VET HELPS BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO PETS; CPR CLASSES CATCH ON IN COMMUNITY.Byline: Annette Burget Bailey Daily News Staff Writer Growing up in suburban New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Sharon Bass dreamed of becoming a veterinarian veterinarian /vet·er·i·nar·i·an/ (vet?er-i-nar´e-an) a person trained and authorized to practice veterinary medicine and surgery; a doctor of veterinary medicine. vet·er·i·nar·i·an n. . As a child, Bass owned pets - dogs, cats, rabbits, even a few chickens - and always felt a special kinship with the animals. She would spend hours practicing her future profession. ``I'm one of those typical corny corn·y adj. corn·i·er, corn·i·est Trite, dated, melodramatic, or mawkishly sentimental. [From corn1. stories - I've wanted to be a vet since I was 4 years old,'' Bass said. ``Instead of playing with dolls, I enjoyed performing pretend surgeries on my stuffed animals.'' Today, Bass is a general practitioner general practitioner n. Abbr. GP A physician whose practice consists of providing ongoing care covering a variety of medical problems in patients of all ages, often including referral to appropriate specialists. veterinarian. She not only sees the standard fare of cats and dogs Cats and Dogs A slang term referring to speculative stocks that have short or suspicious histories for sales, earnings, dividends, etc. Notes: In a bull market analysts will often mention that everything is going up, even the cats and dogs. but treats a menagerie of rats, chinchillas, wild birds, snakes and a pig. Practicing since 1989, Bass joined the Animal Hospital-Thousand Oaks in 1995 after a few years at various animal clinics throughout Ventura County. It was here that she found a specialty - cardiopulmonary resuscitation cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), emergency procedure used to treat victims of cardiac and respiratory arrest. CPR can be done in a hospital with drugs and special equipment or as a first-aid technique. for pets. ``When I first joined the clinic, I suggested we start doing something - and we started having open houses,'' she said. ``And that's when I started doing pet CPR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Definition Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a procedure to support and maintain breathing and circulation for a person who has stopped breathing (respiratory arrest) and/or whose heart has stopped (cardiac demonstrations.'' The simulated life-saving demonstrations were such a success, a friend suggested she try her hand teaching a two-hour CPR class for pet owners at Los Robles Robles is a common surname in the Spanish language meaning oaks, and may refer to:
As a result of the favorable response, nearly 100 attendees turned out for the recent talk. Now Bass is setting her sights on a repeat performance. ``I was thinking along the lines of forming a class in conjunction with National Pet Week, which is around the first week of May,'' she said. No official commitments have been made, and location is still pending. Bass points out that animal CPR is similar to the technique performed on babies, and those already certified will have little difficulty learning pet CPR. ``It's a lot like infant CPR - with animals, it's hard to get your mouth over their mouth - so we hold their mouths closed, and breathe into their snout-nose,'' she said. Rats, Bass explains, are one of the easiest species to revive. ``They're a very hearty breed, and CPR success rate is usually up around 80 to 90 percent,'' she said. Bass claims the real key to the life-saving tool is to perform CPR for no longer than 20 minutes and at the earliest sign of distress. ``The longer the pet's been out, the less success as a result of oxygen deprivation and little or no brain activity,'' she said. Bass performs CPR five or six times a year at the clinic and remembers saving the life of an 8-year-old Labrador that went into cardiac arrest cardiac arrest n. Abbr. CA A sudden cessation of cardiac function, resulting in loss of effective circulation. Cardiac arrest A condition in which the heart stops functioning. during surgery. ``It really is truly satisfying to not only bring the animal back,'' she said, ``but someone's much-loved family pet.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Sharon Bass, right, demonstrates CPR on Gerva, a dog belonging to her assistant Carrie Sanger. Michael Owen Baker/Daily News |
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