Monday 29 June 2009

The "Smallies"

I do not like rabbits or hamsters well dislike is probably to strong a word for rabbits they just do not rock my boat. Hamsters are just happy not to be bugged. I love guinea pigs.

Guinea Pigs are happy little souls. They live in groups, squeak chat to each other, are pleased to see you and whistle greetings when you go over to join in or cuddle and chat to them and generally they do not get ill.

Hamsters are evil little sods, my fingers have bled to much from their chisel teeth taking chunks from them to have any love of them. I had them as a kid and they were never friendly, came out at night and just wanted to be left alone. I know someone that used to breed and sell hamsters. She would put a male and female in with each other and stand there with 2 plastic mugs. If they were not ready to mate or as soon as they ended mating she would "wap" the mugs over them or they would try and kill each other.

Rabbits are neurotic. The only noise they make is the odd scream if scared or hurt and then they have to have extreme stress to make a noise.
They get gut stasis at the drop of a hat, if you look sideways at them, if the dog 3 doors down farted 2 days before, any excuse really they get gut stasis.
Then you have to try and syringe feed them every hour 24 hours a day give or take a couple of hours for you and them to recover. This goes over several days till they are eating and passing faeces again.
Most hate this and spit 99.9% of food out so you have to try and get extra in. Not helped as the very finely ground food insists in blocking in the syringe which you need to keep poking free with a needle. Most rabbits try and kick you and some take chunks out of your fingers.

They have catheters in their ears and you have to give them bolus of fluids as they are not drinking, again same as the food regime. The problem is the ear catheters are so fine even if flushed with hepflush (anti clot drug) they clog and so you have to swop ears every so often or when the ears buggar up totally give the bolus under the skin which can hurt.

Rabbits teeth are a nightmare, they are always growing and they do not get fed properly. The best food for rabbits is their more natural one, lot’s of hay and wild grasses and plants, a few brassicas and some pellets.
This is rarely the way they are fed, instead owners get the bags of yummy mixed rabbit feed, this rabbits pick at like kids taking their favourite sweets. Some people have started to feed rabbit pellets which is all the mixed food ground down and made into a brown pellet. Rabbits have 10,000 taste buds in their mouth so can be fussy.
This bad diet pellet or mix does not grind the teeth down. They are given fancy wood to chew and other gimmicks… just feed proper diet. However this is so boring against what is on offer in the pet shops…init!.

The teeth grow and push the jaw out of line causing pain, or spurs form on the back molars and cut into the gums so the rabbit stops eating in pain. They have their teeth burred down and then they often get gut stasis through stress. Some rabbits need the extreme dental of having their front teeth removed. This does not guarantee that no more teeth will come through.

The other problem in uk is that the stock that in the wild which would die as their teeth are misaligned so the animal can not eat in UK these have teeth burred and are used to breed these are sold on and you end up on a merry tooth wheel of trouble for the poor bunny.

And as for abscesses these are a speciality of rabbits, generally in the head area from teeth and are a nightmare to try and get rid of. Longest running one l know of was 16months and counting. As l was a locum at the practice, for all l know the abscess is still being treated. The vets kept advising it wasn’t fair but the owners refused to listen.

Give me a cute squeaky guinea pig rather than an obnoxious hamster or neurotic bunny any day. This out burst was caused from 3 nights of hands ripped to bits from 2 bunnies with gut stasis.

Saturday 27 June 2009

The Squeaky Pocket

The RSPCA ACO (animal collection officer) brought in a little stray puppy with parvo the other night. While he was holding it to be put down the ACO’s pocket was squeaking.

It wasn’t a rabid hamster as l was wondering. No don’t know why l decided rabid hamster just one of those vague thoughts l am prone to. What the squeak belonged to was probably a baby weasel, probably, because at that age several species look alike.

A family had found him the day before, popped him in a box and covered the box. It took them 24 hours to ring RSPCA but luckily the little mite was still alive. I do despair of where people brains leak to at times, still at least they got help for it…in time!

I grabbed some cimicat milk as an emergency feed for him. After a drink from the front end and a pee from the back he was popped back into the ACO’s pocket to have a sleep. His new life to grow up and rehab back to the wild would start the next day at Stapeley Grange the RSPCA NW wildlife section.





