Billy the greyhound is a shining and healthy example of the game-changing new injury and welfare initiative - the Greyhound Care Scheme - being praised across NSW.
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Had Greyhound Racing NSW's new scheme not been in place, Goulburn veterinarian Dr Zach Lederhose has no doubt Billy the greyhound would have been in trouble.
Billy - or Hard Bass as he was when he raced that day in July at Goulburn - had been rushed to the Goulburn Vet Clinic after he was taken from the kennel and just wasn't right.
"I went straight to the on-course vet and she recommended to get to the vet as quick as possible which we did," trainer Wayne White's son Jake explained.
A few days before, GRNSW's chief vet Dr Alex Brittan had spoken with Dr Lederhose about being part of the Greyhound Care Scheme which was introduced just a week prior to help provide the best possible outcome for injured greyhounds, moving them by ambulance from the track, to triage, to surgery with GRNSW providing financial support of up to $3,500 towards the cost of surgery.
Dr Brittan had asked Zach to be part of a state-wide network of Orthopaedic centres on call for all greyhound meetings in NSW.
"Unfortunately, the reality is without this scheme in place, this dog would have died," Dr Lederhose said.
"Time was of the essence and to already have the approval that you can do the tests you need to do find out what was wrong, and then the surgery, you don't have time to go away and think about a decision.
"We gave Billy probably a 10-20 per cent chance, and because of the scheme and a bit of luck, he's now doing great."
Billy had suffered from a renal artery bleed. The success of saving animals with this injury is incredibly small.
"We got him stabilised, gave him fluid, oxygen and pain relief. We did ultrasounds and saw he had fluid in his abdomen, and there seemed to be quite a bit of fluid but he wasn't actually bleeding," Dr Lederhose said.
"We gave him a plasma transfusion and discovered he had ruptured one of the arteries going to his left kidney so we took him to surgery. I have never removed a kidney from a dog before in this emergency situation. It was pretty hairy going in. The clot formed around the ruptured vessel. He was just lucky that it lodged in the right spot, and there's a space called the retroperitoneum which kept all the blood in the one spot, so the dog was limited to how much he could bleed," Dr Lederhose said.
"We had to get rid of the clot, and cut into the space around the kidney, tie off the artery and make sure that didn't come loose because if it did the dog would instantly pass away, then close it up and manage the pain."
Jake admits he thought the worst and called the owner and said I don't think Billy will be coming home.
"Even after the surgery the vet said he was still a chance of not making it, then he rang me at 8am the following morning and said 'good news, he's sitting here happy and healthy'," Jake said.
"We picked him up, brought him home and we put him on the bed next to the lounge and he didn't move much for the first few days and then about day four he started getting up and more mobile and he has just gone from strength to strength since."
This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.
