2902. INTERN. PREVENTION OF DISEASES IN GUINEA PIGS IN SINGAPORE

HOOK - I leave it to the interns

Around 80% of Singaporeans live in high rise buildings (goto youtube, search apartments + toa payoh vets etc ) of  HDB or condos

Their pets are mainly dogs and cats. Very few Singaporeans keep guinea pigs as pets and have little experience of how to care for them. There are very few groomers of guinea pigs unlike those specialising in dog and cats and many times, guinea pigs fall ill, owing to lack of grooming, poor diet quality and unhygienic conditions in housing.  


 CASE STUDIES.   FOUR SICK GUINEA PIGS
Images will be in toapayohvets.com. You need to look for them or equivalent. 

Case 1.  Video 1180.
Jan 1, 2016

G.P. F. 1 yr 3 months. No fever. Head tilted stiffly to the left of the neck this morning. She could not turn her head to the right. In Aug 15, 2015, she had a left head tilt but recovered after my treatment. The owner had not cleaned the ears thoroughly and regularly as the guinea pig dislikes ear cleaning.

ADVICES:
Put the guinea pig on the table. An assistant restrains the guinea pig. The owner puts in the veterinary ear drops and massage the vertical canals.

Case 2.  Video 1203.
Jan 1, 2016
G.P. M. 5 yrs.  Lethargic and fever. Very thin. "Chipping sounds" heard by the owner.
Overgrown lower front teeth. Black scales and hair loss. Dirty ears and body. Pus in the right nostril. Upper respiratory tract infection. Clipping bald and bathing. Ear cleaning.

Video: 1203
After clipping, the guinea pig will go home on Jan 4, 2016. His owner needs to groom him and feed him medication.

ADVICES: Regular grooming, medication, good food and Vitamin C. Review in 2 weeks' time.

Case 3. Video 1181.
Jan 2, 2016
G.P. F. 5 yrs.  No fever.  Anorexia 2 days. Had green watery diarrhea 4 days ago.  Palpation. Abdominal pain. Gastroenteritis due to a change of pellet brand around 4 days ago. A new diet upsets the gastrointestinal bacterial population.

ADVICES: No sudden change of diet. Revert to the old brand. Medication.


Case 4. Video 1182.
Jan 2, 2016
G.P. F. 1 yr.  No fever.  Anorexia 1 day. Cough, eye discharge. Harsh lung sounds.                      Bronchitis and gastroenteritis.

ADVICES: Medication and regular grooming. Review in 2 weeks.



CONCLUSION
Daily inspection and grooming of the guinea pig prevents diseases



Use another image, not the one below.  Check out  latest image.

 

Visit to breeder's farm - follow up on 2 Caesarean section cases

Brought 2 interns to visit the dog breeder's farm. The Singapore government licenses dog breeding and he was legitimate. The oldest big dog breeder in Singapore. Probably 4 left.

My Corgi Caesarean operated the day before was happily nursing 5/7 pups (video).  2/7 pups were nursed by a poodle with her 2 pups (video).

The other Corgi's 5 pups had passed away before Day 5, being outsourced to other dams to nurse. This Corgi had no milk. The puppies were alive when they were brought home (video).   

Videos at toapayohvets.com

2900. New Year 2016 cases. A terrapin, dog and hamsters

Jan 1, 2016

I have 2 in-patients and 2 cases from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm .

Inpatient 1,
A terrapin with left ear abscess for the past 7 days. Eating and active. The left ear swelling has reduced by50%. Mainly blood clots and hardened tissues as the terrapin's abscess was present for many months. The two pre-teen daughters finally surfed the net to get a "terrapin vet" after the mum threatened to abandon it in MacRitchie Reservoir.

It was very difficult to get the younger generation to spare time to do things for the mum. With time, the abscess became gigantic.

Inpatient 2.
The other patient is a 14-year-old Silkie with a deep right eye corneal ulcer of around 8 mm. The first vet had advised eyeball removal as the dog kept scratching her eye. I suggested stitiching up the eyelids first to save the eyeball as it was not infected internally. The dog had to be an in-patient for at least 7 days. At home, she would wander and rub her eyes despite having an e-collar. Here, she eats and sleep like an old person.

Case 1

G.P. F. 1 yr 3 months. Head turned stiffly to the left of the neck, but no head tilt, this morning. In Aug 15, 2015, had left head tilt but recovered after my treatment

A guinea pig could not turn her head to the right. Stiff neck, not left head tilt as in previous treatment by me. Videoed. The owner had not cleaned the ears. The G.P looked recovered at the exam room.

Case 2
A new client.
G.P. M. 5 yrs. o fever. Anorexia 1 day, but often lethargic. V thin. "Chipping sounds".

The G.P was very thin and in poor condition with overgrown lower front teeth, scales dropping from body, dirty ears and body. Pus obvious in right nostril. In-patient for treatment of upper respiratory tract infection.


