Farm workers who are working alone in remote locations now have access to a new technology developed by Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS).

SOLUS™ is a new smartphone app that enables a person to receive 24-7 emergency assistance anywhere in Canada where a cell signal can be received.

When activated, the paid service connects the individual with a live person in the STARS Emergency Link Centre (ELC).

STARS notifies the user’s pre-defined emergency contacts, while at the same time dispatching the necessary emergency response. Mapping software provides the location of the person in trouble.

The integration with STARS’ Emergency Link Centre is what sets it apart from other apps that monitor individuals.

“The difference in this membership-based service is that when you activate the button you are connected directly to Emergency Link Centre that then connects you to the 911 call centre in your area and to emergency service personnel if that’s what you require,” said Grant Therrien, base director for STARS in Manitoba.

“It’s certainly not a way to bypass 911. It’s more of an enhancement.”

An additional feature of the service is STARS’ Neighbour Helping Neighbour safety network, which can include others the user wants notified in an emergency. They can often get there before emergency services and can provide a first line of assistance. SOLUS™ users are encouraged, though not required, to enrol in the program.

SOLUS™ was developed as a personal version of the safety and monitoring services STARS offers larger companies, among the 4,000 registered sites with its Emergency Link Centre.

“Our goal for this app is the same as always… to help someone on what is likely their worst day, possibly saving their life,” said STARS’ director, business development, Erin Sharp.

The app is suitable for anyone working, travelling or playing alone in rural or dangerous environments, where medical assistance may be far away and difficult to connect with.

The word solus is derived from the Latin word meaning “alone” or “unaccompanied.”

STARS understands the agricultural workplace very well and sees this as an important safety tool for farmers, Therrien said.

“We are hopeful that this is something that will meet the need in this industry and others who work alone and in remote areas who want a quick solution to activate some help,” he said. “We’ve already started responding to unfortunate incidents related to that sector. We just want producers to be safe and know we’re there if something happens.”

Users can subscribe online for $9.99 per month and download the app from iTunes and Google Play stores.

For more information visit the SOLUS emergency response app page on the STARS website.

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Veterinarians frequently counsel horse owners to cold hose an injury for a duration of about 20 minutes. Many horse owners quickly realize the benefits of this practice and will often have hydrotherapy well underway even before the veterinarian has arrived to tend to an injury.

Initially hydrotherapy serves to cleanse an open wound of dirt and debris. A clean wound is not only the first step to effective healing, it is also valuable therapy for ongoing healing. This first step in cleaning will be important whether the wound is sutured or left to heal as an open wound.

If the injury is left to heal as an open wound, hosing the wound for 20 minutes daily encourages further healing. This process can be repeated every day for weeks after the injury depending on the wound’s progress.

The beneficial effects of hydrotherapy extend beyond cleansing the injury. Hydrotherapy is also remarkably effective at controlling and regulating the three main symptoms of inflammation — heat, swelling and pain.

These three processes are natural and functional responses to injury, yet they can overwhelm and slow the healing process. Hydrotherapy appears to modulate the horse’s natural mechanisms to heal an injury by capitalizing on the stimulating effects of improved circulation.

Both the immune system and tissue regeneration appear to be enhanced as well. The timely application of cold hydrotherapy to a laceration, blunt trauma, or strained and/or sprained soft tissue constricts and decreases the permeability of blood vessels at the injury site and thus reduces the amount of fluid accumulation.

Cold therapy reduces the tissue’s demand for oxygen and so limits the triggers for hypoxic injury. Contraction of the vessels due to the cold also encourages the movement of fluid from the affected area, further reducing swelling. One of the often overlooked benefits of cold hydrotherapy is that of analgesia and pain relief.

Invariably the afflicted site shows noticeable improvement and appears less painful for the horse. Horses quickly learn to accept and enjoy the benefits of hydrotherapy. Owners often comment on the favourable influence hydrotherapy will have on their horse’s overall attitude.

There are numerous variations on the theme of hydrotherapy. Cold therapy is recommended until the initial inflammation has subsided. Once the injury feels cool to the touch, heat can be applied to encourage blood circulation to the affected area. Hosing with warm and/or tepid water can be done if such is readily available. Hot compresses can also be utilized to accomplish this end. When heat is applied to the surface of an injury it causes the blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow to the site bringing nutrients and oxygen to the injured tissue.

