Tuesday, July 30, 2013

1045. Veterinary educational videos produced by Toa Payoh Vets


tpvets_logo.jpg (2726 bytes)TOA PAYOH VETS
toapayohvets.com

Date:   30 July, 2013  
 
Focus: Small animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles & rabbits
Making "Be Kind To Pets" Educational Videos 
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
Date:   30 July, 2013  
toapayohvets.com 
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129

21 May 2013 - 19 June 2013 - Performance Report of my youtube videos

Jun 21, 2013
Around 2011, I decided to produce educational veterinary videos for www.toapayohvets.com as "Be Kind to Pets" Educational Videos are more useful for the younger generation of vet students and pet owners in Singapore. A video is worth a million words to the young ones.

Most of the young ones don't have time to read and sleep if they spend their time on social media and streaming movies.

I collaborate with my interns to produce the veterinary videos. By being hands on, I strongly believe they will learn more than just being an observer at the veterinary practice, as observation is the common practice for veterinary interns in the Western-education based veterinary studies.

I gave the interns my concept, sometimes dialogue and the theme, e.g How does a vet treat kennel cough? Video. They do the writing and editing so that the videos are not boringly my voice or point of view. It takes a thousand times longer to produce an educational video as compared to writing a case study but the educational value of a video is a million times more useful and I hope more entertaining. The videos are not perfect but it is better to produce a hundred imperfect videos and learn from the failures and errors rather than create one perfect video.

Today I review my youtube analytics for May 21 2013 to June 19, 2013 and the following are the results:

TOP 5 VIDEOS
1.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmTYP8T95V4  690 views 768 minutes. Kennel Cough Video Produced in Nov 18, 2011.

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IktlG2Rkac 162 views  103 minutes. Oro-nasal Fistula Video Produce in Jan 20, 2010

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AWHpWYWgy4
Carnaissal Tooth Abscess Video 

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCxQdlVP4s
Closed pyometra  & toxaemia


My favourite video is still the Kennel Cough Video which is at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmTYP8T95V4

I gave the concept and a briefing of kennel cough to my associate vet and one intern. He roped in his friend who is experienced in video production. The intern acted as the dog owner. The experienced friend videoed and produced.  I left the Surgery so as to let them be free to act, keeping my fingers crossed that the final movie would be great. The angles, voice over and acting were great.

The only thing that the video did not capture was the "kennel cough" of the puppies. The pug puppy did have kennel cough but was recovering. There were no other cases and the interns worked for 3 days only.

Kennel Cough in puppies will sound like an "old man's cough" frequently heard in the 1950s as tuberculosis was more common. However new puppy owners in Singapore will know the cough! This is the top viewing video in May to June 2013, showing that kennel cough is of great interest to new puppy owners or that the video was produced 2 years ago and so garnered more viewings.

My 2nd favourite video is done by an intern from Raffles Institution. It was produced with a good narrative from the point of view of a young lady in the 2nd year of Junior College and who wants to be a veterinarian. The video is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvku1Ix4Bxc&feature=youtu.be

Being a small animal vet is my 3rd favourite video prepared for a talk in Raffles Institution. It held the attention of the students, not an easy thing to do with the younger generation as this generation has a short attention span. The video is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUSnC14GtVQ&feature=youtu.be

  I thank all the young interns for their creativity and efforts to collaborate with me to produce educational and entertaining veterinary videos. These videos are not perfect as there may be some grammatical errors in some videos. It is better to for the vet interns to learn by co-producing the educational videos rather than by observation as a bystander beside the vet and writing case reports which can be boring. I hope all my interns will achieve their dreams of becoming a veterinarian.

P.S. Some videos produced in June & July 2013 are as follows:
Updates will be on this webpage:
http://www.kongyuensing.com/animals/
20130621educational_vet_video.htm


More statistics and draft of this report is at:
http://2010vets.blogspot.sg/2013/06/21-may-2013-19-june-2013-performance.html


More info at: Dogs or Cats
To make an appointment:
e-mail judy@toapayohvets.com
tel: +65 9668-6469, 6254-3326
tpvets_logo.jpg (2726 bytes)Toa Payoh Vets
Clinical Research
Copyright © Asiahomes
All rights reserved. Revised: July 30, 2013

Toa Payoh Vets

Sunday, July 28, 2013

1044. Follow up on Jack Russell with ascites

Sunday Jul 28, 2013
11.30 am

"I don't sms replies when there is too much text to do thumb," I said to the owner of the 13-year-old male aggressive Jack Russell.

I had texted: "Is dog breathing normally and not coughing?"
She responded at 9.19 am: "Yes, not coughing anymore. one thing I forgot to ask. Last few weeks when he barked too much, he sort of lost his orientation n balance n "faint" on the floor n whole body tense up n he involuntarily urinate. So is it normal?"