Wednesday 24 June 2009

Poaching in Africa

I have a small website for x-pats and zimbos. One of the members who passed on from cancer not long ago put up a series of articles on animals and nature and l thought l would put some of them up here.
The author, Tony Seward, stated in a conversation we had some time ago he did not mind my using the articles to get the stories out to people or they would be lost.

Tony served in the BSAP (British South Africa Police) in what was Rhodesia.

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The snaring of Giraffe - Nuanetsi 1970
by Anthony Seward (C)

One of the most serious cases of snaring dealt with by me was whilst stationed at Nuanetsi.
Following a reported snaring of a Giraffe along the North bank of the Nuanetsi River some distance from the station I led an investigation team to the scene.
It was a pathetic and sad sight when we found a fully-grown male Giraffe hanging in a snare from a tall Mopani tree.

Scouts were sent off in various directions and within a couple of hours had found a further seven Giraffe which had met a similar fate at the hands of this ruthless poacher.
Determined to catch the criminal we re-enforced our team and ambushed two of the carcasses.
The following morning my constables arrested two accused who had approached the carcass of one of the Giraffe with a bevy of females carrying several sacks. They also carried a variety of knives and it was obvious that they were the accused and were about to cut the carcass up and carry away the meat.

We arrested the whole group and the accused were charged with eight counts of poaching with snares and received heavy prison sentences from Magistrate Rod Woodrow who had come up from Beit Bridge to take these and other cases.

It was the worst case of snaring I had encountered during my twenty five years service in he police.
We estimated that given the size of the Giraffe it would have been impossible for the group to have cut up more than one of the poor animals. The rest would have been left to rot where they hung.

Such is the poaching in Africa and I wonder what the situation is now a days with starvation facing the populations surrounding the ranches, farms and game areas of the country.

Monday 22 June 2009

Attacks on Veterinary Staff

Having a peruse of a veterinary nursing site l go on l was shocked to read about a student veterinary nurse, getting assaulted at work. I do not know what practice or where in the UK it is only that it is apparently a small branch surgery. That narrows it down to a few thousand places then.

A client who has mental health issues flung her into a door as a result she is on pain medication, very sore and scared and her state of mind is so demoralised she will be heading for depression and has no work support at all.
It is one thing to get assaulted at work, quite another when your boss not only doesn’t stick up for you but starts to make noises that they feel she may need to leave if she doesn’t feel safe working at that particular branch she obviously “isn’t up to the job”, she has a day or so to decide if she will “behave” and “feel safe”.

Her co-worker is furious that she is pressing charges as the woman is mentally disturbed and should be cut some slack, obviously the woman should be allowed to bash people around.
Apparently the client has a history of verbal abuse and “behaving strangely” but no one had put any warnings on her record and they sent the new student VN (been there a few days) out to deal with her and did not warn her verbally about possible danger despite the other staff knowing the client.

The customer has been back in to threaten the student VN and the student’s co-worker sent the student out the back and spoke to the woman. She assured the woman all charges would be dropped. I understand the student when informed afterwards said no way.

The student is scared, emotionally wrecked and physically painful but determined to make a go of it. Training places are like hens teeth they have her over a barrel, if she leaves it will probably be a long time before she can get into another training practice in her area. Added to that in this age of job losses she can not guarantee getting any job anywhere.

On the thread of sympathy to the student and anger and outrage towards whoever her practice manager/owner is that to the student’s knowledge nothing had gone into the accident book or been reported to RIDDOR. As you can guess both of those were high priorities for her to help cover her back. It turns out that until she asked for it to go into the accident book thanks to many site members advising her there was no accident book.

There are not many physical assaults on veterinary staff but there is a lot of verbal abuse towards us. Us being veterinary nurses, receptionists, students etc. Not so much verbal abuse to vets.
The attitude from the management in the post above regarding staff security is not untypical in the veterinary world though where all too often staff are seen as expendable and not worth protecting.

Weekend Relaxation

Had a nice weekend away at the braai where l did not clean any loos but did a lot of running around, fetching and carrying.
The campsite Beechwood is very relaxing with lots of trees all over it, they provide a nice dappled shade in the sun, when the sun appears that is. There is fishing ponds for those into fishing and you can either camp or hire one of their log cabins. A small onsite shop has bits that are needed.

