Friday, December 4, 2015

2377. How to: A X-bred dog and Miniature Schnauzer have swollen ears - aural haematoma video

Sat Nov 28, 2015.

Another dual case in the same day. A X-bred and a Miniature Schnauzer have aural haematomas today. Another dual case of terrapins with swollen eyes on one Saturday morning in Toa Payoh Vets.

This video shows the  2 cases of aural haematomas. The X-bred had a left ear haematoma. 4 months ago, she had a right ear haematoma. The good surgical outcome is excellent but the left ear has a large haematoma.

"Has the dog any ticks?" I asked.
"Never had ticks in her life!" he proclaimed.
The dogs had many ticks inside the ears. Tick control is important in Singapore dogs as ticks are common in tropical Singapore.

As for the Miniature Schnauzer, the dog had hairy ears which obstruction ventilation of the ear canal. Many of such breeds have hairy ears and need regularly plucking of the hairs to ensure proper ventilation and drainage of the ear canals. Ear plucking is done by the groomer and the dog tolerates the pain. An ear surgery to open up the ear canal is seldom done by the Schnauzer owner in Singapore as the dog gets grooming regularly and the groomer will clean the ears.

In these two cases, the causes of aural haematoma are respectively tick bites and otitis externa in the cross-bred dog and the Miniature Schnauzer.

Consult your vet early for aural haematoma treatment. Thrice weekly ear maintenance is advised by me.  Toa Payoh Vets.  Singapore.


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

2376. EMAIL ADVICE. A hamster in England has cheek pouch eversion



 
Email from sender in England dated Nov 23, 2015.

Hi, I am in England, our dwarf hamster's cheek pouch has come out, I took him to my local vets who had never seen or heard of this before, they anesthetised him and put it back in (cost £60) on the way home it came out again so straight back to the vets and told them a google search revealed he needs a stitch in it, so they anesthetised him again and put a single stitch in to hold it in place(cost £7) and told me it was a desolving stitch usually user for cats & dogs and it would take 10 weeks to desolve so I need to go back in 10 days to have it removed ( cost£60) but in your opinion do you think it needs removing or could it stay in until it desolves
Because I am afraid it may become detached again if the stitch is removed so soon ? Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated, please could you reply ASAP, if possible, Regards Alan
 
 
REPLY BY DR SING K Y  dated Dec 2, 2015
Just got your email. If it is stitched back, then leave it alone as the stitch will dissolve by itself as the vet has used absorbable stitches. If it comes out, get the vet, preferably a hamster-experienced vet,  to remove it surgically.
 

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

2375. 8 Caesarean section Corgi puppies died before 5 days old

Many licensed dog breeders in Singapore want a cheap and good vet. A Caesaean section any time of the day or night at $250 per dog. There was a vet who provided such services and sold vaccines to the breeders.

"I have been to a vet whose Caesarean produced 11 dead pups," he said. "The vet kept rubbing till the skin came off.  Other vets produced groggy pups as they had given the dam sedatives. Some vets produced dead dam and pups. One older vet produced infected puppies."

I do not comment as there is no guarantee of 100% live puppies and dams in any Caesarean section. Every vet will encounter deaths on Caesarean section.

When there is a death, the breeder's perception is that the vet is inexperienced or incompetent. In Singapore, the vet is a generalist and so Caesarean section presents a daunting challenge for the new vet. The cost is not $250 per C-section as that is too low, but many breeders just want low cost. A cheap and good vet is hard to find.

This Corgi, first birth, was mated 57 days ago. But for the past 4 days, she stopped eating and became lethargic. The breeder forced fed but the dam deteriorated in health.

"Better give her an IV drip," the seasoned breeder said to me.
"She needs a calcium injection as well," Dr Daniel had operated on this breeder's dog some 2 weeks ago.

"At 57th day, it is too early for C-section," I said. "Now the temperature is 39.6C. Monitor the rectal temperature. It will drop from above 38.5 to below and then rise again. When this rise occurs, it is the right time to do elective C-section. For Chihuahuas, 58th day is OK for C-section without producing pre-mature stilborn pups."

The breeder's assistant, an energetic muscular young man did monitor the rectal temperature at 7 pm on the next day. It was 38.2 C. At 8 am, the Corgi delivered one pup. The breeder said: "It should be one pup every half to one hour, but 4 hours have passed and no pups came out! Better to do a Caesarean than wait and wait."

"The dam has uterine inertia," I said. "The uterus is full of pups, as many as 6. It does not contract anymore and the pups will die inside the womb if there is a delay of a few hours." This jargon meant nothing to the breeder.

Dr Daniel did a C-section handing the 7 quiet pups to the breeder. The pups were slightly distressed, hence they were quiet. The breeder did his own way of rubbing the puppy's neck, tying the umbilical cord and sucking off the lung mucus via a syringe case.



For me, I would have swung the pup to get the mucus out of the lungs but the breeder did not like this method, thinking it may cause brain damage.

