January 25th - Hi Jill and Ian, Nelson went home fine a while ago!! I haven’t heard anything more though Nelson’s owner said she would give Hughie some food for being such a star!  Apparently she is Lady Cadbury, I would have thought she would have had a chocolate lab, but Nelson is yellow! Hughie certainly saved his life! (Will and Hazel)

 

January 21st - At the moment some of our dogs are in the middle of very heavy moults, Janka is the worst she has no coat at all, Steffi and Joker are loosing theirs too. We have Elkie, Steffi and Joker entered for Crufts in March so we hope they will be in full coat then.

 

January 14th - Hi Ian and Jill - The vet who was treating Nelson rang to thank Hughie and fill us in on Nelson's condition last night.  Apparently his blood count was 10 before the transfusion, 18 yesterday morning and 22 yesterday afternoon -  dogs normally have a count of 30 -35.  So the vet reckoned Hughie saved Nelson's life, and let's hope his condition continues to improve. Regards Will and Hazel

  

January 12th - Congratulations to Hughie (Staubach Excelsior - litter 4, son of Madi) who has been a hero again today!  This time he came to the aid of Nelson a yellow Labrador who had lost a leg in a RTA and had lost a lot of blood.  Just as his owners were going to leave for their afternoon walk their daughter Elizabeth (who is training as a veterinary nurse) phoned to say they needed Hughie to help Nelson. So off they slithered on the snowy roads and soon Hughie was having his neck shaved and then had a needle put in, to draw about 300ml of Hughie’s blood – helped along with a few treats.  He was very good despite being nicked by the clippers, and didn’t even flinch when the big needle went in.  As they can take 10ml per kg of body weight, the vet could have had 600ml of blood, but the needle did move and the vein was lost. The blood was whisked away to start the drip for Nelson.  We will let you know what happened to the recipient. All this the day before Hughie’s 7^th birthday!  the vet said to go a bit easy on his exercise for the next 3 days as that’s how long it takes to make up the blood again.

Hope you are getting a bit more used to being without Madi – she must have left a big gap in your lives, but the above story shows that her offspring are helping not just humans but canines too!  Regards Will and Hazell

 

January 3rd - As promised some pictures of Jodi and Uschi taken out in the snow today.