Heard the unheard of comment that one of the members about his Labrador that is very sweet and a dustbins on legs (as are all Labrador's). She was so stuffed with food she refused her breakfast Sunday morning. On the Saturday during the pig roast she munched on slices that she was given by the cook, one for the plate one for Judy.
Lengths of biltong (dried meat) that she nicked from the butcher for which she did a spell of “jail term” on her dog lead.

The Morning After the First Night


Setting up the Pig


Roasting Well


People Arrivng, We Took Over 3 Fields

Thursday 18 June 2009

The Stray


I am going away till late Sunday night. There is a fundraising braai down derby way for the Zimbabwe/Rhodesian group. I somehow landed toilet and environmental so l go down tonight to help with setting up.

I write a bit of poetry and thought l would post some of the poems every so often, l wrote this a few years ago. I left the type of animal and sex out deliberately. All too often people walk past averting eyes as they do with humans but the stray can not talk or beg often they are in a lot of pain and/or totally debilitated. By the time they get to the vet it’s to late to do anything. This is my quiet honour to all strays that end up suffering whether it is just from being lost, lonely and hungry to being in extreme pain.

THE STRAY

Eyes full of sadness
Hope has left,
Hunger gnaws the belly
And pain cries from the body.

Yet in that hell, is left a trust.
That the next human along
Will reach and not cuss.

The touch is gentle
A soft caress,
A whispered goodbye
And slowly you die.

Life has gone,
Pain and sorrow too,
Now peace your soul will find
Rest…you deserve it friend

© CL VN 6/7/03

Wednesday 17 June 2009

I Won

Well have to say had a really good day. It was all about cats today and renal failure all morning then urinary tract disease all afternoon. Hills arranged the roadshow and had some new info coming out from a group called IRIS They have some good links if your dog or cat has renal failure.
Course notes are top notch full colour and in a thick book. All to often if you get notes you just get a few photo copied pages.

I met several people l knew which always cheers the day up being able to catch up on gossip from the different practices. K asked if l was not taking my shoes to lunch, l assured her l was and pointed at my bag where they were hiding. She shook her head in despair. Lovely lass she does a fantastic impression of a drunken sheep, all she says is Baaaaaa and everyone falls over laughing. K has a fantastic temperament and is always happy and looks slightly insane. You know the big yellow happy faces well put a slight buck tooth there and l swear she was their model.

We had croissants and coffee on arrival and ermm l had 4 croissants. Mid morning had doughnuts cut in half so l didn't get to greedy just 1/2 and loaded the sliced fruit they had out... grapes, kiwi fruit and strawberry's.
Lunch was a choice so l had lasagne, chips then buffet and as l was at the back of the line everyone had only taken a bit to make sure there was enough left, there was tons. So l pigged on smoked salmon, roast beef, mayonnaise spuds, bit of salad popadum and pickled gherkins. Desert was cheesecake and thick cream.
Mid afternoon was a thick flapjack but l only managed a nibble. I over did lunch and the sweets on the table that l nibbled on during the talk. Well they left them out for us and l raided the sweetie bowl on our table post talk, so have a big horde of humbugs at home.
I rang hub to say l was on the way and never thought to mention l had eaten. I got back to a big dinner. When l said l had eaten he made me feel so guilty l ate dinner and have spent the evening sucking antacids and feeling ill.

The best part of the day was that l won the first name out the hat, l never win all l could say was "That's me it can't be me, l mean you made a mistake wow me"!!!.
It was a book from Cat Professional on Lower Urinary Tract Disease. Given the amount that we deal with at the emergency clinic it is a very useful book.
The great thing about this site is aimed at owners and professionals that the publications are downloadable if you live overseas. They also have several free articles which look good.

Greens and CPD

I understand that the reason the green party did not get more votes in the election just held was discovered.....................................

The voters kept putting their ballot papers into the recycle bin!