DAM'S
Blood test
Total Protein  low  46 (62-85)
Albumin 21  (28-35)
Globuin 25
A/G ratio  0.8  (0.6-1.1)

ALT 107 (<59 br="">AST 235 (<81 br="">
Calcium + Phosphorus OK odium Potassium Chloride lower than normal
Urea 21 (4.2-6.3)Hb 6.7 (12-18)  RBC 2.8  (5.5-8.5), Total WCC 20.1 (6-17), Neutrophils 98.5% (60-70%)  Absol 19.8 ( 3-11.5)


FOLLOW UP ON DEC 4, 2015 BY PHONE
"All 8 pups died," the breeder said. "The first-born by natural birth died today. The puppies were poisoned by the milk from the Dachsund who produced lots of milk!"

"How about the dam as you had let her nurse 4 puppies?"
"She produced no milk at all and so I foster out the puppies to the other dams that had given birth. This is the reason I don't call them puppies. Unless they survive the first 5 days, they are not puppies. Especially the chihuahuas. Still many things to learn in this world!"



The experienced breeder is not aware of:
1. Fading Puppy Syndrome and considered "poisonous milk" as the cause.
2. The dam was first-time mother and was very thin, anaemic and had bacterial infection (leucocytosis). This affected the immune status of the puppies.
The puppies were not crying loudly on C-section unlike those healthy ones. They had been affected by the dam's sickness and not eating for the past 4 days (53 rd to 57 th day of pregnancy).

3. No injectable anaesthesia was given and so the breeder cannot attribute to remaining drugs killing the puppies or making them dopey and not suckling.  




2375. A 5-year-old Jack Russell trembles continuously during the past 3 days.




What is the cause?  Poisoning of the brain?
The only history is that the owner had applied some herbal cream onto the right fore wrist to cure an open wound and the dog licked off the cream. This went on for 2 months. In the past 3 days, the dog developed the fine tremors of the body, esp. noticeable in the hind legs.

X Rays

  


2364. Follow up: A young pug has intense facial and ear itch

Sunday Nov 22, 2015

From puppyhood at around 3 months, this pug had folliculitis in the chin and face. Ear scratching.
Yesterday, the whole face, ears and neck were hyperpigmented black (video). Blood taken for allergy testing in the US.

July 2015 images are:






No screw in the pug's gut

Nov 22, 2015

Before I left for the Balkans Adventure Tour on Nov 5, 2015, the owner had agreed to wait for his 4-month-old female pug to pass out the screw and a large piece seen in the X-rays done on Nov 5.  Dr Daniel had offered him an option to wait for the pug to pass out the 2 radio-dense foreign bodies and had prescribed Science Diet W/D.

"Did your pug pass out the screw?" I asked today.
"She passed out the squarish piece of glass which was about the size seen, cloth pieces, stones and large seeds. But I did not see the screw in her stools. I had emailed the images to Dr Daniel."

"Is she still active and has she diarrhoea?"

"She is active and has been passing good solid stools since I feed her on W/D," he said. "But yesterday, she passed loose stools in 7 places. I had fed her cooked pork liver.  So I will switch back to the W/D!" 

HISTORY
Oct 10 2015. Dr daniel
Diarrhoea. No vomiting. Dr daniel
Foreidn bodies, poisoning. Adverse food reaction. Stoamach flu owing to boarding
Advised x rays. Declined


Oct 19 2015. Dr Sing
Mucus in stools passed 5x
Gas in intestines
No abd pain
Had diarrhoea on Oct 9. Medication Oct 12 to 16.

Nov 5 2015. Dr Daniel
Recurrent diarrhoea
Voniting. 3rd time
 -XRay.  1 screw. 1 seed-like object
Canine WD.














Nov 22 2015
Follow up. Not sure whether screw passed as dog had been boarded. Stools are large when fed WD. Screw might have been embedded, the owner said. Also worry about screw rusty
W board again and return next wk t x ray again


Nov 30, 2015
Owner had to travel overseas again 4 days later. Will board the dog. Came for X-rays. If the rusty screw is still in the gut, will operate today.
X-rays. No screw.  He was happy but said that he had to spend so much money.





He had not wanted X-ray in the first instance and only did so on the 3rd episode when I insisted.
Dr Daniel had advised wait and see. A few days later, the pug did pass out a piece of glass and a large seed and other pieces of clothing but he had not seen any screw.

He boarded the pug in a place where she has fun playing with other dogs and has a daily outing. The boarding kennel WhatsApp a video daily of the fun the pug had going out and so retained his loyalty. He felt that the kennel would not separate the stools in which the screw might be embedded and so did not ask the operator.

"So how do you prevent your pug from swallowing everything?" I asked.
"I put her on a leash and pull her away when she wanted to eat anything inside the grass during exercise outdoors!"

The pug had a great appetite as you can see from the fully distended stomach in the X-rays on the 25th day after discovery of the screw.