117. Don't take my picture!

"Don't take my picture! No...no..." the Golden Retriever shifted and lowered and turned his head as his young lady owner tried to pry open his left eyelid for me to take a photograph of the bleeding conjunctiva for my educational purpose in the "Be Kind To Pets" community education project.



A gentle big dog. His lady owner could not position the eyelid, exposed it for me to photograph a wide bleeding strip of conjuncitiva -- reddish and swollen from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock.

"I'll take the picture for you," the young man said. OK, it was best not to stress out this gentle giant who was attacked by a Border Collie. Two pictures were taken. One was good enough. Beggars can't be choosers! Thanks to the young couple. The dog was treated and should recover with nursing and medication!

Now, why would a Border Collie attack him? Dogs have nemesis too!

116. Words don't come easy.

Tips for asthmatic suffers

"If you have to go, you have to," the young man said but his mum said, "This is not the order of life. Parents die before their children."

This young man, at around 21 years of life feel incredibly invincible. He ran the army marathon and got his award. He partied till the early hours of the morning though he was not seen intoxicated and drunk.

A few young men in Singapore had crashed the cars in the early hours of the morning and caused immense grief to their parents as they perished.

But this young man had a guardian angel. He escaped death in one car he drove at 4 a.m after driving friends home. The car did a somersault as it hit the central fencing separating two roads.

The car flew up, crossed the central fence, did a U-turn and landed upright on the only side of Thomson Road. A big hole in the roof and dented front door. The car was even facing the right direction. It did hit and dented the bumper of a taxi but the taxi driver was not hurt.

This young man did not have one wound. The police did not find him drunk. The car was a write-off. Nobody was killed. What an incredible tall tale, you would say. Yet it is true.

This young man ought to be dead. Crushed inside a burning exploding car. A young promising life snuffed out in a car accident involving young men who feel they are masters of the universe.

Yet he was much alive. If there was a guardian angel or God, he would be blessed with a new lease of life.

Now, he could not breathe well. Coughing non-stop for the past 2 days at least. The general practitioner had given him some tablets for his sore throat. Flu was suspected. Now, he could not sleep as he could not breathe.

Could he wait till the morning to see the doctor? It was 4 am and his mum was barely alert, being a night owl like him.

"Where's your inhaler," I asked him. The inhaler delivered drugs to open up his breathing airways. But he did not carry one with him although he was asthmatic and advised by me. After all, he did not suffer any ashtmatic attacks for some years. He won an award at the army marathon and he was invincible.

His mum fished out an inhaler kept for him. Mums are always a boy's best friend. He put the inhaler into his mouth and sucked in two puffs of the medicine. No effect.

"Well, the inhaler has expired in 2005," I said. I doubted that even a non-expired inhaler would be effective at this late stage of acute respiratory distress. It is best he gets to the Emergency Ward of the Hospital before he dies.

Can a young man die so easily? Yes, if his parents ignore his acute difficulty in breathing.

"It will be a very painful death as you can't breathe when all the airways have had shut down due to your asthmatic attack." I said to the young man. He ought to take personal responsibility of his health and carry the inhaler with him at all times. But he did not do it.

"I read in the newspapers that a qualified doctor had an asthmatic attack in an aircraft and died. All that was needed was the inhaler and she did not have it with her."

Mum would rather sleep. I beckoned to her to get up and get dressed. This young man was still standing and there would be some hope. It was fortunate that he was not in the cruise ship or airplane. What he needed was the emergency nebuliser with oxygen mixing the anti-asthmatic drugs and that was found in the hospital.





To make a long story short, this young man survived. This was his second lease of life. He has to be personally responsible for his own health and learn from this experience.





"When you have to go, you have to go," are brave words of masters of the universe. Try not to tempt fate, young man. Words don't come easy from your parents. This story is written for you. To ask you keep an updated inhaler by your side always and not cause intense grief to your mum when your life is cut short due to a lack of an inhaler and early use of it.