And on that note l am off for a day CPD on offer from Hills pet food on "Renal failure in cats" or something like that l have an idea it is also about "FUS" (cats with blocked bladders).
I finally get to meet one of the nurses off the big vetnurse site, we have spoken to each other on various occasions but never met, only about 400 other regulars off the site to meet.
I shall scandalise the local yokels as l will be barefoot, l find that comfier. Shall shove my shoes into my handbag in case l need them although am not sure why l would in the hotel?

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Puppies, Kids and Cancer

There has been a news story out about some 4year old that flushed a one week old cocker spaniel puppy down the drain after it got dirty “playing in the garden”.

Having seen the story on the news the question first hits the brain:

WTF was a 4 year old or any child doing taking a one week old puppy away from the mother to “play” with it in the garden.
There is the matter of leaving a child unsupervised with animals. No matter how child friendly the mother is there is still a chance of her getting upset, taking a bite and then she will be destroyed as dangerous for protecting her young. And of course the danger to the puppy as witnessed by the unfolding flushing.

Why did the puppy have a collar on. Someone as mentally challenged to allow an unsupervised 4year old to take the puppy as a plaything is stupid enough to put a collar on a puppy of that age. It’s litter mates stand a chance of getting legs and jaws caught and damaged. They wont notice that the puppy’s (yes all shown in the shot had one on) are growing and will probably start to choke as the collar get’s tighter and tighter.

And finally l was sitting some distance from the TV and didn’t have my glasses on but what l saw did not look like a cocker spaniel. That though is immaterial.

Sometimes human stupidity overwhelms, but think of all that money she can now ask for "The puppies that have been on TV"

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On a positive note:

AB Science, a young Paris-based biotech company, has announced the pan-European commercial launch of its veterinary anticancer drug, Masivet

Masivet was approved in November 2008 by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for the treatment of dogs with non-resectable grade 2 or 3 mast cell tumours. Masivet's active pharmaceutical ingredient is masitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Masitinib, discovered and developed by AB Science, belongs to a therapeutic class of drug known as targeted therapy that is, according to AB Science, revolutionising the treatment of cancer in humans.

Alain Moussy, CEO of AB Science said: "Masivet is the first product ever registered as a cancer treatment in veterinary medicine. AB Science is a dynamic and very entrepreneurial biotech company, and is proud to have introduced a drug that can extend the life of dogs suffering from cancer ahead of the large pharmaceutical companies".

The company says Mastocytoma can be an aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis, and represents up to 20% of all cutaneous canine tumours. Some breeds are particularly susceptible, among them Golden Retrievers, Labradors and Boxers. Cancers have the same prevalence in dogs as in humans (1 dog in 4 will suffer from cancer during its lifetime) but surprisingly, no drugs developed for veterinary medicine with a demonstrated efficacy and safety have ever been approved until the arrival of Masivet.

The company claims two main benefits of the new treatment:
Masivet increases the survival rate of dogs suffering from mast cell tumours
Masivet demonstrated efficacy and safety with a placebo controlled study involving 202 dogs in Europe and the USA. The median survival time of dogs treated with Masivet was increased by 300 days in comparison to the placebo. After 2 years of treatment, the survival rate in dogs treated with Masivet was 2.5 times that of the dogs receiving the placebo (40% versus 15%). Efficacy was also demonstrated in the ability of Masivet to prevent the progression of the tumours (an average gain of 100 days).

Mr Malcolm Brearley, Principal Clinical Oncologist at The Queen's Veterinary School Hospital at the University of Cambridge said: "The launch of Masivet is a major breakthrough in cancer and paves the way for an exciting period of new development of targeted therapies, used alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy. Masivet is able not only to increase the survival of dogs with cancer but also to improve their quality of life, which is after all the ultimate goal of any treatment against cancer and offers tremendous value for the pet's owner".

Masivet is a user-friendly anticancer drug
Unlike chemotherapies, Masivet is delivered orally in tablet form and can be administered everyday directly by the owner, albeit under strict monitoring from the veterinarian. Masivet is available on prescription at two doses (50 or 150mg) in bottles of 30 tablets.

AB Science is a biotech company specialising in developing targeted drugs for high need indications, such as cancers, chronic inflammatory diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Masitinib is the most advanced drug in the pipeline. Now being marketed in veterinary medicine, masitinib is also under development in humans, with phase 3 clinical studies in pancreatic cancer and in gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST).

