The mother must have asked her son who is a veterinarian to present me 2 boxes of mooncakes as a gesture of thanks for mentoring her son in the bladder stone surgery. I phoned her Surgery for past 2 evenings but got no pick up. Tonight the son returned my call. Mum was sick due to diarrhoea and so it was not possible to thank her.
"Struvite crystals as analysed by Science Diet," the young man in his late twenties said. A quiet person of few words. Science Diet has a free analysis of bladder stones for Singapore vets. These are sent to the U.S. So, the spiky stones are struvite.
"Is the dog ok?" I was more interested than the nature of the bladder stones.
"Yes," the young man said.
"How do you know?" I queried.
"The dog belongs to the girl working at my Surgery," he explained.
"That's good news and your surgery was good."
It was good to know that the dog no longer passes blood in the urine. It was around one month ago that he had the surgery done.
Bladder stone surgeries in male dogs for young vets are a bit complicated. It is always best done under the guidance of an experienced vet. The alternative is to refer to other vets and not gain any surgical experience. As I said to this young vet, you send the cases to other surgeries---their young vets gain experience and it will always be a one-way street. You never learn anything and you lose clientele too.
In my experience, it will be a rare veterinarian or specialist who will bother to pick up the phone and tell the referring doctor what happen.
In this case, the mum had asked me to mentor her son for bladder stone surgery and Caesarean section. There are not many such cases but if there are, I am most happy to mentor him.
Mothers always love their children---most mothers anyway. They have their welfare at heart even though the baby is a parent and a veterinarian of some years! This mother of the veterinarian is very unusual in that she seeks out a mentor for her son.
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