Friday 14 November 2008
EVERYONE who attended the copper toxicosis seminar couldn’t fail to be impressed by the wealth of experience and expertise of the speakers Prof Mike Herrtage, who spoke on the history of copper toxicosis from a vet’s perspective, Dr Susan Haywood, who covered the pathological perspective, and Dr Cathryn Mellersh, who explained the genetic side of the matter.
The seminar was chaired by David Cavill, who introduced the speakers and made a number of pertinent observations and comments himself. I’ll refrain from making any further comments here as the health group is drafting a full report to be included on its website and it may be possible to include that report in the notes in due course.
One of the biggest surprises – and rather a disappointment – was the number of owners who were not in attendance, some of them prolific breeders of the Bedlington Terrier and some who had been quite vociferous in their call for such a seminar. Thanks though to the crew who organised the seminar which included health group members and the Midland BTC. Besides the talks they had also arranged a good raffle which raised £100 for the health group. As a bonus, the buffet lunch was excellent.
A couple of intended delegates sent their apologies at the last minutes, one of whom was Sylvia Morrice, as she had been struck with what was thought to be a bad bout of food poisoning but which turned out to be appendicitis. On Monday Sylvia was whisked off to hospital where they wasted no time in removing her appendix and she is now back home and making a good recovery. Bit of a scare at the time, though, and our best wishes to Sylvia for a speedy recovery.
Nothing much to note from recent shows but with Discover Dogs being held in London last weekend, perhaps we can expect some news from there shortly. Puppy enquiries seem to be growing again, as usual most people are looking for blue bitch puppies so if you do have anything not already spoken for, please let the breed clubs’ puppy registers know.
I hope everyone’s dogs survived bonfire night without too much trauma – our own are very laid back about the whole affair and no-one so much as raises an eyebrow when even the most enormous bangs, crashes and flashes happen, but I know there are a good many who do get really frightened and distressed. Here’s hoping it wasn’t too bad for them all this year.
VIV RAINSBURY, 01493 440972, viv.rainsbury@rjt.co.uk