Alain Moussy said: "This registration in veterinary medicine is good news for the future success of masitinib in humans, for whom we are aggressively developing it in cancers and other indications with high morbidity or pain.

"It is very unusual to develop such an innovative product simultaneously in veterinary and human medicines, and even more so that the product is registered in veterinary medicine first. There is no doubt that experts in human oncology will be watching Masivet's future very closely from now on.. However, people will have to wait a while before benefiting from masitinib because it is unlikely to be available to man before 2012".

There is a European and USA version (different names same medication)

Sunday 14 June 2009

Pamper Day

Well my Dad is out of the hospital and now in respite care. He has been there just over a week. At the place he is at they can spend up to 6 weeks on rehab. He is very weak and is trying to build his strength up. So he can for instance stand up on his own again and walk round. Once up he can get about a bit but not to far as his legs are “wobbly”.
His tum is still not 100% but hopefully that will sort it’s self out.

The other good thing is visiting times. The hospital was only 19:00-20:00 and if you were lucky you got in at 19:10. As they had such measly visiting you would think that they would go all out to make sure relatives got the full hour, no chance.
As l work so many nights l was able to get special visiting permission for when l was doing nights so that helped a bit otherwise l would never have seen my Dad.
At the home we can visit at all sorts of times and spoilt for choice. They only ask for no visiting during mealtimes which is fair enough.

I have been in touch with a group of carers so that my mum can meet others who look after family/friends and we sent to a meeting the other day. It was not the best of days to go for a first one as it was their mini fair for carers with all sorts of help stands there.
Met some friends of my Mums from Age Concern who asked if my mum was going to the pamper day. I said yes (got bleak looks from my mum) but l wasn’t sure where it was. We all got ourselves confused as there was 2 lots of pamper days running on the same day, different groups. I had booked into a rival one. The upshot was l was also asked as there was some spare spaces did l want a treatment so l said go ahead.

So the next day we trotted off to the club it was held at and l had a face and head massage and my mum a neck and face massage. Not sure how mum liked, she has not had a massage before but think she enjoyed it and l thoroughly enjoyed it. I got home and fell fast asleep. Mind you as l had done 2 nights of end work at 03:30 and get up for 10am as well as the 4 other nights of 22:- 08 l was probably ready for a sleep.

Apparently there is some more pamper days coming up so l will try and at least get my mum onto them. It is great for carers as there is no charge. The 2 lasses doing it were from the local hair and beauty college and were trainee teachers. So everyone wins. Carers get a lovely pamper and the college gets to help the community.

I did not contact the other group about their pamper day. When l had rung for directions a few days before the bloke l spoke to was very rude. I said l was dropping my mum off and he kept telling me it was only for carers. I told him about 4 times my mum WAS the carer l was just the driver, but he wasn’t listening. In the end l lost my temper with him. Snarled that my father was in hospital my mother was his carer l was just the sodding driver and a few other comments, I may have penetrated his only brain cell as he gave me directions. I slammed the phone down without thanking him. But with that attitude l did not feel obliged to let them know we weren’t going.

Thursday 11 June 2009

Furry Exocet

Furry Exocet's AKA Police Dogs. You are big strong and when you walk into a room it doesn't matter if your partner is the worlds greatest sex god/goddess you are the one every stops doing whatever they are doing and looks at.

You work with smaller cousins who are like little fire crackers going off called springer spaniels, generally sweet tempered but can be slightly ditzy. You are the heavy duty dignified brigade.

So when you go into the vet's to have a vaccination what happens to your dignity courage, that tough dog exterior. All the vet did was lift a big fold of skin on your neck so he could give you a little injection. You have hammered it more jumping in and out of vans, over walls and being pushed and pulled about by life. The vet advanced his hand holding a syringe with a small very sharp needle on and you went to pieces. He got to about 6" of your neck and you started to scream in terror. Your partner tried to hold you but you preceded to do the "doggie break dance"

Scream in terror and fling yourself down onto your back on the assumption that what is really about to happen is someone is going to hammer a 9" hole in your back with a blunt pickaxe. Push yourself across the floor as best you can lying on your side/back... screaming, realise that your handlers arm is now not holding you and he is rubbing it. You stop leap up and kiss everyone you also kiss the evil vet(who is actually very sweet).

