2962. A 3-year-old guinea pig is restless and loses appetite - gastric & caecal bloat

Jun 22, 2016

The couple fed a better quality of guinea pig feed earlier but the pet shop had no stock to replenish. So, they bought a cheaper lower grade which had pellets. The guinea pig ignored the pellets. When the first brand had appeared, the couple bought it and fed the guinea pig around 4 days ago.

Yesterday, the guinea pig was not eating and tried to hide his head under the elevated feed tray hooked onto the side of the crate. He is an introverted type and would not want to play with the couple who used to play tug-of-war with the feed, by giving and taking back. He would have no such nonsense and refused to participate. He preferred to be home alone, inside his crate.

He demonstrated to me by scurrying up into the crate when I placed him after examination. He had painful cries when I palpated his bloated abdomen. I suggested an X-ray which showed two large gas-filled swellings - the stomach and caecum.

"Looks like GDV," Dr Daniel said. GDV = gastric dilatation and volvulus, seen in dogs. I thought it was bloat as in sheep being fed with high protein food. Sheep get swollen abdomen of  enterotoxaemia when fed a diet rich in grains but low in fibre, or are in poor bodily condition and infested with parasites.

This 3-year-old guinea pig is thin, BCS = 3 (lumbar vertebra palpable), had abdominal discomfort, refused to eat the harder hay and pellets of the older feed and was restless (excitable). He had loose stools but no diarrhoea.

  .

2961. Hernia mesh or not?

Jun 20, 2016


In Jan 19, 2015, the 9-year-old Maltese had a right perineal hernia repaired at Toa Payoh Vets. 
Neuter of the old dog would be done 1 month later in order to minimise risk of anaesthetic risk with combined hernia and neuter surgery.

The hernia recurred around August 2015 and the dog was neutered then. No hernial repair. I advised a hernia mesh as the hole is too big. 

No pain, no problem peeing and pooping. The dog was active and eating. This was the situation in August 2015 and now Jun 20, 2016.  Just no problem with a normal lifestyle. Except that the right perineal hernia is now 1.5 x the size of a golf ball (Video).

As the owner was worried about the pain for the dog on repair with the hernia mesh, I advised wait and see. I could not guarantee no pain and no infection on using the mesh. No vets can guarantee.  The dog was normal and not in pain. The main problem of skin infections in the back area was resolved with medication now. The anal sacs were expressed and some brown oil squirted out.

What is my recommendation? Since the dog's blood test show he was healthy and the heart was normal, I would advise the hernia mesh repair if he was my dog. The owner has to decide and wait till the hernia was double the size like a tennis ball or the dog had pain or difficulty in peeing and pooping.

VIDEO   

2960. An adopted 6-month-old poodle licks his front paws obsessively till they are wet

Tue Jun 21, 2016

"Is it normal for my poodle to lick his front paws till they are wet?" the young lady in her late 20s asked me over the phone yesterday and now she was present at Toa Payoh Vets. "He also licks the floor too!" This poodle was adopted 2 weeks ago.

"Was he licking his front paws when you adopted him?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "But not as frequently as the past few days. Till the front paws are wet with saliva!"

This poodle was extremely hyperactive and would not stay still. What was the cause of this abnormal behaviour and how to resolve it?  Is there a cure?

Was the poodle suffering from some itchiness in his front paws directly or indirectly? He had the following conditions:

1. Left and right upper canine teeth had not dropped off and stuck behind the fully erupted permanent ones.
2. Thick tufts of ear hairs with ear wax clogging the ear canals. Would he get painful and irritated and try to relieve his pain?

3. Swollen anal sacs which shot out dark yellowish brown anal sac oil with some smell.
4. Thick hairy paws with no signs of bleeding or inflammation after clipping away the hairs.

Under Zoletil 100 IV sedation at 0.2 ml, the puppy canines were extracted, the thick ear hairs plucked and ear canal irrigated and 4 paws clipped.

What other possible causes of his behaviour such as licking the floor?
I had no clue.
"Is the dog toilet-trained?" I asked, since he was 6 months old.
"No," the lady said. "Sometimes he did pee on the newspapers. At other times, he forgot."
"Did you confine him to a cage or small area?"
"No, no," the lady said. "My family members would not permit it."

So, this dog peed and pooped everywhere in the whole apartment. Could it be possible that he was trying to clean his paws after stepping on urine present all over the apartment? I suggested confinement for the next 4 weeks.

This is a strange case. If only poodles can talk.

VIDEO

2959. A cat is constipated and incontinent

Sat Jun 18, 2016

PATIENT:  TP 46680   Domestic short-haired, male, neutered, 6 years
Constipated for 2 months. Hard stools palpated.
Incontinent, leaking urine for 1 month
Vomits "hair balls" 4-5X/day

2958. A dedicated stray cat catcher in Singapore

Sat Jun 18, 2016

At 11.30 am, I met this woman in her late 40s,  wearing a CWS black T-shirt with the white words of "Trap, Neuter, Release, Manage. "  She has 3 years of almost daily experience of trapping the stray cats and sending to the vet for sterilisation. The cat feeders will pay her for the sending the cat to the vbet.  She shared her experiences.

