1427. Veterinary stories from a
young vet
May 23, 2013
Seldom do I meet young vets as
we have our own business to
attend to and there may be a
generation gap. I had some
interesting conversations with
one young vet I met yesterday.
Case of a female cat has a
distended bladder.
It is very hard to catheterise a
female dog or cat, unlike a male
dog. In the female cat, it is
much more difficult. "Use a
speculum or otoscope with
magnifying glass," I advised
this young vet who would have
known what to do from internet
research. "The dog's legs must
hang down the table." she said.
"But I can't locate the urethral
opening." The dog must be
anaesthesized.
She had a case of a female cat
with swollen bladder and asked
the owner to visit another vet.
"There is a possibility that you
use a syringe to suck out the
urine and whatever is lodged
inside the female urethra would
be dislodged," I said there was
no need to send the patient
away. "Make a small incision
after aspiration of the urine
deflating the bladder. Place the
catheter into the urethra from
inside the bladder and syringe
in the saline to dislodge the
urethra or use a forceps to
extract it. You can then stitch
up the small incision. The same
process applies to the female
dog with urethra obstruction."
Case of a runaway neutered
horse.
IV anaesthetic was used and she
was monitoring the horse
anaesthesia. "The eyelids were
blinking and I asked the
operating vet whether I should
top up," she was doing
internship in Australia and the
horse was being neutered in an
open field. "No need to," the
other vet said. "In a second,
the horse got up and ran away!"
"It is very difficult to catch a
runaway horse," I remembered my
days as a racehorse vet at the
Singapore Turf Club. "How did
you two do it?"
"The horse was still wobbly and
we caught him."
In any horse story, a pregnant
vet was standing near a horse
and got kicked. She had a
miscarriage. "Fortunately she
did not die," I said. "I hear
stories of vets killed by
kicking horses."
I was telling this young vet
that I prefer to visit the old
vet practices as many of them
have excellent veterinary
lessons to learn from. Not the
fanciful high tech expensive vet
practices where money is not a
problem. "There is an old
practice in Australia where the
vets don't use isoflurane gas,
one young vet told me," I said.
"It was a fun practice to do
internship. The vets were around
70 years old. A James Herriot
type of practice. I would like
to visit it. At first the vet
who told me of its existence did
not want to reveal its name and
I told her it was a legal
practice. So what is there is
hide? Her University lecturers
frowned at this practice and
could not believe it existed in
Australia. I guess it is one of
a kind."
I went to visit an industrial
shop making gold rings and other
accessories with this young vet
as the operators were her
parents. The workers had gone
and now the parents were doing
the work themselves. The over 50
years of industrial knowledge
were not fully passed on as
there were no successors as the
elder brother is making more
money in IT and the younger one
is a vet earning $4,000 a month.
"How many thousands of gold ring
need to be sold to make $4,000,"
I said to this young vet. "At 3%
of selling price of $200 for a
gold ring as profit as your mum
said, she needs to sell over a
thousand rings."
"But she can sell many rings and
make more money than me," the
young vet knows the inside of
the industry as she was a little
girl who was brought to the
industrial shop by her parents.
The good times might have gone
by. Gold prices have dropped but
there is always innovation and a
new mindset to revive her
parents' business. If only she
was interested. "Studying TMC is
a waste of time if you want to
make money," I said. "Apprentice
yourself and improve your
parents' business bringing it to
a higher level," I advised. Only
she and her brother would have
the insider's knowledge on what
ails the industry but has she
the motivation? "Earning
$4,000 a month by being an
employee has its limits on
earning more," I said. "If you
can improve your parents'
business and expertise, the
income will definitely be more
than $4,000!"
The prices of making such rings
are much cheaper in Malaysia,
China and Hong Kong and the
workers are nowhere to be found.
The founders who are over 60
years old still carry on. "It
is from such hard work that the
parents send a princess to study
vet medicine in Australia," I
said. The second brother who is
keen on continuing this business
called this young vet a princess
of the family. "You ought to
help sustain the family
business, but with innovations
and new ideas," I said.
"Rather than continuing making
the usual gold rings or sourcing
them. For example, online sales,
using an English name. Not a
Chinese name like Hong Hong gold
as the global consumers prefer
English-sounding brands." The
small animal veterinary
practices on the other hand had
grown to over 50 in number while
such gold producing shops had
shrunk in numbers in Singapore.
Bali is famous for its gold
craftsmanship and Singapore is
now not competitive at all. Life
is full of changes and one can
become redundant or bankrupt
with global changes in one's
industry and government
policies.
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TOA
PAYOH VETS
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