540. Dad's favourite Chinese Crested 3 kg only

"She weighs only 3 kg. This is Dad's favourite dog," the young lady said to me solemnly and worriedly as I had advised anaesthesia to pluck the big thick turf of ear hairs, clip the nails short, clip paw hairs, de-matt a few areas and do dental scaling. The dog just would not permit her to do it and now had red skin in the paws, legs, ears. She also had lots of dry scales or dandruff.

"Will you be the one doing the surgery?" she asked. "Yes," I said. The key to success in anaesthesia is to give the minimal dosage. And the vet must be vigilant and has experienced assistants who know anaesthesia very well. In this case, I ensure that I was in charge of anaesthesia as well.

I gave 50% of the calculated dosage of domitor and ketamine IV. I asked my assistant Min to get an electronic calculator and coached him on how the dosage is calculated. I wrote down on the paper the calculations to teach him the basics.

At 10 kg, a young healthy dog will be OK with domitor 0.4 ml and ketamine 0.5 ml combined IV in one syringe as an IV general anaethesia.

But this is a thin Chinese crested, stressed out by skin itchiness over the years and not in top health as dandruff keeps peeling off her skin. I did not take a blood test this time as I deemed it not necessary from general physical examination and history. However, the anaesthesia must be lowest but effective. So, I gave 50% based on 3kg.

All went well. I gave the dog a sniff of isoflurane gas as she was getting up. A sniff of less than 60 seconds. I observed the eye white being prominent. This indicated Stage 4 as the eyeball had rolled down and into danger territory. So, the gas was switched off. Everything went well. The dosage was sufficient for around 30 minutes which included all grooming and dental scaling.

Just to be on the safe side, I gave the antidote - Antisedan. In less than 1 minute, the Chinese Crested stood up and looked as fine. Pooped green stools. Went home in the afternoon after ear irrigation and a bath as the father and daughter came to pick her up and the Miniature Schnauzer (9 years old with similar requirements but had 7 loose teeth extracted). Also 50% dosage based on weight. And antisedan.

"No steroids," the young lady said. In this case, I have prescribed Atopica for 2 months plus the young lady's own special oil application to the skin as she had done successfully for the other Chinese Crested (hairless). Otherwise the Chinese crested keeps scratching herself day in and day out.