Sunday, July 29, 2012

Sunday 29 Jul 2012 afternoon cases

1. Dog with dead grey skin below throat of 20 cent area. Some pain. Could it be due to penetration by hard dog bone treats? Few days only.  The owner was flying and would be back tomorrow. Large area of cellulitis. conservative treatment. IV drip first and blood test.

2. Owner phoned wanting to de-mat the cat under sedation. A man here told him that there are 2 types of sedation. One without recovery and one with recovery. The former type is safer. I was surprised. "Much depends on the cat's health like heart, liver and kidney problems," I said. If the cat is not healthy, both types may kill the cat.

3. Beagle, 13 years old follow up on high liver enzymes by Dr Vanessa. Had vomiting and diarrhoea last visit. I insisted on IV drip with medication and to bring the dog home with the drip as the young lady did not want hospitalisation. IV drip gives direct effect. The dog recovered the next 2 days. "Just giving an injection and some medication to give at home will not work," i said to the father. "The intestines are  not well and so there wil be more bloody diarhoea overnight and unhappy owner having to clean up the mess."  As to the request for liver supplementation, I educated the young lady to take another blood test to check the status of the liver health rather than getting supplements. "For all you know, the liver was damaged due to an infectious organism at that time and has now recovered. The monocytes were 36% last time while the normal should be around <5%. So there was a chronic infection somewhere. The blood test showed "degenerative changes in the blood cells" too indicating something toxic at that time. A blood test was agreed upon by her father.

4. "Thank you for your help," the woman with red eyes said to me after her 18-year-old shih tzu was euthanased as I had interrupted Dr Vanessa to treat her case first as an emergency of a suffering crying old dog. "I wonder whether I should have her anal tumour removed when it was very small." Earlier she had wanted a house-call to euthanase the dog but we could not spare a vet to do it on a busy Sunday.

"When was that?" I asked. 
"2 years ago."
"Did you neuter the dog as the male hormones encourage the growth of this circum-anal tumour?" I asked.
"No," she said. "The tumour just exploded and grew large only in the last few weeks."
"The other vets would not advise operation as the dog was very old and high anaesthetic risk," I explained.  "This dog has a long life."
"My female dog has been spayed and is 18 years old and alive. I didn't neuter the male."

I checked the recent blood test results:
Only significant changes were in the differential blood count with N=83% (60-70) and L = 8% (12-30) and M=1% (3-10). But total WBC was normal at 8.8 (6-17). 

In conclusion, it is still best to neuter your dog and to get small anal tumours in male dogs removed by your vet when it is very small, even if the dog is "old".
         

Jul 29, 2012 Sunday's interesting cases

July 29, 2012
Arrived at 8.30 am. Bright sunshine Sunday.

1. Poodle spay came in at 10 am.  I told the owners that they could pick up the dog at 12 noon.
I prepared D+K, for this 3.5 kg dog.
D+K at 50% IV sufficient to intubate when done at the 4th minute after injection. Dr Daniel to spay.

2. Lady intern from stat board wanted to do internship as she wanted to become a vet. Had an Arts degree, AVA does not give vet scholarship to older graduates and the cost was prohibitive. "Be proactive and positive," I said. "Nobody can predict the future.

3. A Tampenis client of Dr Vanessa came to get some medicine and cream for his dog treated successfully for skin disease in Nov 2011. He wanted the tablets and the cream. When I advised that we don't sell tablets, he was furious as he could "buy from other vet clinics." So, he left in his taxi.

4. Dr Vanessa's 3 clients came in a bunch. So it is barking dogs. As it is a personalised service, her clients must wait. We have other vets but they want her.

5. You treated my Schnauzer with bloodied ears and pus flung onto Mr Saw last time," the lady selling rabbit health products said to me. "So I come back as the ears are giving me problems again." That was 3 days ago. I warded the 12-year old dog for ear irrigation and dental work. This morning I checked the oily ears. Much better. Took some pic. Will write up this case later.

Jul 29, 2012 Sunday's interesting cases

July 29, 2012
Arrived at 8.30 am. Bright sunshine Sunday.

1. Poodle spay came in at 10 am.  I told the owners that they could pick up the dog at 12 noon.
I prepared D+K, for this 3.5 kg dog.
D+K at 50% IV sufficient to intubate when done at the 4th minute after injection. Dr Daniel to spay.

2. Lady intern from stat board wanted to do internship as she wanted to become a vet. Had an Arts degree, AVA does not give vet scholarship to older graduates and the cost was prohibitive. "Be proactive and positive," I said. "Nobody can predict the future.

3. A Tampenis client of Dr Vanessa came to get some medicine and cream for his dog treated successfully for skin disease in Nov 2011. He wanted the tablets and the cream. When I advised that we don't sell tablets, he was furious as he could "buy from other vet clinics." So, he left in his taxi.

4. Dr Vanessa's 3 clients came in a bunch. So it is barking dogs. As it is a personalised service, her clients must wait. We have other vets but they want her.

5. You treated my Schnauzer with bloodied ears and pus flung onto Mr Saw last time," the lady selling rabbit health products said to me. "So I come back as the ears are giving me problems again." That was 3 days ago. I warded the 12-year old dog for ear irrigation and dental work. This morning I checked the oily ears. Much better. Took some pic

1814. Struvite stone treatment - Dr Daniel Sing

Friday, July 27, 2012

1813. Two vets not punctual.

The lab with epulis waited for Dr Daniel and another poodle owner waited for Dr Vanessa as they did not turn up early. That is not a good practice to come late.

