731. Animal Welfare Activists

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 12:39 PM, ...@gmail.com> wrote:

Attention to the Veterinary Head of Toa Payoh Vets,

My name is ... and I am working full time for a church in Singapore.

Our church is currently in the process of getting a new animal shelter set up in Singapore. We are waiting for tenders from AVA or SLA for dog farms in Sungei Tengah. The shelter should be up and going in about 1 or 2 year's time. Our emphasis will specifically be to help stray or abandoned dogs. We are serious about this ministry and is looking forward toward setting it up as soon as possible.

The reason for writing to you is to ask if your clinic would be be interested to participate in the sterilization, vaccination and medical treatment program of our dogs.

We hope that you could partner with us in this good cause.

If so, please let us know how much you will charge us (roughly) for the following services so that we can better estimate our financial planning. We would greatly appreciate if you could give us a subsidized rate that is lower than the market.

Vaccination of a dog (regardless of size & inclusive of medication)
Sterilization of a dog (regardless of size & inclusive of medication)
Microchipping
Consultation fee
Medication discount
Essential Products such as heartguard, frontline
Medicated shampoos

Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.

Alternatively, if any of your vets are interested to help on an individual, voluntary or private basis, please also respond to me.


God bless you,
...



On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 4:00 PM, Kelly Lim wrote:

Dear Dr Sing

Thank you for your prompt reply. We will contact you again when we have the latest update.

God bless you,
....


E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING DATED SEP 5, 2011

I am Dr Sing. As there is inflation and prices go up yearly, it is not possible to quote now and there will be misunderstandings when your shelter is built in 2-4 years' s time. Please let me know when the tender has been successful.



E-MAIL TO DR SING DATED NOV 11, 2011

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 10:40 AM, ...gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Dr Sing

I am .., who have previously communicated with you over a few emails regarding our church's planned shelter for stray dogs. We have confirmed with AVA about the timing of the tender. It will probably be open only in 2013.

However, in the meanwhile, we can't just sit and wait for the land to come and ignore the terrible plight of the stray dogs. For the past 2 years, a few of us have already been feeding about 70 strays here and there, as well as actively putting up adoption for the puppies. We have our puppies screened for parvo virus, vaccinated & dewormed before giving them away for adoption. For the grown dogs, we have also got a few happily adopted. So far they are all success stories. We also sterilize the females. Many of them are sterilized except for about 10 more because they are very smart. Yet 10 females can reproduce beyond what we can cope. Still trying our best to patiently gain their trust.

Occasionally tragedies still happen. This year, we lost 2 batches of 8-9 puppies (could not catch them in time when they were about 5 weeks old and started running around in the open) that were in one night swept by the China and Thai workers for their "makan". These workers usually congregate over weekends and that is when they will notice the puppies and gang up to catch all of them.

Recently 1 black mongrel puppy was kicked to death at 3 month old and the other one blinded by the impact but a miracle happened and his eyesight is restored. Now he is in a foster home. They were the only ones left un-adopted because they were black in color.
So far I have visited ... and .... They do have 10% discount for strays but the bills still come up to an exorbitant amount for so many dogs.

Would you be able to propose a medical service package for us during these 2 years of transition before our shelter is formally up?

Looking forward to your reply.


God bless you,
...



E-MAIL REPLY DATED NOV 13, 2011
I am sorry I can't help you as my clinic is very small with 1 full-time vet, unlike ... and ... and other clinics who have many vets. In any case, I advise you to contact the newer clinics (there are over 40 clinics) in Singapore and these may be able to help you. You just need to do so personally. E-mails save time but not so good if you want to be an activist.

730. AVA Reponsible Pet Ownership Roadshow 2011 - Toa Payoh Vets

TOA PAYOH VETS
Block 1002, Toa Payoh Lor 8, 01-1477, Singapore 319074
6254-3326, 9668-6469, judy@toapayohvets.com, www.toapayohvets.com

Speaker: Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
Founder & Practising Veterinarian, Toa Payoh Vets
Saturday, November 12, 2011

Nov 10, 2011

AVA Responsible Pet Ownership Roadshow 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011, 1.30 pm - 2 pm, Changi Expo

"SOME COMMON DISEASES IN DOGS"

I accepted two slots on Saturday and Sunday to present a talk on dogs and hamsters respectively. However, the AVA cancelled my Sunday talk scheduled from 3.30 pm to 4 pm and offered me another slot at 1.30 pm. I am unable to take up this slot.
Therefore, I will talk about common diseases in hamsters on this Saturday as dwarf hamsters are quite popular with Singaporeans.

In short, I will be presenting some health care cases mainly in dogs. However, the responsibilities of health care and ownership in canine cases apply to the care of cats, hamsters and rabbits.

I apologise for the inconvenience caused to the audience who expect only canine matters to be presented.