Round 2 firmer grip from your partner and evil vet moves in nervously. Start to scream again and leap upwards launching in a spectacular leap that smacks into the vetnurse and mashes her into the wall, quick lick in apology in passing, or was that just a tongue lolling out mid scream. Hauled back by handler and start to shake and try to run in a circle.... screaming. All stops while everyone gathers their breath. Everyone gets sloppy kissy licks and you bark happily to tell all the dogs that you have survived.

Round 3 start to get the hang of tying it all together now. Scream so no one can hear anything, fling on you back and push in a circle with hind legs attempting to trip up whoever is daft enough to have their feet there, leap up and outwards in one movement but get hauled backwards. Spin to face evil vet and walk backwards. Continue screaming no snarling as that would not be nice. Evil vet with syringe and tiny but sharp needle is becoming very unnerved. Ignore comments from bystanders and hysterical laughter and rude comments from vetnurse at wussy behaviour - vetnurse is not the one being threatened by a needle!. Break free from partners grip and try to run away but get grabbed. All break as human and furry exocet are becoming fragile.

While all having a rethink on tactics all round vetnurse suggests a muzzle as evil vet is now not happy to come to close even though you never threatened him once. Muzzle placed and white flag is raised. You lie there eyes almost closed and very tense groaning and shaking. It takes 2 goes of your partner asking "Well are you getting up or what?" to realise that you missed the injection going in and it was all over and the muzzle was being removed.

Then a quick sloppy lick to all in reach including the evil vet who is now back to being a good buddy vet. Then back to barking happily to continue the conversation with the dog with the broken leg who is giving you the story of what happened to him, and you think a vaccination is tough.

Monday 8 June 2009

Many Thanks..

I would like to thank Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers for awarding my blog an award called "I Love Your Blog".
Fi is a vet in New Zealand who has stepped sideways into vetnurse training, as well as being a busy gran. The award has brightened my week up a lot many thanks Fi.

Sunday 7 June 2009

More Blood, More Sweat and More Tea.

I am mid a load of night shifts at the moment l still wonder why l keep saying l will do them, then l go ahead and agree to do a load more. I guess it is the joy of being self employed. At the moment work is hard and there is a lot of nights for me so needs must, even so 9 years odd of nights is more than enough for anyone sane or insane.

Still that is enough moaning for now, I go onto Tom Reynolds blog Random Acts of Reality most days. Well worth the read about his work and life as an E.M.T. with the London Ambulance service. It was Tom who gave me to push to do my own blog so l am happy to put his book up.

His original book "Blood, Sweat and Tea" is available as a hard copy from his site or via Amazon

If you click on his book below you are then able to read it online just follow the icons

Thursday 4 June 2009

Gas Bottle Danger

My dislike of health and safety is probably extreme, but l feel that they have made the world more dangerous to live in, they have taken away especailly younger people ability to think for themselves and have made people think that there is a reason for every “accident” and someone is to blame and it could have been stopped.
Finally when you have a genuine reason to need them or the laws they control they run a bloody mile.

A few years ago at about 23:00 we heard a loud hissing sound and looked all round still nothing. It seemed to be coming from outside. We went out and l realised that it was from the other side of the road behind us. One of the residents parked his work lorry there every night and he had about 3 size E (weight 108kg of which 47kg is propane) propane bottles tied upright on the back as well as a selection of other gasses including several size F oxygen bottles (1360litres/17kg) and other smaller cutting and welding gasses. At least one of the propane bottles was wide open and hissing out. By the look of things some scroat had decided to be clever and have some fun.

I sent the aux in to ring the fire brigade asap and tell them and we debated what to do next. This was a very scary situation all it needed was someone coming past smoking and we would be history, about 20 foot away from the propane was our O2 and nitrous cage which held a further 15 large (f) bottles of oxygen and about 2 big of nitrous. Not much would have been left of the area.

Did we go and try to turn it off, hammer on doors till we found the driver or what. Luckily he heard and came out and turned it off. By this point it had been open about 10 to 15 minutes, about 2 mins before the fire brigade turned up. They had a chat and then drove off.