115. Neuter, microchip and vaccinate at one time?

E-MAIL QUERY TO DR SING

----- Original Message ----
From: ...@yahoo.com.sg>
To: judy@toapayohvets.com
Sent: Friday, 28 December 2007 11:41:28
Subject: Services Enquiries

Hi,

I came across your website from the Spore Vet site. I just inherited a 4 year old wire-haired male fox terrier and would like to enquire some stuff. It has not been sterilised. Is it too late to sterilise him?

Is it ok to do sterilisation, mirco chipping and vaccination in one go? It'll be very inconvenient to bring him more than once as i dont have my own car.

How much would it cost to arrange for return transport?

Many thanks,
Name given



E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING

It is ok for a normal dog to get neutered, micro-chipped and vaccinated at the same time. Transport costs around S$50 depending on distance.

Some reasons for neutering a male dog is to prevent anti-social behaviour like urine-marking, gripping people's legs, humping onto pillows and mattresses, wanting to go out, aggressive behaviour and unwanted breeding.
Urine-marking behaviour may not be completely eliminated after neutering since your dog is now older.

114. Pus oozing out of an unopened puppy eye.

Very unusual case. The young man who was on a break from his studies in Australia must have kept a close observation on the 6 Siberian Husky puppies. Most likely his maid. But he quickly consulted me about some pus in a puppy's eye.

Now, the puppy does not open their eyes till they are 10-14 days old. So, how could the eyes be infected?

I pried open the eyelids as the puppy's eyes were still not opened naturally. Swollen red conjunctiva. Thick creamy pus accumulated in the right eye. Wiped off the pus. Put eye drops. This puppy should have no loss of eye sight.



One would have thought that unopened eyes of a puppy ought not get infected. But there are always exceptions to the rule.

113. Toilet training: 5-year-old and 15-month-old apartment dogs

Paper training an apartment puppy

Many Singapore apartment owners do not realise that the new puppy must be confined to a small room or crate for 2-4 weeks to achieve some hope of success in paper training.

The puppy at 2-4 months is at an impressionable age and can be paper trained if there is some consistency, perseverance and time spent in training it. As he grows older, it becomes more difficult as the hormones kick in and the older puppy rebels.

Parents with adolescent children who prefer not to be seen with the hand that feed them for the past 15 years will understand what I mean. Young adults, if not brought up with sound values experiment with alcohol and drugs and bring much grief and sorrows to the parents.

Toilet training of puppies use the same principles as bringing up a child. Time is needed. A sound knowledge is also required.

For puppies, toilet training begins when they are brought home at around 2 to 3 months of age in Singapore. They are easily toilet trained if time is spent with them and they are confined for 2-4 weeks.

We examine the 2 dogs in this case study.

Russell, Miniature SchnauzerXChihuahua, Male, 5 years, not neutered

Initially kept in a playpen when bought. Stepped on stools. So, let out of playpen after 2-4 weeks of no success in paper training. He was praised and rewarded with treats when he peed and pooped on the floor of the balcony which became the toilet and sleeping area for the past 5 years. Poop cleared using plastic bags. Floor of balcony flushed with water to clean it.

The dog never goes outdoors. At 3 to 4 years of age, he starts urine marking on vertical surfaces in the apartment. 2-3 times a day or sometimes not doing urine marking. Spanking him is ineffective.

Miniature Schnauzer, Female, 15 months.
"Not so intelligent," the owner said. "She pees and poos in the living area or bedrooms during daytime. She does not go to the newspapers in the daughter's bedroom to eliminate."

There are no newspapers in the living area.

During the initial 2 weeks, sleep in the daughter's bedroom. No crate or playpen. Newspapers on bedroom floor. Occasional elimination on newspaper. Bring her to the accident area where she had peed, said "No,", spanked her backside. But she would pee and poop on the newspapers sometimes. At night, sleep in one of the two beds in the balcony. Eliminate more onto the floor of the balcony now. Had been with the owner for the past 1 year.

Advices
1. Neutralise the urine smell in the living area with white vinegar:water 1:3.

2. Urine marking behaviour of the male dog onto furniture is difficult to eliminate. Neutering was an option but it might not be effective. If breeding is desired, no neutering is advised.