As Power Point slide presentations of "Responsible Pet Ownership" can be extremely dull and sleep-inducing in my experience, I have just got videos produced and hope all of you will enjoy the stories based on some common real life cases encountered at Toa Payoh Vets. The stories cover some common cases seen at Toa Payoh Vets from the birth to old age of the pets from around 1980 to 2011.

If you have any questions about responsible pet ownership as regards health care matters or the the cases in the videos, some details are available at www.toapayohvets.com.

If not, tel me at the Surgery at 6254-3326, 9668-6469 or e-mail judy@toapayohvets.com

729. Right ear weeping in a Westie - an unusual case

"I have seen 3 vets. One of them said there might be a tumour inside the right ear," the young lady said to me. "The last vet advised ear surgery." From my impressions, the young couple wanted a permanent solution to this one-year problem of the Westie with the itchy right ear and they came to see me.

This dog had lots of "water" inside the ear canal. I palpated the right ear. There was some pain as the dog moved his head away. But not great pain. As I pressed the ear, more "watery" discharge come out. As I cleared the discharge with a piece of tissue and then pressed the ear, more "watery" discharge comes out. Not those thick yellow pus, but watery. Why?

It was as if the horizontal ear canal was a deep well with lots of water. "Did your father apply the commercial ear drops recently?" I asked.

"No," the young lady said. "No more ear drops left."
This was a most unusual case. It was as if there was "underground" water.
"This ear needed to be irrigated," I advised.

I collaborate with Dr Vanessa on this case as part of my mentorship and succession program for Toa Payoh Vets.

Each young vet has his or her own idea of treatment and I wanted to make sure that this dog had a treatment that I would be doing and to maintain a standard of care that would be satisfactory to dog owners who come to Toa Payoh Vets for second or more opinions.

TREATMENT
Domitor IV sedated the dog partly. Muzzled. Dr Vanessa put in the pink antiseptic solution into the ear canal, massaged it to clear the debri. That is the standard way and that would be what the other vets had been doing. Nothing wrong with that.
But it might not be effective compared to ear irrigation.

So I intervened and demonstrated how the ear irrigation ought to be done. There is a technique. I had shown this in my video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZ5eGJdwnY

Dr Vanessa used the 20-ml syringe to flush the ear. "You need to exercise your thumb muscles," I said as she injected the water into the ear without much force. "The irrigation angle has to be at 45 degrees to the horizontal canal and with speed," I demonstrated. It is easier said and demonstrated than done.

White tissue pieces from the walls of the vertical canal came out. Large extensive ulcers. As I irrigated more, a small piece of brown tissue came out. Then a few more brown bits. Strange. No pus.

I left the room to talk to the couple. Then I returned to the room to continue working with Dr Vanessa. She had extracted a big amount of brownish fibres from deep inside the ear. Good work. "What are these brown stuff?" I asked her.
"It could be tumours," she said. We showed the brown fibres to the young couple who was equally as perplexed.

"Did your father use cotton buds to clean the right ear?" I asked.
"Yes," the lady said. Later she said that her father used cotton wool wrapped around a pair of forceps to clean this ear.
So, the clue was given. The father would have used lots of cotton wool over the past year to resolve the ear problem. The fibres loosened and got impacted inside the horizontal canal. The whole canal filled up. The fibres absorbed the "water" of the commercial ear drops. At the same time, the bleeding from the canal wall due to aggressive ear cleaning by the father stained the fibres into dark brown as red blood becomes brown over time. These were the fibres or "tumours" pulled out.

Is this hypothesis sound? It is an unusual case as there was no pus. No time for pus to form too as the father must be doing ear cleaning every day. Sometimes, the grown up children don't know what the father is doing in the care of the dog as they work long hours.

Dr Vanessa extracted as much as possible. Evidence shown. She showed the couple the ear canal via the auroscope.
Ear swab for bacterial culture. Blood test.

SOLUTION
My advice was to lateral canal resection to resolve the dog's problem once and for all. The impacted cotton wool is deep inside the horizontal canal and opening up the vertical canal to get the hidden wool is the best solution. Owners want one treatment not several visits. This is understandable for every one. I advise surgery one week later.

728. Scupturing dogs with veggie dyes and making them look like pandas etc - animal cruelty?

MY REPLY TO COMMENTS ON DOG DYED TO LOOK LIKE PANDAS AND OTHER ANIMALS

Thank you for your email. I have not seen one client Toa Payoh Vets with coloured/dyed dogs from 1982 to 2011. It is surprising.

If I do, I will advise the owner to check whether the dye is carcinogenic, allergic or toxic to the dog when licked and in the long term.

Nowadays, what is deemed animal cruelty in subjecting a dog to being dyed to one person is not cruel to another. As long as the quality of life of the pet is good and the pet is healthy despite "vegetable-dyed", I am not against this practice which you may consider cruel.

