last October they attended a post-graduate course in the subject, with doctors, at Wellington Hospital. Like humans, dogs suffer many bone fractures in road accidents. Another problem' which some of them share with humans is the slipped disc. Long, low-slung dogs like dachshunds ‘ and corgis are prone to it, but one Christchurch vet, Corin Murfitt, has found the results of surgery (costing about $100) disappointing. “That is one area where the orthopaedic surgeon is ahead of us,” he admits. Vets use the latest cancer treatment for dogs and cats, and claim a lot of success if they get to them early enough. “We can save many animals,” Lyndsay Fraser says. Even chemotherapy is used, hut with “dramatic limitations” on the range of drugs because of the high cost. Some of the

more expensive, drugs cost hundreds of dollars for a course of treatment. Lyndsay Fraser says the cost is just not justified. Surgical removal of cancers is a common veterinary procedure. It can be expensive, but people are usually ready and willing to pay. The Purdie clinic recently removed a cancer from the wall of a dog’s duodenum. The dog was anaemic and needed blood transfusions, pushing the cost up to $2OO, but it made a “remarkable recovery.” If the veterinary surgeon is stumped, he can refer a case to the experts at Massey Univer-

sity, where veterinarians are trained. Difficult chest surgery and a particular kind of small tumour are usually sent there. Massey surgeons charge about the same fees as those in private practice. Just like their owners, pets sometimes start behaving oddly. King Charles cocker spaniels sometimes begin catching flies that aren’t there. Whether they can “see” them or not, no-one can say, but it is . considered to be a genetic problem associated with inbreeding. •Aggression towards their owners, excessive barking, and bad habits from previously well house-trained pets are common behavioural problems. Corin Murfitt, who has a practice in Riccarton, says such psychological problems can be traced sometimes to the death of the pet’s owner, being shifted from a familiar place, or jealousy at. the arrival of a baby in the family. The veterinarian tries to eliminate the cause of the strange behaviour, and give the animal therapy, to restore it to its normal ways. Sometimes it will be put on tranquillisers for a few weeks. Unusually difficult cases are saved tip for an animal psychologist from Massey who makes regular visits to Lincoln. Vets are even getting into the field of animal geriatrics. One Christchurch clinic offers clients a package of tests for ageing animals — kidney

function, blood, electrocardiograph, dental care etc.

One of the few areas of human medicine which finds no parallel in veterinary surgery here is organ transplants. They are being done overseas, but Christchurch vets see no place for that kind of procedure with small animals. They are doing bone and skin grafts, however.

Veterinary work has increased enormously in recent years, and not just because of the appeal of

“All Creatures- Great and Small” on television. Since New Zealand started producing its own vets at Massey in 1967 new practices have sprung up all over the place. Christchurch now has 14 veterinary clinics, about double the number of five or six years ago. "Ten or 15 years ago.” Corin Murfitt says,

"people would put down a dog or cat that had a broken leg, and they would probably do it themselves. Today, they take it to the vet for treatment. People are more educated io veterinary science, and there are more vets around io do the work.” Pet owners are inclined to spare no expense if their animals are ill. but there are limits. Christchurch vets are capable of doing hip replacemnts for arthritic animals, but the operation would cost about $lOOO. None have been done here yet, al though Hans Andersen says he knows of a whole team of pups of one large breed, all with defective hips, which are prospective candidates.

Pet owners expect the same level of treatment for their dogs, cats, and budgies as they would for themselves, but cost can be the determining factor.. “We’ve got to steer a fine line between a good level of service and economic restraint,” Hans Andersen says. “Everything we do is cheaper, generally, than it is for humans — except for dentistry. That’s dearer because an animal needs a general anaesthetic.” ■

But is the expenditure of hundreds of dollars on medical care for nets really justified? “It’s really a question of our lifestyle in a starving world,” Hans Andersen says. “It’s probably better to spend the money on animals than on cars, etc. It’s really very staggering the relationships that form between people and their pets.”

Charges seem high, but Corin Murfitt says the vet has big overheads. “People think that vets’ charges are steep, but we are running the clinic every night, with week-end arid emergency services.

“We have much higher overheads than G.P.s We have to keep drugs on hand, whereas the G.P. sends his patients off ' to? the chemist. And there’s a surgery to be fully equipped, including an X-ray machine.” ’