3. Paper training is too late now. The strong urine smell on the balcony floor far away from the beds may be the toilet area.



4. I forgot to advise that the pee pan with newspapers + urine smell be put on that area if the owner wants to do paper training and has less cleaning work to do. As the female dog is now a "young adult", it is much harder to paper-train her. She had used the same toilet area as the male dog. The male dog is a distraction in paper training a female dog.

As the mother and her daughter seem happy with the two well looked dogs, the toilet location will be the edges of the balcony floor. In retrospect, the male dog should have been paper-trained on a pee pan (with newspapers) and confined to the playpen and kept in the balcony for the first 2-4 weeks. He was in the bedroom at that time. He kept stepping on the stools because he wanted to get out and had no sense of cleanliness. So he needed bathing every day. The owner let him out of the playpen early and he eliminated everywhere in the apartment. Till one day, he went to the balcony floor and was not scolded. He was praised and given food treats and therefore he used the balcony floor (with no newspapers) as the toilet location.

Now, you can see that the sleeping area is kept clean by the dogs as they eliminate as far away as possible from their beds in the balcony.

112. Vet Ethics. Ambulance chasers for vets.

"Sending condolence cards to dog owners whose dogs had died was a very good idea (to build up good will)." the 4th year Massey University vet student recalled a dog owner who mentioned about a vet who performed this practice. I was discussing with her the highly competitive nature of all Singapore businesses as Singapore becomes developed. The veterinary practices are not immune to competition. Price under-cutting by being the cheapest vet in Singapore is one strategy to capture more clients and increase turnover. The student mentioned condolence cards as one method.



"Yes, sending condolence cards is a good idea but it is better for a vet to send birthday cards for dogs" I said. "Have you heard of ambulance chasers?"

She shook her head.

"In the legal profession, there are laymen who specialise in informing the lawyer (for a commission) when there are traffic accidents. These ambulance chasers will go to the hospital and sign up the injured to get legal advice.

"From what the dog owner said, it seemed that the vet who sent condolence cards had excellent knowledge of any dog that had died and had been sent for cremation.

"The owner was saying how come the vet knew about dogs that had been cremated? He had no veterinary crematorium. The owner guess it must be his connections with the dog transport man.

"When the dog transport man sends the dead dog for cremation, he informs the vet and gives him the address of the dog owner. The vet sends a condolence card to the grieving owner.

"Is this a veterinary equivalent of ambulance chasing? In this case, the dog that was not under the vet's care had died. So I would not want to send condolence cards to such owners.

"The vet who sent the condolence card might not have paid the dog transport man for the addresses but if the transport man was not given a commission or payment, why would he bother to divulge such details to the vet. Is this ethical or not?"

It is good to discuss with 4th year vet student as they are more mature and had seen various practices. So they are able to discuss various aspects of the veterinary profession.

Out of this discussion with her, I said to the vet student that sending doggie birthday cards to my dog clients would be an excellent idea. Now, I must get on with the execution of this idea. It is not a novel idea in the sense that the NTUC Insurance Company sends birthday cards to their insured clients regularly! I wonder whether the vet who sent condolence cards do send doggie birthday cards as well?

111. Toilet-training a small breeds - Small breeds get away with murder.

All over the world, small breeds get away with murder. What do I mean?

This little puppy had been given to the owner for the past one month. Pees and poops everywhere inside the apartment. As small breeds eliminates in small amounts, there is not much pressure or stress to the owners.



"How's the toilet training?" I asked the lady in her forties. Her husband was waiting outside the surgery, ready to pick up the daughter.

"Pees and poops everywhere," the lady said. "My husband is not so happy with the puppy."

Neither would I. This is what I mean. Small breeds get away with murder. I asked if she had time. Pulled up a chair opposite me across the consultation table. I attempted to give a quickie lecture and photocopied my scribblings in the picture below.




I hope the puppy can be paper-trained fast. Presently, the bedroom doors are locked to prevent accidents. Once paper-trained, the puppy can be trusted not to soil the whole residence! If only a dog manual on paper-training a puppy is available whenever a puppy is sold or given away, there will less problems for puppies.