Telephone 1.
A telephone call came in from a dwarf hamster that had an overgrown tooth curled and embeded into the hard palate (video). Around 4 days ago, the first vet had not examined the mouth and prescribed medication which the owner had to syringe feed. The hamster was very weak, dehydrated and his lower neck was wet with oral medicine spilled onto it. I got the curled front teeth clipped. The owner phoned to ask why the hamster was soft and not moving. "If a hamster has died, he should be rigid," she said.
"She might have developed rigidity overnight," I explained that rigor mortis occurred a while. "After that the body softens."  

This was a very sad case. The owner surfed the net, came across a Toa Payoh Vets video of a hamster had "overgrown" teeth. She checked the mouth. She came to me and I confirmed her diagnosis. A young couple with a little girl lost a young hamster.

2899. A 7-year-old Maltipoo passes blood in the urine again

Dec 31, 2015

Maltipoo, female, not spayed, 7 years

"She passes blood in the urine again," the lady owner brought a sample of urine collected when the dog peed this morning. She had wondered how to collect urine as the female dog does not pee in her presence. The urine sample contained some bloody tissue fragments.

The dog had blood in the urine some 4 months ago and recovered with antibiotics.

I palpated the abdomen (video). The dog screamed as I palpated the cranial and then the caudal part. The owner witnessed this shrill voice and I stopped further palpation.

X ray showed a small radio-opaque stone, most likely in her ureter. She was screaming when I palpated her abdomen twice and so I did not continue.

Urine test by diptstick - Dec 22, 2015
pH 8
SG 1.0
Leucocyte Nil
Protein +
Urobilinogen +
Bilrubin 3+
Blood 4+


A crystal check is in progress.  An alkaline pH in the urine favours bacterial infection in some dogs. Acidifying the urine via diet may resolve this problem. The dog had been on heat 2 months ago and could have open pyometra as evident by the vulval swelling (video).

2898. Be Kind To Pets images for interns

Visit to breeder's farm - follow up on 2 Caesarean section cases

Breeder can't decide but want me to stand-by.
All 7 pups delivered with no cries. As if they were dead.
First cry around 30 minutes later while I was still stitching up the dam. 
First C-section by another vet - skin incision 10 cm from the umbilical scar to pubis and took out the whole uterus.

I incised 1/4 of his length.  Sufficient to take out the uterine body with pup inside. It was not possible to locate the bifurcation of the uterus as there were 7 pups all squeezed tightly inside the abdomen. I incised the non-bleeding length of the uterine horn nearest to the bifurcation and milk out the 7 pups. 

Skin incised to skin sutured took around 1 hour! The breeder and 2 assistants just took over the 7 pups while I focused on the dam. I had performed over 100 C-sections in dogs and so this one-hour duration will be meant for experienced surgeons.  

Caesarean by me 7 days ago. No complaints by breeder. 

INTERN. Caesaean section of Corgi with 7 pups - how long does it take? 61 minutes

"No cries from the puppies," the breeder took over the 5th Corgi pup I had delivered by Caesarean Section. All 7 puppies had not moved when taken out. As if they were dead wood.

The breeder hoped that the dam would give birth naturally. I doubt it but it was the breeder's judgment that mattered. A life and death situation. He was a very experienced old breeder and he knew the consequences of procrastination.

"I may as well do Caesarean section at 9pm now as no vets will do it after midnight," he justified.
I did not put in my 2 cents' worth of reply. Singapore has nearly 70 veterinary clinics.  There will be vets. But all 7 pups will be delivered dead! He still needed to pay more for a Caesarean section to receive 7 dead Corgis!
 



I do an audit of my surgery to assess any area of improvement.

A: Injection of induction drugs: No
B: Isoflurane gas first given: 8.40 pm
C: Isoflurane gas stopped: 9.52 pm
D: First skin incision: 8.48 pm
E: Skin stitched up: 9.47pm

E-D = 61 minutes for 7 pups
The skin incision was 1/3 of what the first vet did and so the closing was faster. It would be faster if I had not done a continuous suture over the interrupted sutures of the linea alba and a subcuticular suture after that. Then the skin is stitched. In the other case of the Dachshund, I did only a continuous suture over the interrupted ones closing the uterine incision.

My assistant recorded the following:
Uterus incised: 8.58 pm
Uterus stitched up: 9.27 pm

First puppy taken out: 9.02 pm
Last puppy taken out: 9.13 pm. All 7 puppies handed to the breeder within 11 minutes. All not moving or crying.


FOLLOW UP  2ND DAY
All puppies and dam OK.  Dam nurses 5 pups. (video done) and a poodle nurses 2.

Everybody is happy with the outcome.
I made a sufficient incision length the width of the puppy's head (approx. 10cm long) and milk out the puppies from both uterine bodies. The incision was to one side of a uterine horn, near the bifurcation. I could not locate the bifurcation.