Although dry heat from lamps or heating pads can be helpful, moist heat from compresses are better able to penetrate deeper into the tissues. However, if heat is applied too early after an injury the heat can spur undesirable inflammation. Therefore, as a general rule one would apply cold if the injury is warm and/or hot and apply heat if the injury feels cool/cold. The change of therapy from cold to hot can take from days to a week depending on the nature and severity of the injury.

Contrast baths are another practice that can be used to stimulate healing. An alternating series of warm (not hot) and cold applications are used to encourage the movement of nourishing fluids into the affected area and removal of stagnant fluids out of the healing site by cycling dilation and contraction of blood vessels.

It is important not to overlook the inexpensive nature and extremely wide margin of safety hydrotherapy offers. As such, it presents strong arguments in its favour, bringing a multitude of advantages to horse owners when presented with acute injuries or wounds.

The post Bringing the advantages of hydrotherapy to your horse appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“If the tires you are using on your operation have wire in the walls, this wire can break off and subsequently be consumed by cattle,” warns North Dakota State University Extension Service beef cattle specialist Carl Dahlen. “Cattle ingesting these pieces of wire can develop a condition known as hardware disease.”

Once wire is swallowed, it goes into the digestive system and often gets trapped in the chamber of the stomach called the reticulum. The reticulum has honeycomb-shaped structures on the walls and is designed to trap foreign materials.

If the wire punctures the reticulum wall, stomach contents can leak through the wall and cause a condition called peritonitis. Peritonitis can lead to poor health and also may cause systemic infections. Cattle that continually decline in health eventually may need to be culled.

Metal, wire and other foreign materials in the reticulum also can lead to sudden death, Dahlen says. The diaphragm is the thin muscle that divides the abdominal cavity (which contains the stomach, intestine, liver, etc.) from the thoracic cavity (which contains the heart and lungs).

The reticulum and heart are close to each other, separated only by the diaphragm. In instances when cattle experience severe abdominal contractions, such as while delivering a calf, foreign material in the reticulum can be forced through the reticulum wall and into the heart.

“If this happens, the animal will die shortly thereafter,” Dahlen says. “Alternatively, the metal may pierce only the protective layers around the heart and cause inflammation and/or infection. Either way, it is not a good situation.”

To avoid hardware disease, perform regular maintenance on your tire feeders. Maintenance should include:

• Cutting or grinding off exposed wire, and picking up pieces and removing them from the cattle-feeding area;
• Removing any wire, nails or other metal scraps from areas to which cattle have access;
• Including powerful magnets in feed mixers.

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Manitobans have a big reason to celebrate. On June 16, we became the first province in Canada to pass a life-saving law requiring public access to AEDs (automated external defibrillators).

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba (HSFM) congratulates the provincial government and all the parties involved for passing Bill 20, the Defibrillator Public Access Act, which allows for early access to defibrillation in a sudden cardiac arrest situation.

The foundation has been in full support of this act, which requires AEDs be installed and maintained in high-traffic public places such as schools, recreation centres, malls, airports and other places where people gather in large numbers.

Thanks to this new legislation, Manitobans will have a better chance of surviving a cardiac arrest. Currently, the chance of surviving cardiac arrest outside of hospital is a dismal five per cent, but CPR combined with early defibrillation can increase a sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival by as much as 75 per cent. For every minute delay in defibrillation, the survival rate of a cardiac arrest victim decreases by seven to 10 per cent. Every minute counts, which is why public access to AEDs is so necessary.

HSFM commends the government for its insightfulness when putting the new legislation together, requiring all devices be registered, maintained and display visible signage to ensure they are easily accessible in an emergency situation.

I cannot stress enough what wonderful news this is for Manitobans. The passing of this law is a huge milestone for Manitobans and Canadians alike, and something we should be very proud of as a province. Our success will pave the way for other provinces across Canada to introduce this lifesaving law.

Debbie Brown President and CEO Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba

Ritz is afraid

Everybody knows the Conservatives hate the wheat board. It starts with Stephen Harper and goes all of the way down the line to every Prairie MP who was elected in May. So it’s no surprise to hear they want to get rid of the single desk, and that they want to do it as soon as their friends in the grain industry will let them.

Still, it’s hard to stomach some of the comments that come out of Gerry Ritz’s mouth when he responds to those who won’t just stand by while the government steamrolls the board out of existence. All this added investment and innovation that he’s talking about when the single desk is gone – where’s it going to come from and who’s it going to benefit? I know buyers won’t be paying any more for our grain when there are 50,000 of us selling wheat and barley on our own instead of through the board.