The next night the lorry was back as usual and l “blew my stack”. I did some research and rang a friend of mine at fire training. He confirmed that the lorry shouldn’t be parked there and needed to be in a secure area. He said he could get the fire brigade round to get him to move it but as l said “Sorry but you have no teeth you can only ask nicely” he did agree and suggested the police.
So l rang the police who said they could do nothing. Despite the fact it was on a public road.
I carefully read what l could find (google) of gas storage rules and the heath and safety site for the UK and rang up the main Manchester branch they said they would look into it.

They rang me back and said that they could do nothing without photos and a written statement, so l took photos of the parking, wrote a statement and sent it in.
Phone call back could they show it to the company that owned the vehicle sure if it means they shift it. I said that if they did not shift it they should make a lockable cage top for the cylinders so no one could turn them on as had been done.

At this point l used to go into the yahoo chat rooms a lot and by chance got talking to a long distance lorry driver that did a lot of dangerous goods haulage. He was furious when he heard and agreed that it contravened a lot of laws and regulations and gave me the names and dates of them

Health and safety called back a few days later. As far as everyone was concerned it was me with the problem, all was safe and to stop hounding some little business, the driver needed it for work. I pointed out that it contravened UK and EU own laws and rules that they had on their site including a whole lot of laws and regulations l had found out elsewhere.” Ermm what laws”. I told them, As you guessed … they would phone back..

They phoned back and said, no it doesn’t break any regulations or laws, I made the point it very much did and when the whole area went up then as far as l was concerned they would be done for murder as l made sure that everyone knew and l would go to the papers next so residents knew just how dangerous the situation was. I then informed the cretin on the phone that “He and his health and safely team were the biggest bunch of bureaucratic arseholes since bureaucratic arseholes were invented”
“I take it you do not like us then?” was the reply.
I just put the phone down there was nothing more to be said.

I spoke to my friend the lorry driver again. He said he had a phone number that he shouldn’t give me but under the circumstances l needed to because the situation was so dangerous. The phone number was a pvt line for a judge who had been involved in some of the major enquires for new roads. I rang the judge and they were very pleasant, considering some total stranger had rung them, fuming about what was happening and the lack of help.
They asked for statement, photos, who l had spoken to and all that had gone on. That from the sounds of things it needed looking into. To leave it with them, once they got all my info they would “look into it”.
Within the week the lorry was parked about 15 yards away on a bit of private dirt road, but only about 5 yards off the main road.

About a week later I got a phone call from the judge to see if things had improved. I explained what had happened that l was not happy as from what l could see they tried to use the excuse they were not on a public road so the law did not apply.
You do not piss off a judge, especially not one with a lot of pull. That lorry was never seen on the dirt or public road from that night on, it was parked it in a locked yard at the end of the dirt road.

The judge did not ring back they did not need to.

Tuesday 2 June 2009

The Long Carry

I have written about the dangers of sticks being thrown but in this case it was not a thrown stick that did the damage but a dog off having a good lunatic run and enjoying the summer weather. To be honest you can not blame him as we see so little sun in the UK like all accidents it was one of those things that happens. Oh dear l can hear the hands rub of the health and safely people looking for some reason and way to stop it.

The dog ran into a broken end of branch from a fallen tree. The stick slammed in under his front leg and upwards. His owner had to lift him off the branch as he sensibly froze and screamed for help. She then had a 1 mile walk back to the car carrying the poor lad. I think she was in a worse state of exhaustion when she got to us than the dog with his wound. Reception got her a mug of tea as a first aid measure.

He was very lucky it missed all vital nerves, bones, chest etc and after a very good flush to remove bits of dirt, bark and other debris he only needed sutures and a drain. The drain is called a Penrose drain, it is a hollow thin flexible silicone “straw” and is placed to allow fluid that builds up in certain wounds an escape route; they run down the outside of the tube and drip onto the floor.
If as in this case you can not pull all the muscle across to close the hollow all the way up there is a sort of open hidden space, tissue fluid would form in here and cause problems as it built up hence the penrose drain, then the fluid just causes problems on carpets.