A YOUNG vet from Alton was in the right place at the right time when she acted swiftly to perform resuscitation to save the life of a husky.

Kate Oppenheimer, 27, was in Norway with a group celebrating her mum’s 60th birthday last week when the freak accident occurred.

The party was enjoying an evening dog sledding through the snow when one of her six-dog team became caught up in a line and was clearly asphyxiated.

Kate said: “I stopped the sled at which point my mum released the dog from the tethering. She (the husky) was unconscious at this point and her tongue was blue. I performed CPR on her in snow and managed to revive her. She was obviously very weak following this so was taken back to the station immediately on another sled.”

On returning to the station for coffee and cake the owners of the huskies thanked Kate for saving the dog’s life and brought the dog (known as April) out to see her.

“At this point she was back to normal and you would never have known anything had happened!” said Kate.

According to Kate, who works for the Cedar Veterinary Group in Alton, while she had performed CPR on an animal before it was with the support of a team of people, but “never in the snow”.