And since when is it “excessive fear mongering” to want producers to have our say? Ritz is the one who’s afraid, afraid of the way grain producers would vote if we were asked a clear question on how we want our grain to be sold: on the open market or through the single desk. Any delays caused by a producer vote would do a lot less to damage the board’s “competitiveness” (as if Ritz really cared about that), than the Harper government’s pigheaded determination to have its way.

Gerald Nedjelski Kelvington, Sask.

Please forward letters to Manitoba Co-operator, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, R3H 0H1 or Fax: 204-954-1422 or email: news@fbcpublishing.com (subject: To the editor)

The post Letters – for Jul. 7, 2011 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

All herd bulls should have breeding

soundness exams 45 to 60 days after the last severe cold spell.

Hypothermia and frostbite can be harmful to livestock, especially the newborns.

“Hypothermia is a profound drop in body temperature,” says Charlie Stoltenow, North Dakota State University Extension Service veterinarian. “Animals less than 48 hours old or animals with a pre-existing condition or disease are at the greatest risk for developing hypothermia.”

Newborns often are hypoglycemic, which means they have low energy reserves and electrolyte imbalances. Animals with pre-existing conditions (pneumonia, old age) have impaired body reserves and may succumb more readily to very cold and windy conditions.

Frostbite is the destruction of tissue in a localized area due to extreme cold. It is uncommon in healthy, well-fed and sheltered animals, but animals that are less than 48 hours old or have a pre-existing condition are at the greatest risk for developing frostbite.

The areas most likely to be injured include the ears, tail, teats, scrotum and distal parts of the limbs, especially the hooves. Hind limbs are more likely to be affected in cattle since the animal’s normal posture is to draw its front legs under the chest while the hind legs protrude from under the body.

“Treating cases of hypothermia and frostbite is often unrewarding,” Stoltenow says. “Prevention is of primary importance.”

Prevention consists of keeping the animals, especially newborns, warm and dry. Windbreaks must be provided to counteract the effects of the wind chill.

Bedding also is essential. It has two functions: It insulates the animal from the snow and ice underneath the body, preventing hypothermia and frostbite, and lowers the animal’s nutritional requirements. Bedding allows the animal to “snuggle” into it and lowers the body surface area exposed to the wind.

“The final essential aspect of prevention is to increase the amount of energy supplied in the animal’s diet,” Stoltenow says.

He has this advice for producers with livestock suffering from hypothermia:

Calves with hypothermia need to be warmed slowly. The heat source should be about 105 to 108F. Warmer temperatures may cause skin burns or shock. Sources of heat include a warm-water bath, electric blanket, heat lamps or hot water bottles, plus a warming box.

Supplying an energy source to these calves also is essential. If the calf is newborn, colostrum should be supplied within the first six to 12 hours of life. Provide milk or electrolytes with an energy source such as glucose. An esophageal feeding tube works well to supply these energy sources. Without fluids, the animal becomes acidotic as it warms. An acidotic calf is predisposed to contracting scours or pneumonia.

Areas suffering from frostbite should be warmed quickly. Frostbite is the actual destruction of tissue. To prevent permanent damage, circulation in the affected areas needs to be restored as soon as possible. The heat source should be about 105 to 108F. Do not rub affected areas. They already are damaged and quite fragile. As the area warms, it will be painful. Do not let the animal rub these areas; that only will make the situation worse. In severe cases, analgesics (painkillers) may be indicated. Consult your veterinarian.

Frostbite in teats and scrotums could be a problem as well. However, frostbitten teats may be difficult to detect. The first sign may be a thin calf. The teat end is affected and can slough. If this happens, the sphincter muscle of the teat may be lost. This makes mastitis a possibility.

Also, frostbite may cause an affected teat to dry up since the cow won’t let the calf nurse. In addition, the frostbitten teat may go unnoticed until next year. At that time, the calf is thin, and when the cow is examined, the teat is healed over with scar tissue. This teat will need to be opened.

Bulls’ scrotums and testicles can suffer frostbite, too. Often these lesions go unnoticed. They can cause transitory or permanent infertility. All herd bulls should have breeding soundness exams 45 to 60 days after the last severe cold spell. Your veterinarian can help you with these exams.

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