898. Sunday's interesting cases: The guinea pig passes blood in the urine for the 3rd time

Sunday Mar 4, 2012

Case 1. Haematuria. "The guinea pig passes blood in the urine again yesterday," the young lady messaged Dr Daniel and came to the surgery. Yet, the carrier's absorbent litter showed just yellowish brown urine but the owner confirmed that real red blood had been passed at home.

"There are many causes," Dr Daniel enumerated UTI, stones that were not visible on X-rays, tumours. What to do? Go for a 3rd opinion? "You were supposed to be the 2nd opinion," she said.

So what was the cause of bleeding in the urine? Bladder or kidney problem? Hard to say. An exploratory laparotomy would be highly risky. The guinea pig was now 650 g compared to the earlier visit some 10 days ago.

I gave the following advices:
1. Feed the guinea pig organic vegetables, fruits and hay for one month.
2. No treats and pellets.
3. Feed the medication as before.

"How about dried raisins?" the lady asked. "They are his favourite."
"No raisins too."

Could raisins be the cause since the guinea pig had recovered the next day when hospitalised at Toa Payoh Vets and fed only vegetables and apple? Not a drop of blood. He went home and the cage was screened to prevent him climbing and chewing the wires (pictures given by owner).

Will wait and see.



EARLIER CONSULTATION ON FEB 27, 2012

Other than that, please be careful about over-use of disinfectants and chew blocks that may have chemicals inside the wood. Toxins to the kidneys due to chewing of blocks and fence may also damage the kidney and cause blood in the urine.


On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:59 PM, ...@gmail.com> wrote:

He loves standing this way and the plastic screen is placed before the fence. However, what I noticed is that he's just grabbing the top edge to stand now.

EARLIER CONSULTATION ON FEB 28, 2012



Hi,


Photo 2 is the photo of his new enclosure. You can see that instead of wiring, its the blue plastic on all 3 sides within the enclosure.


In Photo, you can see that the blue piece is before the wiring. Also, you can see the small rubber tubing (fish tank cleaning rubber tubing, sliced along an edge) that I have just added to cover the top-most horizontal wires. I noticed that he doesn't bite this material.


In Photo 1, it shows the clear plastic sheet on his enclosure door. It is also placed before the wiring, from Bean's perspective when he is in the enclosure.


Noted the possible toxins from the cleaning items, chew toys and cage wirings.


Thank you!


Regards,
Name of owner

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Case 2. Vaccination. Westie with lots of pus in both ears came for vaccination. I was surprised that he had recovered 90%. Some black specks in his spinal area whereas previously the whole area was tar black. "Ear canals are clean," I said as I taught Dr Daniel that I would smell the cotton tip after inserting into the ear canal. Most vets don't do it. Smell is a good indicator of ear canal health. I pressed the sides of the ears firmly. No pain. A bit more firmly on both ears. The dog gave a slight yelp. Overall, the ears were clean and had no more pus. I was surprised. The medication was working for this old dog obsessed with ear scratching for many months. The dog had ear irrigation twice and was OK now.

"Dental scaling is needed," the lady owner in her late 40s said. "When did your dog eat breakfast?" I asked. "Always at 6.30 am." Since I did not want the owner to come again, I advised dental scaling at 3 pm, using domitor and ketamine IV. No vomiting. All OK.

Case 3. Meeting with Mr Min, Dr Vanessa and Dr Daniel.
"There is a lot of administration that the lay staff like Mr Lim and Nicole had to do," I said to the 3 of them. "They loved to help out Dr Vanessa in consultation and surgery but they neglected to complete their project." They took a lot longer time to complete the project and they do take days off now and then. Therefore I had advised that they be advised to focus on their work.

"Technical aspect is just one aspect of veterinary medicine," I said to Dr Vanessa. "There is the administration side and the other aspects to support the vets. The vets must discourage idle gossip that lay staff love. They are paid to do a job but they prefer to see practice. That is not what I pay them to do."

I hope the vets have a better understanding that veterinary medicine is much more than just diagnosis and treatment. Lots of paperwork, taxation and other legal submission to the authorities, stock checking and control, payment and sterilisation, cleaning etc.

Case 4. Maltese with blood clot inside the eye, in front of the iris.
Mr Min suggested that the torch-light be shone from 6 o'clock upwards. Sure enough, the young couple could see pinkish blood clot inside the eye in front of the pupil. The dog had been rubbing its eye hard.