Older men and women dye their white or grey hairs to look younger. Young people dye their hair to look different. Such hair dyes may have long term toxic effects on the kidneys and livers as they are used for a long time to maintain youthfulness esp. in older people. This is my opinion that is not supported by scientific evidence, if any.

But most people don't bother about the safety aspects and that is why so many "herbal" and "nutritional/vitamin" pills with possible harmful effects to the liver and kidneys have great sales.

I hope my reply is satisfactory to you.

727. Dr Sing's presentation at the AVA Responsible Pet Ownership Seminar Sat Nov 12, 2011 1.30pm to 2 pm

30 minute talk. Instead of boring power point slides on how to be a responsible pet owner in Singapore, I will be showing videos


My videos on caring for your pet to permit it to live longer and have a good quality of life will likely be:

1. Oro-fistula and follow up in an old Chihuahua who had had pyometra
2. How to bathe a Roborovski hamster with generalised skin disease
3. Ear irrigations for a Golden Retriever with chronic ear infections
4. Emergency Caesarean section advices for the home-breeder
5. FIV in a stray cat
6. Blood in the urine in a dog
7. Tumours, Perineal hernias, Circum-anal tumours in older pets including hamsters, dogs, cats
8. Eye ulcers are emergencies.
9. Puppy parvoviral disease and prevention by vaccination.

Early detection of diseases and removal of tumour save lives. Be a responsible pet owner.

I hope the videos will last the 30-minute of talk and be entertaining and useful for the audience

726. Regional nerve block in vet dentistry video

I spoke to Daniel, a Murdoch 5th year vet student who wrote a research article on the above subject and said it was inexpensive and fast and therefore should be used by vets.

I do not do regional nerve block in vet dentistry as the dog still needs General Anaesthesia, unlike human beings. Maybe in very old dogs? GA using isoflurane + oxygen is safe even for very old dogs. So I believe almost 99% of vets in private practice do not bother with regional nerve blocks in vet dentistry in the dog and cat.
However, I chanced upon a video on this subject today while doing my research for the AVA Responsible Pet Ownership 2011 Seminar on this Sat Nov 12,2011 at 1.3pm0 - 2 pm at Changi Expo. I will be showing videos rather than the boring Power Point Slides presentation. Probably only 10 adults and a few children will be present at this talk, from my past observations!



There is a video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtWUzkHnLTk&feature=related

725. AVA Responsible Pet Ownership Roadshow 2011

AVA Responsible Pet Ownership Roadshow 2011
12 & 13 November 2011
Singapore Expo Hall 4B
Toa Payoh Vets' Talk: Be A Responsible Home-breeder - Dystocia in the Dog

Story of 2 case studies - Small breeds with large pups
Experienced home-breeder. Arrangement with a vet to standby.
Inexperienced home-breeder. Veterinary Costs. Wait and See?
Delays in seeking Emergency Caesarean Section - What happens?

Hook 1 - After midnight emergency Caesarean Section

Video Scene of undertakers around Toa Payoh Vets. Ghosts roam after midnight? White apparitions seen outside clinic. Pass the case to other vets? Duty of care?

INTRODUCTION

MIDDLE - Case study 1. Experienced breeder saves surgery time.
Case study 2. Breeder does not know how to revive pup with water-logged lungs. I had to show. Swing hard but carefully. Picture.

CONCLUSION - Vet fees are higher after office hours. From $1,500 - $3,000.
Hook 2 - Public holiday

1. TRENDS IN SINGAPORE PET OWNERSHIP BY DR SING AS A VET FROM 1974 - 2011

1.1 MANY MORE CARING YOUNG ADULT SINGAPOREANS - BEST HEALTH CARE FOR THEIR PETS
1.2 CONFLICTS WITH SENIOR CITIZENS & DEPENDENTS - THE GOOGLE GENERATION V. SENIOR CITIZENS WHO ARE PRAGMATIC - BUYING A NEW PET IS CHEAPER THAN PAYING VET FEES. What values are imparted? Don't care when pets are old and sick? Get a new one!


2. ADVICES. DO NOT BREED. EMERGENCY CAESAREAN SECTIONS ARE RELATIVELY "EXPENSIVE" - FROM $1,500 - $3,000
3. IF YOU WANT TO BREED,
3.1 READ AND RESEARCH ON DOG PREGNANCY AND DYSTOCIAS IN YOUR BREED
3.2 BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST WITH THEIR VET
3.3 BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE VET FEES FOR EMERGENCY CAESAREAN SECTIONS
3.4 FIND A VET WHO CHARGES $200 FOR A CAESAREAN SECTION?

3. MORE CAESAREAN SECTION CASE STUDIES BY DR SING AT:
http://www.bekindtopets.com/animals/20081201PAGE2_Dog_Surgery_Anaesthesia_ToaPayohVets.htm

CREDITS

PRODUCED AND NARRATED BY: