Tibetan Mastiff sedation

"Do you do house-calls for a very big dog with itchy ears?" an old client and friend asked me the fees to treat a very big dog at the home of her friend.

"It will be a waste of your money," I said. "Ear disease diagnosis need a microscope and other assistants to help out."

Tibetan Mastiff, Male, 7 months, 53kg. Healthy. Ear canals with black wax seen daily. Had lots of ticks recently when walked outdoors.

EAR IRRIGATION & LICK GRANULOMA INJECTION
A gentle giant but still it is best not to traumatise him. My client said: "My friend's dog was hit by a car, bit the owner's arm later."

SEDATION
Do a proper calculation as follows:
My guideline IV anaesthesia
10 kg young dog Domitor = 0.4 ml, Ketamine = 0.5 ml combined IV
53 kg young dog D= 2.12ml K=2.65ml
I gave 40%, D=0.85 K=1.06 Total = 1.85ml IV as this would be a short anaesthesia of around 10 minutes needed for me to irrigate the ears and inject the 3 lick granulomas with prednisolone intra-lesionally.

"My dog will not get up on the table," the owner said.
"No dog will climb up a veterinary table," I explained to the gentleman. "I will carry his back half and you carry his chest. Talk to your dog while we carry or he will feel he is being murdered."
The dog was carried up on the table by the owner and my assistant Min without a protest.

Now, to find that leg vein as the coat is so thick. The foreleg was thick as this was a man-sized dog. I don't clip off the hairs to see the vein as it is not acceptable.

"Tighten the tourniquet," I said to Min who had not seen large a gigantic dog. Singapore's dogs are usually small breeds and Tibetan Mastiffs are as rare as snowfall.

I pressed the swelling and drew the blood into the syringe. I injected the 1.85 ml IV.

The dog slept at this 40% of calculated dosage. I taught the owner how to check the ear canal and insert the cotton bud, smell it and then I irrigated the ear canals.

After that I injected pred into the 3 lick granulomas. The dog did twitched a little on the 3rd lick granuloma being injected but was otherwise knocked out.












4949 - 4958. Itchy ears and three interdigital cysts/lick granulomas must be treated early - Tibetan Mastiff. If itchiness of ears and paws are not treated early by your vet, the dog self-mutilates to relieve himself of the intense itchiness. Hair loss and skin infections present themselves soon
"I need to wake up the dog," I said as I injected Antisedan 1.0 ml IM on the right hip muscles. He woke up 10 minutes later and that was great.

The above 40% dosage was sufficient for a short painless ear irrigation and lick granuloma injection of less than 10 minutes.

Know how to check the ears and prevent interdigital cysts and lick granulomas in a big furry breed as it is a high maintenance breed. Brush daily and inspect daily. Clean ears. It is extremely difficult to avoid ticks. Wear booties or check paws after a walk. "I avoid the grass," the owner just walked the dog in the evenings along the road.

The following advices to the owner who had bought a very strong hair blower for Tibetan Mastiff were:

1. Daily brushing of the coat with the slicker and another brush rather than hot air blowing everyday as the dog has some skin itchiness and eczema, probably due to the earlier tick bite infestations.
2. Daily inspection of the ears
3. No rough cotton wool to dig the ears
4. There is no need to pour his ear lotion by pumping into the ears every day if the ears are clean. He use to do it every day. Daily ear dropping had resulted in brown black wax being produced.
To check the ear canals as to whether they are clean or not, I taught him how to insert the cotton bud into the ear canal. See the colour of the tip and smell it. If the colour is clear, the ear has no dirt.
5. Washing of the paws with an anti-fungal solution and rinsing.
6. A long bath tub is needed if he wants to de-tick his dog.
7. Get a big table (as long as my surgery table) and put the dog on top of the table to do his grooming. This is easier on his back.
8. Avoid tick areas. Inspect the four paws when the dog is back from outside walks. He had used Frontline sprays and spots-on insecticides but these have become ineffective over time. Wearing of booties when going out for walks is not practical as the dog needs to wear out his nails. So, daily inspection of the paws for the smallest baby tick after exercise.

This was about the biggest dog in Singapore. As big as a young man. A very gentle giant. If he bites the vet, the vet's fingers can be crushed to pieces. So it is important that he be treated gently and to use sedation if there is pain during treatment, as there is, in the intra-lesion injection of his lick granulomas.

Overall, he was good and could walk back to the car. I helped to carry him onto the boot of the friend's SUV. The owner's BMW was probably not big enough! It was great to meet up with this old client who had consulted Dr Vanessa for the past times as I was seldom around in the afternoons. I asked her to make an appointment to let me check out her dog's skin condition when she said that "old" vets are more experienced. Every vet needs to start at the beginning but young vets need to gain the experience with time. Experience is gained not only be practising but by reading a lot of veterinary literature on relevant situations and consulting other vets for how they treat certain conditions. It may sound stupid to ask other vets but much can be learned from asking.

NINE more images are at:
http://www.sinpets.com/dogs/20120119Tibetan-Mastiff-lick-granulomas-ear-itchiness-singapore_ToaPayohVets.htm