VN September 2020

Vetnuus | September 2020 48 Life plus 20 without parole Mike Lowry Mike Lowry has been in veterinary practice for "life plus 20" years. In this column, he shares his experiences and opinions . Regulars I Life plus 20 Last month’s story was based on people that had affected me and my thoughts. This month I am going to relate some veterinary cases that stand out in my 46 years in private practice. Stop reading now if you have heard them all, but I do think we all have certain cases that will not fade from our memories. Perhaps most of these are where we failed our patients, and some are the successes achieved with or without Providence. One of these cases happened at the Royal Show in Pietermaritzburg many years back. A horse in one of the showjumping competitions attempted to take the jump despite being too close and late to the approach. Instead of refusing he jumped at a severe angle to the jump and ended up impaled on the upright. The upright was a pole of about 50 to 75 mm in diameter and this went up into his groin. When I got to him, he was still impaled, sweating profusely and obviously in shock. There were obvious risks in attempting to remove the offending pole – the femoral artery was right there! We decided to reduce the length of the pole by cutting it off. This helped greatly and with caution he was loaded and transported to my hospital. There he was given a general anesthetic; supportive therapy and the pole was removed thankfully without any further apparent damage. I could put my arm up unto the wound as far as the elbow and this enabled me to determine the condition of the surrounding tissues – the femoral artery was intact as was the inguinal canal and abdominal muscle. The pole had obviously followed the path of least resistance and not damaged anything. The wound was left as an open wound and supportive therapy was administered until seepage had stopped. All healed well and the horse was discharged. The following year he again competed at the Royal Show but this time without incident. The next outstanding memory was of a highly bred colt that had injured himself very badly by running into a gate. The colt was about 8 months old, very well grown and extremely boisterous. The owner of the practice had spent a considerable amount of time stitching up on a Saturday afternoon. By Wednesday the next week the entire wound had dehisced and looked terrible. A lengthy discussion followed as to whether he should be put down as it was thought to be a hopeless case. I believed differently and took it on. There was no point in attempting to stitch the wound and it was treated as an open wound. Fortunately, the owner had a very capable and committed stable hand who cleaned the wound twice daily with a salt solution and then applied a shirt to prevent flies and dirt getting at it. Four months later healing was complete and only a tiny scar was evident with a slight roll of the skin. This horse went on to be a successful steeple chaser in England, winning many of the races he was entered in. The third case that stands out in my memory is that of a huge male crocodile, Henry. I had been drawn into the crocodile industry by default more than desire when one of the public companies I consulted for decided to diversify into the crocodile business. Henry had been caught in the Okavango and brought in as the dominant male. He must have weighed close to three quarters of a ton. At this stage the entire industry was an unknown quantity and Dr JimWiltbank, a prominent cattleman from the USA when spending time with me said after a visit to the one farm that he would be prepared to give up his entire practice if given the opportunity to run the croc farm – everything was so new and fresh with such challenges. >>> 49