Continuing: she texted: "Is that a symptom of other illness I mean?"

"Thank you for your text doctor"

Another text 1 minute later at 9.21 am  "I dissolve medicine with milk n he drank all the milk with the dissolved medication."

So I phoned her to discuss further as I am not into texting furiously.

1043. The Fine Art of Digital Printing


tpvets_logo.jpg (2726 bytes)TOA PAYOH VETS
toapayohvets.com

Date:   28 July, 2013  
 

Focus: Small animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles & rabbits
Continuing education in digital photography   
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
Date:   28 July, 2013  
toapayohvets.com 
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129

1043. The Fine Art of Digital Printing

Saturday July 27, 2013

I was at work in the drizzling morning on Saturday.  A lady wanted to consult me about her old Jack Russell who had difficulty breathing and the abdomen had started swelling for a few days.

"The dog is old, no point spending much money treating him," her 65-year-old father kept reiterating. I was quite irritated by his repetitions.

"You and I are old at over 60 years of age," I said to this man. "Does it mean that when we are sick, we should be put to sleep?"  That was the message he was transmitting to his daughter. 

His daughter said: "This dog has been with us for 10 years. I will not euthanase him just because he cannot breathe normally and is sick. My dad 's intentions are to save my money." 

To lower medical costs, I did not ask for X-ray of the chest and heart. A blood test and examination of the abdominal exudate would be done.

"Don't use sedation on this dog as he may die," I said to my assistant Naing as we muzzled this biting Jack Russell and held his four legs. He was much weaker since he had been panting probably for more than a week. I inserted a 19-G needle into his umbilical area and extracted around 1000 ml of blood-tinged fluid with 20-ml syringes. The abdominal swelling reduced considerably in size. Then I gave an injection to remove the excess fluid.

The dog stopped panting as the abdominal swelling was gone. He just looked much alert. "His abdominal swelling will return," I said to the owners. "He needs to be on heart medication for the rest of his life."

The dog peed at the waiting room and went home looking like a normal dog. He was given heart disease medications. By then, it was 12 noon and I had to rush to the Palm Room of the Singapore Flyer to attend a talk on digital printing by Stephen Loh. 

This was the 2nd old Jack Russell with ascites within a short period of time. Many veterinary events seem to occur in pairs recently. There were cost considerations for the first case too.

That dog seems to be normal after abdominocentesis as he did not have recurrences and is on oral chemotherapy. The owner WhatsApp his flat abdominal images to me recently. Both Jack Russells are much loved by the family members but the budget prevents me from more detailed lab tests like X-rays and follow through to come to a definitive diagnosis. 


TALK ON THE DIGITAL PRINTING BY STEPHEN LOH
How to print your photographs and sell them at $700 or more? It is not possible for most of the approximately 100 amateur photographers attending "The Art of Fine Printing" talk by Mr Stephen Loh of www.lyricalmoments.com

Stephen is a professional wedding photographer and shares his experiences generously. He does around 40 weddings a year for clients who want more than just the mass wedding photographs and can pay for his services.

Here are some tips from him:
1. Always use RAW files. Hard drives are so cheap nowadays. He also uses tripod, light meter and lighting.

2. He uses Manual mode, except for focus.
3. He never uses Hue/Saturation which I used a lot as this affects the tonality of the images. For me, I use a lot.
4. He uses more Photoshop features than me e.g. dodging and burning.

5. He uses multi-layers and flattens them before presenting them to clients so as not to reveal his working steps which take a long time to develop. I guess it is like vets who don't reveal how they operate on difficult cases. 

Veterinary surgery is much less complicated and time-consuming than professional digital photography and photo-shopping, in my opinion. New software must be learnt. But both are skills to be mastered in a speedy, efficient and accurate manner. Take your time to do it but don't spend a lot of time because there are overheads to bear, unlike the situation for amateurs.

6. He calibrates his monitor which is a simple Dell monitor, not the expensive ones.  He uses luminous 90, not 130 for good results.

7. He saves in Adobe RGB files, not CYMK as Adobe RGB has a lesser gamut of colours. Therefore, less foul up when printed by the corporate owners. He prints his own wedding photographs rather than out-sourcing.

8. The Art of Selling Fine Prints to wedding clientele - make it an experience for clients rather than just giving them a CD. Examples of such marketing include the Japanese tea ceremony and selling of luxury handbags. Let the client sit down and have a drink or food before direct selling.  Spend some time with them viewing the prints. Clients who want cheap and good are usually corporations.

9. Perception of professionalism. Be presentable in dressing in tailor-made clothes. No necessity to wear branded suits. Vets ands staff may need to wear uniforms to project a professional image.