1812. Epulis - Vet 1 advised no need surgery, not malignant

Friday, July 27, 2012

Today, I left home at 7.19 am, missed the feeder bus and walked to the Yio Chu Kang subway as the next bus will be 9 min. A breezy bright morning with sunshine and blue skies. I reached Toa Payoh subway at 7.50 am and walked to Toa Payoh Vets reaching at 8.41 am. A slow walk for exercise. Quite breezy but still sweating at the end.

A father and son came with a Labrador, Male, 12 years, bleeding from a large gum tumour. He had consulted "3 vets" but they did not advise surgical excision.

According to Vet 1's medical report- biopsy of gingival mass which was a fibromatous epulis of periodontal origin. According to the owner, Vet 1 did not advise surgical excision as it was "generally benign". Neither did another 2 vets from the same practice. The lump grew and grew and started to bleed at times. He was bleeding spots of blood outside the surgery at 9.15 am when the owners came. I asked them to wait as Dr Daniel was not here yet. More bleeding.

I decided to take over the surgical case as this is an old dog. Should be 14 years as he was stated 12 years in 2009 in Vet 1's record.

Blood test by Dr Daniel showed normal results except slightly below the low range of RBC and PCV

Domitor + Ketamine at 25% instead of 50% as the dog is really old.
Electro-excision is OK at this dosage if not delayed. Needed some isoflurane gas. Also for dental scaling. Strong teeth.

Implemented new anaesthetic recording system.
Today I used my first Anaesthesia & surgery record No. 151.

27.7.12, Lab Retriever, Male, 12 years, 36.3 kg, 39.1C
A   *Inj Domitor (0.4 ml) +K (0.5ml) IV at 25% calculated dose   10.06 am
B   Isoflurane gas first given                          10.18 am for dental scaling. Good teeth.
C   Isoflurane gas stopped                              10.51 am. End of dental scaling
D   Electro-excision of epulis started               10.10 am
E   End of excision                                         10.18 am
Antisedan IV to reverse domitor                      11.02 am. Dog wakes up in 1 minute

In 2009, Vet 1 said half the jaw had to be cut off, so the owner did not want surgery. Another of the 3 vets said that since the epulis was not cancerous as checked by biopsy, there was no need to remove it. But this epulis grew to twice the size and blood dripped from this tumour whenever it was injured, soiling the floor.

He did some internet surfing and consulted Toa Payoh Vets' Dr Daniel as 2nd opinion.
As the dog is old, I took over the case as I had more experience and could perform a shorter surgery, minimising risks of death on the op table.  The likely reason that the other 3 vets didn't recommend surgery would be that the dog is old and they don't want to
bear the high risk of anaesthetic death ruining their reputation.

I took 8 minutes to excise the epulis 2x2x1.5 cm under Domitor and Ketamine at 25%. A vet must be quick and know what to do during surgery, as the analgesia would wear off 8 minutes after injection. The dog started to move around the 8th minute. The incisor tooth might be entombed but I did not think of slicing the epulis to check and gave it to the owner. The owner threw it away.  Isoflurane and intubation were done for dental scaling. Solid teeth in general except for the tartar and plaque. The dog was given carrots and apples and had good food.

epulis_Lab_M_14years_bleeding.jpg
electro-excision of a gigantic epulis
20120738tn_epulis_Lab_M_14years_bleeding.jpg
tpvets_logo.jpg (2726 bytes)5508 -5517. A gigantic epulis
Control of bleeding. Electro-excised more of the periodontal ligament inside the hole. I used cotton to plug the hole after removal of the epulis to stop bleeding. The bleeding was profuse but stopped after 5 minutes of plugging with cotton.
 

UPDATE  July 30, 2012  12.50pm. 3 days post surgery, I phoned the owner to ask about the health status of his dog.

"On the first day at home, he was not able to walk on his left hind leg and we had to carry him outdoors for him to pee," he said. This dog has a left hind pain before surgery, possibly a bad hip. "However, today he could go to the lift himself."

"Has he got a good appetite?" I asked.

"He is eating soft food and wants to eat more. He has no problem eating."

"You can continue your usual dry food and others now," I said. "Is he more active?"

"I can see that he is overall well," the gentleman thanked me for following up. It was good to know that this old dog is OK. It is not guaranteed that all old dogs operated by me survive anaesthesia and so surgery must be short to lessen any risk of death.

Oral tumours are best removed when they are small in size, even though they may not be cancerous. This is because they cause oral pain as they ulcerated and become infected. They interfere with the joy of eating too as an ulcerated infected mouth is very painful.  

Blogger.com has some problems displaying the width of the page.
Toa Payoh Vets webpage is:
http://www.sinpets.com/F5/2012072gigantic_epulis_labrador_toapayohvets.htm


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

1811. Blood test of closed pyometra CKC 4 years

The size of the womb is bigger than the German sausages sold in the gourmet supermarket as you can see from the images. Packed bursting with pus. I showed dog with PUO, JJ's owner, the difference in blood test of a bacterial infected dog.



"The blood test showed low RBC, HCT and Hb and normal MCHC.

Total WCC 127 (6-17). Neutrophils at 95% indicating a raging bacterial infection and a serious poor prognosis of death.
The platelets were low at 11  (normal 200-500) - likely to bleed internally to death.
The lab report said: "the blood cells show degenerative changes? age/transport. several abnormal seens seen. No platelet clumps."

On clinical grounds, this dog was having septicaemia and the owner must be informed early prior to surgery of the high probability of death on the op table. Failure to do so would be negligent of the vet. I phoned the owner to tell him. The dog was operated by dr Daniel and is OK now. She is young and so has a better chance of survival. No x-rays were wanted.