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Cassie was a wolfhound –
A case history by Chris Day From the archives • Winter 2006 mag
What solutions? Obesity diets, of course. When in a hole, keep digging! As if there was any doubt on the issue, it’s a diet-related problem, in humans and animals (apart from those with special medical causes).
Of course, exercise plays a part. How reassuring that we had to have a research team tell us all this, last week – at what cost? Those Barbary Apes illustrate it as well as anyone could. At the shop, they fight over scraps of human junk food. Cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets and ice cream make up a large proportion of their diet. What people don’t ‘accidentally’ drop (you’re forbidden to feed the apes), the fellers source themselves, from overturned rubbish bins. How nice it is to work free from vested interest in sales. How great to have confirmation from nature that we’ve got somewhere near the truth, with our aversion to manufactured foods.
Long ago, when I ran a ‘real’ practice, with five vets, we used to charge sensible, time-based fees, relying on work for our income. Sales were not profitable, as our mark-up was pathetic. That gave a
real incentive to provide a professional service, that clients would want to seek again, independent of sales.
Clients wouldn’t have to worry about whether we had recommended a certain treatment on the basis of anticipated profitable sales. We were free of that temptation. Medicine sales were not an essential part of profitability, so who cared whether a client bought from us or sought a prescription? However, I’ve nothing against being rich. Anyone interested in investing in a new commercial venture? I have this urge to market ‘Chris’s Really Appropriate Petfood’. It should sell as well as all the other cr*p out there!
IIt was a lovely day here, on Monday, at the end of February (apart from that b. wind!) and nothing was going to spoil the feel-good air about the place. The 3rd patient of the day was a yearling Wolfhound with a very nasty back problem, brought to me by a lovely couple, whom I’d first met in June 2001. They were here because Cassie, (from 2001) had been such a success (one visit only) and they were very keen that I should report her case. They brought before/after photos, to help in this quest. Cassie’s vet history was the sort of wadge of notes, reports and bills that tends to make one groan at the sight of it. Among these was getting on for a £1,000 sum from the AHT. The file has gathered dust in our filing system these 4_ yrs, unremarked because of the terrible events that swallowed my 2001, of which nothing more to be said in this item.
There was a weeping skin lesion over the entire ventral throat area, seborrhoeic, red, rugated, sore and very itchy. It had been going on for 18 months, at least and was described as a ‘bacterial infection new to the vet’. Surprisingly (not), steroids and antibiotics had achieved reasonable clearance on each occasion, only for it to come back in spades. The owner said the only thing that had properly helped to an extent was the Sulphur she had home- prescribed. The picture was a Sulphur one. I decided on Morgan, not least because of the
‘fire & brimstone’ appearance, the itch and the positive effects of Sulphur. The history became history, in a surprisingly short time. By 31st July, reported as ‘tiny bit flaky on throat – all seems to have settled down now and more or less 100%’. There was a wheat-triggered flare- up in May 2002, which settled with a repeat dose for a few days.
Nothing did spoil that lovely Monday and the good lesson of the day was the vivid reminder of the sycotic element of Sulphur.
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