CAT PSYCHOPLOGY
1. The traps come from the US. There are 2 types.
1.1  Long cage with food at the other end.  There is a long "tunnel" and many stray cats are cautious of the structure. The cat steps in and springs a trap door which closes down.
1.2  Shorter broader cage looking like a shelter with a transfer cage. These were present in her SUV which can accommodate 11 cat carriers.

"The trap door is at an angle on the top. So, the cat views it as a safe haven and enters the cage," she explained to me. "I will pull the rope to drop the trap door. "Must have good eyesight if your rope is very long and you are distant. There is a remote control but I don't trust it."


SMELL OF CAT FOOD
1. Good quality fish provided by some cat feeders. "The cat just will not eat it," she said. "The smellier the better and they are usually of lower quality and meant for stray cats. ."
"What brand you use?" I ask. 
"Aristocat. The bigger can. The cat just cannot resist it."

PERFORMANCE
1. 4-6 hours of work to trap 6-8 cats per day. The other stray cats get wiser and will not be caught.
"What to do then?" I saw that she was very busy with her passion of daily cat trapping although she has a job. 
"I come back another day."
"Will the cats be wary of you?" I asked.
"Cats are not so clever. They see the broad cage I use as a shelter and the strong smell of Aristocat will just be irresistible!"   

VET FEES
$30 to neuter a male and $60 for a female, excluding hospitalisation charges.
(CWS)

1.  "The CWS needs $20,00 per month to sterilise all the stray cats in Singapore," she said. "Cats can hide inside drains unlike the poor stray dogs and so there are many more every day." Her cat feeders pay for the vet fees.

I notice many fewer stray cats near coffeshops nowadays. I suspect that the government and the town councils and pest controllers have culled them by netting.  They are many hiding somewhere.

2957. A 1.5-year-old male entire cat cannot pee- perineal urethrostomy.

Jun 15, 2016

Vet 1 had hospitalised and catheterised this cat twice and told the owner to come back if the cat still cannot pee. But the owner went to another vet who referred to Vet 1 for operation. The cost of perineal urethrostomy would be $3,000 but the vet was not free. She phoned other vets but they would not do the operation citing much post-op complications and complaints.

She phoned me. My fees were lower and the owner brought the cat to me. He had enlarged kidneys and azotemia as evidenced by Vet 2's blood test. I did an X-ray which did not show bladder stones. A perineal urethrostomy was done. The cat was warded for 3 days and went home. N

FOLLOW UP ON JUL 4, 2016
No complaint

2956. Incredible personal stories - 4 Caesarean kittens return from death's door

Jun 15, 2016

Yesterday, at 6 pm. Dr Daniel had Caesarean section and delivered 4 kittens, said to be 67 days old by the owner. Their toe nails were white and 2 mm long and the coat was thick. The kittens were wrapped up in shrunkened oily waterbag and did not move at all.

The first of the 5 kittens was born naturally at around 6 am. The owner phoned a vet who quoted $200 to $500 for a C-Section, but when he came to the clinic, the vet said it would be $1,000. Some unpleasant conversations led to the vet telling the owner to get lost as he was deemed "abusive".  Hewent home.

He called Toa Payoh Vets at around 5 pm and that was how the C-section was done. 

I had performed over 200 C-sections, mainly in breeders' dogs and had encountered such a situation of oily waterbags and dead puppies due to long delays in seeking C-section. So, there was no chance of recovery. Water had filled up the lungs and the kittens could not breathe.

As witnessed by the intern, a Seconday 3 student from CHIJ, Ang Mo Kio, I swung the kittens, pinched their neck skin and cleared their mouth and nostrils  of mucus.  Lots of water came out from the lungs when I swung the kittens in an arc for around 5 times/kitten. .

For over 15 minutes, my intern and I stimulated the kittens. 2 had faint gasps of breaths every few seconds and were not moving. But the other 2 were "dead". The gasping kittens would not pass away over the next 5 minutes and so we continued rubbing them.

Judy the assistant, came out of the op room, after the dam was stitched up and would rub their chest back and forth as they lay sideways. 

"The one with gasping will live," Dr Daniel took over after he had stitched up the dam. Time would have been over 30 minutes by now. Only one gasping kitten's body was warm. The 3, including the occasional gasping kitten were cold. The 2 gasping kittens would not pass away. I put their mouth into mine and blew in air to inflate their lungs. Many vets feel squeamish about such a procedure but it would save lives if the lungs had been cleared of mucus by swinging the kitten in an arc and seeing the mucus dripped out. 

Dr Daniel and Judy used a hair dryer to warm the 4 kittens. It took some 10 minutes.  
of more rubbing. A drop of adrenaline injection SC.

It is hard to believe. The 4 kittens were moving. So I got a video done to prove it. However, there was no video done before that and so, it is up to the readers to believe or not my incredible feline story of 4 kittens returning from death's door.


FOLLOW UP ON JUN 29, 2016
1. The natural born kitten died on the second day.
2. As at Jun 29, 2016, 15 days after C-section, only 2 kittens survived. The dam did not have much milk.
One of the 2 kittens had a right eye infection and the owner treated it himself. He sent me an image: