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Tuesday March 28 2017
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Your Local Views Survey aims to protect trees at Riccarton House
&
McMaster Heap
Veterinary practice
Gizmo’s Adventure Gizmo, an 11 year old Ginger tabby from Sydney, presented to Catherine one morning with an acute left hindleg lameness. He wasn’t placing any weight on the leg and seemed in a lot of pain. Catherine suspected a femoral fracture due to his leg swinging and the obvious angulation mid femur. No other injuries were seen. He had normal neurological function. All his nails were scuffed and worn. Most often we see these injuries with road traffic accidents. Blood work the previous week was great. Catherine performed a digital xray to confirm her suspicions and Gizmo was immediately placed on intravenous fluids with pain relief ( a fentanyl CRI) and started on penicillin. A transverse femoral fracture located proximal third femur was diagnosed. His diaphragm was intact, as was his bladder and all his other abdominal organs looked fine. Surgery to repair the fracture or amputation were the only options
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oxygen saturation every 5 minutes during his anaesthetic. All his vital signs were excellent. I placed a large intramedullary pin through the medullary cavity of his femur to reduce the fracture and align the ends of the femur. A single cerclage wire was also placed to create as much stability as possible. Post operative xrays confirmed perfect placement. Now the rest is up to Gizmo. Gizmo was discharged
Riccarton House and Bush manager Shona Willis writes an update on the latest news at the heritage home and garden Following Charles Deans’ retirement as chairman of the Riccarton Bush Trust, Bob Shearing was elected to take his place. Mr Shearing has been a trust board member since 2010 and a very active participant on both the finance and bush and grounds working parties as well as the Riccarton Bush Trust Board. Pippa Ensor has been nominated by the Deans family to represent their interests on the board. Ms Ensor is a sixth-generation Deans and, incidentally, the last child to be christened in the John Deans christening robe which is now on display at Riccarton House. We are currently undertaking a GPS survey of the major trees within Riccarton Bush, namely the
adult kahikatea trees. This is to give us an idea of the numbers, distribution, and health of the adult trees and to aid us in our future maintenance. This survey will eventually extend to other trees within the bush, to give us an overall picture of the species make up and distribution. We are also carrying out a full survey of the major trees within the house grounds; this includes the numbers, distribution, and health of the trees. The survey will help us in creating and maintaining our landscape and development plan, which will incorporate where and when succession trees are to be planted. The majority of Riccarton Bush is covered by an irrigation system fed from
our bore and pump house. We are in the process of extending some of the existing irrigation lines to areas that are devoid of sprinklers, to ensure that the most amount of ground within the bush can be watered when required. The house and café are open from 9am to 4pm daily from Sunday to Monday. We also have 1hr house tours that start at 2pm. For more information phone 341 1018 or go to www.riccartonhouse.co.nz
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available. This fracture couldn’t be left to just heal on its own. The clients were informed of the options – a referral to a specialist orthopaedic surgeon to plate the femur or IM pinning and cerclage wire performed at McMaster & Heap Vet practice. We repeated blood work to make sure Gizmo was still in good health to sustain an anaesthetic. The IM pinning option was adopted. His ongoing arthritic issues would have made losing a hindleg difficult for him to cope with, especially at 11 years old. Dr Michele McMaster performed the surgery within 24 hours of Gizmo being admitted. It is important with this type of injury to get those bone ends realigned as soon as possible. The anaesthetic and surgery went without a hitch. Gizmo was connected to our Cardell monitoring machine. The nurses can record his heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, body core temperature and
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3 days later able to stand and get into his dirt tray, eating up a storm and with the surgical site looking great. He was starting to place the paw when he left here. He will be in a cage for 4-6 weeks to allow as much immobility as possible for fracture healing. I will remove the pin in about 6-8 weeks once the fracture site has calloused and healed. Gizmo will be back weekly for us to check on his progress. A great outcome all around. -Dr Michele McMaster
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