Animal Care

A SAFE DISTANCE

Mark Newton-Clarke MAVetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

I’m writing this during a rare storm of rain, welcome respite from the record-breaking temperatures that we have all endured recently. The air conditioning in Swan House was very welcome for pets, clients and staff! After the rain, the parched grass will now start to grow again so lawn mowers and strimmers will be dusted off and put back to work after several weeks of laying idle.

A salient reminder that power tools and pets do not go together was made in dramatic fashion just recently and this wasn’t the first time. A devastated owner called us just before closing one Saturday afternoon to say his dog’s foot had been badly injured by a grass strimmer. Using the words ‘hanging off’ focused all our minds but often things are not as bad as they first seem. So we hoped. Unfortunately, in vain in this case. The poor dog had all but one of its metatarsals severed, which are the bones in the foot between the ankle and toes. The owner had not exaggerated. As with many boney injuries, it’s the soft tissues and blood supply that determine the chances of success for any attempt at repair. I will not go into graphic detail about this injury, suffice to say we knew the foot was doomed. Although the old saying ‘no foot, no horse’ is true, luckily for small animals three legs are quite sufficient

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for a good quality of life, providing the remaining limbs are in working order. Our patient that day was a young, slim terrier so the decision to amputate the entire leg was the right one. Although there have been cases of prosthetic limbs being applied to animals, the welfare issue of such a procedure is highly questionable. So poor Terry the Terrier lost his leg due to a tragic accident and I hope all reading this will shut the dogs, the cats and the kids well away when the gardening equipment comes out.

On this theme of ‘garden hazards’ I might as well share a personal story to illustrate another preventable injury. This time it involves a lawn mower, a piece of wood and my left eye (although it could have been anyone or anything’s eye). You may have already guessed the way this is going; a piece of wood was thrown out from under the mower and hit me directly in the eye. Well, not quite directly as luckily for me my blink reflex was just fast enough to prevent an impact on my cornea, my upper eyelid taking the initial force. Not that I knew that at the time, I was too busy staggering around the garden clutching my face. Ballistic injuries to eyes are always painful even if they are non-penetrating and can easily cause blindness. In my case, the high-speed piece of wood caused a pressure wave inside my eye, which of course is full of a liquid (aqueous humour) and a jelly (vitreous humour) with a lens in between. The pressure in the eye is carefully regulated but if this control mechanism fails and the pressure increases, glaucoma results. I’m sure most of you have had your intra-ocular pressures (IOP) checked by the optician, using the clever machine that delivers a puff of air and makes you blink.

We now have our own device to measure cats’ and dogs’ IOPs. It looks like a fat pen and after local anaesthetic is applied to the patient’s eye, the tip of the pen is touched on the cornea and a series of tiny pulses record the eye’s resistance, measuring the internal pressure. Keeping a normal pressure in the eye is essential to preserve the retina, which is super-sensitive to any increase. Sudden pressure increases in the eye, as in my case, are more likely to damage the iris and the lens and can even cause the sclera (the tough white of the eye) to rupture. All this was going through my mind as I struggled to examine myself in the mirror! Serious damage to the iris causes bleeding into the eye and this is visible through the cornea; I was relieved to see my iris was intact and responsive to light and no blood was present. Bleeding under the conjunctiva is another common finding after trauma and it produces a bloodshot sclera, dramatic but not too serious.

Happy to report that I avoided structural damage to my eye that day but it took two weeks of treatment before it stopped hurting. I will be wearing safety glasses in future that will protect me but remember who else is in range of flying debris, be they cat, dog or human. This incident took place a week after I broke a rib, again in the garden, prompting a friend to remark that I seem to have elevated gardening to an extreme and dangerous sport. So take care out there everyone!

Animal Care

BLOWFLY STRIKE IN SHEEP

Dr Antonia Leech BVMSci (Hons), fCMgr, ACMI MRCVS, The Kingston Veterinary Group

It is estimated that around 80% of sheep flocks around the UK suffer from one or more cases of blowflies every year. Typically known as flystrike; greenbottle, blackbottle and bluebottle flies lay eggs on the skin of sheep which in turn hatch into maggots. The maggots feed voraciously and secrete enzymes which cause skin and muscle damage. Secondary blowflies are attracted by the smell of decomposing tissue. Toxins released by damaged tissues are absorbed into the sheep’s bloodstream causing illness and death in severe cases. Secondary bacterial infections are common and may also cause death if untreated. The recent hot weather and humidity are prime conditions for the flies to thrive, especially when there is rain. It is the law for keepers of sheep to check on their animals daily in these high-risk periods. It is therefore crucial to check them thoroughly for signs of flystrike as well as other illnesses. Flystrike is a major welfare concern and if not intervened with quickly can cause huge suffering.

Blowflies are typically attracted to sheep with soiled fleece around the tail and back legs. Areas they are also attracted to are wounds, foot-rot lesions, urine scalding but also sometimes the shoulders where the fleece is wet due to rain.

Unless you observe your sheep very closely, you will probably not notice flystrike until it is causing your sheep discomfort. The key signs to look for are: •Sheep nibbling at their skin, fidgeting, stamping their feet and shaking their tail •Fleece appearing a darker colour and smelling foul - this may be discharge from the wound •Wool loss •Visible sores on the body, typically around their back end, by their tail •Inappetence, dullness and depression •Maggots present upon parting the fleece •Isolating away from the flock •Death

Diagnosis of these signs is done solely by inspecting the lesions. Large numbers of adult flies are seen on the discoloured fleece with maggots visible on the blackened skin once the surrounding fleece has been lifted. There is an associated putrid smell.

Treatment of the individual sheep involves the physical removal of maggots and contaminated fleece, then cleaning and disinfecting the wounds. Use a flystrike treatment preparation (e.g. deltamethrin or cypermethrin as an active ingredient) as instructed on the label around the affected area. Supportive treatment such as fluids, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories under direction from your vet can be used, especially if the skin appears broken, a secondary infection is present or the flystrike is more advanced where the animal is very uncomfortable.

Flystrike is easily preventable and requires regular checking of sheep and a proactive approach during at-risk periods. You can also shear or dag (remove dirty fleece around their back end) from early April as the weather starts to warm. By docking lambs’ tails after they are born, tails are less likely to get contaminated by faeces and therefore attract fewer flies. In order to prevent huge faecal contamination of sheep, it is important to take faecal egg counts and worm them appropriately to prevent diarrhoea. Fly control methods, such as trapping flies, can reduce the overall fly population and it is important to treat all wounds and foot-rot lesions promptly so that fewer flies are attracted to them. And most importantly, you should use a pre-emptive chemical fly prevention treatment before the challenges arise.

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