194. Sunday case: Thousands of baby ticks & other interesting cases

Sunday Sep 12, 2010 6.15 pm recording of cases seen today.

VEXING CASE

"My Jack Russell went to the vet last week for nail clipping," the young couple said. "He peed on the grass. Now he has lots of ticks on the body and inside the ears. I used Frontline yesterday and today a tick wash sold by the groomer."

Examination & de-ticking.
1. Clipped bald. Hundreds of ticks paralysed and stuck on the body
2. Forceps to pick up ticks but then many smaller ticks still alive.
3. "I need to use the tacktic wash," my groomer said. "Otherwise the owner will not be happy when he sees more ticks after de-ticking. The owner did NOT use sufficient dosage of the insecticide (2 caps to 1 litre of water, unknown drug) and therefore the baby ticks are still alive.

Examination after de-ticking.
The owner complained one tick was seen in the left ear and one on the face (left side). He bites when the owner tried to pull out the hanging ticks.

"The procedure is incorrect in this case," my groomer said. "Should have given tick wash first at correct dose, then shave and the ticks will fall off."

We picked up all the very small baby ticks that were still alive. The dog bit the owner and so it was a time-consuming case to brush out all baby ticks. Took almost one hour.

Owner advised to use Frontline Spot on tomorrow as the apartment is full of ticks. Advantix from Bayer repels the tick but the owner was not keen and wanted to buy Frontline from the pet shop as this could be cheaper. "Repels" means preventing ticks from the surrounding kitchen and bathroom to attach onto the dog but the owner could not understand the difference.

CAESAREAN
Water bag burst this morning, some 6 hours ago, but the Westie home-breeder wanted me to examine and see what I can do. I was about to close at 5p.m. After waiting for over 40 minutes, I phoned. She said she could not find a taxi but this was not credible as Singapore's taxis are many nowadays. She wanted us to wait. Such cases were not genuine. She agreed that she would not be coming.

Advice: If no puppy is born within 1 hour of the water bag rupture, an emergency Caesarean is needed. Not wait and see as the pup would have had died and the mother could be in danger of possessing a smelly dead pup (if delays over 12 hours).

DENTAL SCALING
Cavalier King Charles had dental scaling and pro-heart injection. No problem.

CAT CONSTIPATED FOR ONE WEEK. It could be that he was made to wear an e-collar to prevent scratching of his left eye. He had a cat flu and was sneezing. Somehow his left eye was itchy. When the e-collar was taken off, he scratched his left eye again. What's the cause of the conjuncitivits? I had the cat under general anaesthesia and flushed off any foreign body from under the 3rd eyelid. "He was OK," the young lady said. "When I took off the e-collar, he started to rub his left eye." I checked the left ear. It was clean unless the horizontal canal had some debris. Ears were both clean.

I palpated. Constipated stools felt. Enema given. Cat passed out some stools within 5 minutes. I asked: "Has he been wearing the e-collar 7 days ago? He did not poop as he had to wear an e-collar."

"Most likely he disliked the e-collar as he could not clean himself after pooping," the lady diagnosed. Boarded one day to observe. Should go home tomorrow.

LATERAL EAR CANAL RESECTION. The parents and daughter came to visit him. "The wounds are still wet and bleeding 4 days after surgery," I said. "The surgical area looks very bad after surgery but will look good some 14 days later." I showed the owner where the horizontal canal opening was by putting a cotton bud inside the canal on the left ear. The Miniature Schnazuer with hairy ears did not bite me. He shook his head and the cotton bud got stuck outside his horizontal canal opening and I had to take it out. He was still on NSAID pain-killers and did not bite. But not ready to go home yet as the owner will not know how to clean the ear surgical area. Another 2 days.

9 kg. Male. Not neutered. 5 years.

--- INTERESTING HISTORY FROM MY FILES

26 Jul 2007 Right head tilt. Right ear. brown pus and ear powder. Otitis externa. Dog tranquilised and ear hairs plucked. Panalog for ear cleaning.

3 Jan 2010 Excessive ear hairs and otitis externa. Tranquilised and ear irrigation. Panalog.


25 May 2010 Wanted panalog and antibiotics.


8 Sep 2010. Lateral ear canal resection together with Dr Vanessa Lin.


STRAY CAT WITH ORAL ULCERS RECOVERING AFTER PREDNISOLONE
The expatriate couple said they would pick up the cat 3 days ago but did not turn
up. Ulcers will recur again. No permanent cue. Will e-mail the couple again.


RIGHT HIP JOINT DISLOCATION IN A CHOW CHOW X. 10 days after car accident. X-ray confirmed dislocation. Surgery advised by Vet 1. "Not likely to be successful in popping the bone into the joint now," I said.