10. Niche marketing to the creative group who will refer others to him. He does some corporate work too but these are low cost quotation clients. He has international clientele to shoot wedding photos. For amateurs, it will be a tough business making a profit in mass wedding photography as there are too many competitors.
 
11. Resources.  www.luminous-landscape.com has much tips to offer according to Stephen.

Conclusion:
The ink-jet print are now acceptable for international photo competition as they produce high quality prints. I doubt amateur photographers can afford the latest Canon printers if they don't print much.

It is important to attend talks by experienced photographers. This free talk was organised for ClubSNAP members limited to 100 on a Saturday afternoon. There appeared to be 100 present. Most participants were men. I am registered as a "dormant" member of ClubSNAP and got the email invitation the day before the talk!    
 
Updates will be on this webpage:
www.sinpets.com/F5/20130726digital_printing_tips.htm


More info at: Dogs or Cats
To make an appointment: e-mail judy@toapayohvets.com
tel: +65 9668-6469, 6254-3326
tpvets_logo.jpg (2726 bytes)Toa Payoh Vets
Clinical Research
Copyright © Asiahomes
All rights reserved. Revised: July 28, 2013

Toa Payoh Vets






 
   

Thursday, July 25, 2013

1042. Glagow University Vet Degree is in Latin in 1974 - translated to English

From 1969-1974, I studied veterinary medicine in Glasgow University. I was surprised that the degree is in Latin. The Singapore Government accepted it. However, if I want to work in Yangon, I will need to get it translated and notarised. The translation into English costs $78.00!



TO ALL WHO WILL READ THIS DIPLOMA


THE SENATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

SENDS GREETINGS.

May it be known to all that the Nourishing University of Glasgow has
thus designated and declared her pupil,

Kong Yuen Sing

after his successful completion of that which is required of him both
by the laws of the kingdom and by the statutes of the University, a
Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, with the privileges,
rights, and freedoms, in all and in singular, that are to be granted
to graduates of this kind either through apostolic authority or
through royal missives and the kingdom's statutes or through any other
means whatsoever;
In proof whereof we have caused the common seal of the University to
be affixed to this    diploma.
We delivered it in the academic halls at Glasgow on the ninth day of
the month of July in the year of our salvation 1974.

[signature]

Principal

[signature]

Clerk of University Senate

[signature]
Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

1041. Sri Vairavimada Kaliamman Temple, Toa Payoh Lor 8 - near Toa Payoh Vets

It is extremely difficult to take a good interesting picture of the Hindu temple. For those going to Toa Payoh Vets by bus 238 from the HDB Hub, alight at the Hindu temple on Toa Payoh Lor 8. Let the bus driver know that you wish to alight opposite the Hindu temple and polyclinic.

For car drivers from Braddell Road, you need to proceed towards the right of the image, turn left. At the first traffic light, turn left and enter Toa Payoh Industrial Park. You will pass the Kim Keat Community Centre on your left. Keep left and goto Block 1002. \




 
 

 

Monday, July 22, 2013

1040. Sunday's interesting cases - A whimpering old dwarf hamster

Sun Jul 21, 2013

A bright and sunny haze-free Sunday. I thought this would be a relaxing Sunday but it was the busiest of all Sundays requiring two vets to prevent long waiting times of more than 10 minutes per client. Dr Daniel would be operating (dwarf hamster with ear tumour, dental scaling of one Bengal cat and one old Schnauzer with back pain) or doing blood collection on two aggressive dogs and clipping by the groomer. All these take time. The groomer had 4 dogs with skin diseases and one with tick infestation to clip bald and bathe.

So I was busy attending to consultations, phone queries and discharge of the cases to be completed before 5 pm. We all skipped lunch.

Today I had planned to visit my first nephew who would be nearing one month of age. So there was a bit of a rush. 

The outstanding case was that of a 2-year-old dwarf hamster. She just fell asleep in the weighing bowl after examination. As if she had a very late night. "In my 40 years of practice, I have yet to see a dwarf hamster falling asleep at 10 am in a new surrounding! Your hamster must be sick. She would freeze up when I held her for examination." 

The large ear tumour kept growing bigger and bigger and the hamster started making squeaky noises. "She has been whimpering for the past week and scratching her left ear lump," the young lady finally brought her to me for treatment.  Some time ago, she had another hamster with a larger lump but the vet said he would not operate. So she did not seek any vet with this hamster's tumour.
 If you have got the tumour excised when it is smaller," I said. "There is very little chance of this hamster dying during anaesthesia."

Such a gigantic lump. Such a weak old hamster. The owner consented to the surgery.
"No injection," I said to Dr Daniel. "Just isofurane gas. She may not survive."
In the midst of surgery, the hamster stopped breathing.